This is a low. Bob Dylan as the hanger-on to The Grateful Dead shows in 1987 is a side of Dylan we shall, hopefully, never see again. He stumbled around the stage, covering what he could of his discography, still tinged with miserable offerings. Following on from career low Knocked Out Loaded and struggling to get out of it with Down in the Groove, gigging became the one constant for Dylan. Even that would suffer at the turn of the decade, the early warning signs as clear as day on this, Honky Tonk Lagoon. Just listen to the staggering vocal changes, the tempo drops and the sluggish, breathless performance of Highway 61 Revisited is a sign of trouble with the engine. But what can Jerry Garcia and the band do but push on? They do just that, trying to assemble some sort of safety net for Dylan who is trying to find his groove.
From there, no song is too hot, not one standing out as an eventful moment in the touring momentum usually carried by Dylan. These are the rushed concoctions of a man reliant on yet another band. Stage nerves were powered through but not connected with when Dylan toured with The Band the decade prior, and with Grateful Dead members making up the instrumental section, it is easy to hear them steal the show from a haggard Dylan. Piano work on Watching the River Flow takes precedence, the ragtime-like sound pairs neatly with the soft rock work within but flushes Dylan and his stable but uninteresting vocal work away into the background. Honky Tonk Lagoon may as well provide listeners with instrumental jam sessions for all the good Dylan does here. That is no knock on the man who provided countless great performances elsewhere, but it tells the story listeners already know, that Dylan had lost his way as a performer.
Underwhelming performances of his all-time great works like Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again and Tangled Up in Blue are frustrating listens. This is a period where Dylan still had a voice close to those earlier moments, the harsher tones of his vocal style here are a treat but they sound sluggish and abandon the conventions of his songs, of what makes his presence on stage such a thrill. Queen Jane Approximately is the best of the bunch and even then, his monotone take on the Highway 61 Revisited track is a stumbling, indifferent moment. A misfire of a performance through and through but the shortcomings are clear to chart from studio to stage. Not featuring any of those Knocked Out Loaded songs so soon after its release is telling.
But this is a period where Dylan doubted his stage presence, where he even had worries over no longer being capable of writing great music. He would mend those bridges a few years after this performance, thankfully. Stronger work lay ahead and sometimes to appreciate that it is worth going back to those questionable performances, those moments which had Dylan on stage struggling to keep up with musicians he had inspired or worked with in some intimate capacity before. Even Dylan and the Dead sounds a bit better than this. Dylan and the Dead would find a better grasp of their live presence together later on the tour but this recording, as clean it may be, shines a light on the shortcomings Dylan was dealing with at the time.
