An overlooked shortcoming of Bob Dylan’s work in the 1980s is a reliance on the stadium rock boom. His songs are suitably adapted into the form, particularly on Rotterdam 1984, but still, something feels missing. Mick Taylor of The Rolling Stones fame is drafted in to ease Dylan through this transition from singer-songwriter classics to the anthemic rock sound which Bruce Springsteen still deploys effectively. It is a rough translation for Dylan, who adapts the softer-sounding songs through a spiteful gaze. It worked for Hard Rain, but the intensity of the live album, the contemporary stresses and venom had their place. For Rotterdam 1984, there is little reflection, and even less conviction when it comes to exploring these songs as vibrant or current assessments of the world. Dylan gives in to the demand. He plays the hits. Listener and artist are both worse off for it, that is what Rotterdam 1984 proves.
A twenty-three-song setlist, and a strong one at that. On paper, that is. Highway 61 Revisited has been pulled apart and rebuilt time and again on stage, though the fatigue of performing it so often is starting to weigh on Dylan here. He sounds flat, so too do the instrumental additions, but the roaring guitar works the song into a new, expressive form. It is not that it does not fit the meaning of the song, it just feels quite controlled and underwhelmed. In playing nothing but the hits, Dylan sets a high bar. An expectation he cannot meet because these rocked-out adaptations start to head closer to parody than promising. Dylan sounds like a nasally wreck, but this is not the issue. Whatever vocal performance he wishes to give is his prerogative, but it does no favours to the work at hand. He wishes to be the new face of rock with old works and an estranged voice.
Jokerman highlights this most of all – the mix from the stereo board finds little love for the depths of this recording. It all sounds very surface-level. Moments of interest come not from the instrumental work, which, despite the impressive fretwork, plays a quiet, almost absent role in the song, but from Dylan. The trouble there is he sounds well off the mark, and not in the charming, voracious way he was during The Rolling Thunder Revue. He sounds tired of his music yet desperate to recapture the on-stage popularity which would come natural to him in the post-Time Out of Mind tours. A nasty, elongated teething period plays out on stage here. Moments of interest do come, though. Rotterdam 1984 is not a blowout. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue provides a stripped-back style, the slow build of electric instrumentals is a worthy listen.
So too is Like a Rolling Stone, a song which can rarely go wrong. Even though Dylan sounds reserved throughout this performance, there are moments worth listening to. A two-hour concert is not made up of brief moments, though, and unfortunately for Taylor and the rest of the stage musicians, they are given little to do. Even the very best moments of this live show have a lacking energy. Rotterdam 1984 is paired with a chart-chasing Dylan, a rare occasion where he finds himself moved not by the conscious writing style or the subconscious influences, but the popular theme and flow. Folk was never his calling, and his youth spent in rock and roll outfits clicks into place. He wishes to be the hotshot of the moment, the man who could rock the free world not with words but with guitar flourishes. Rotterdam 1984 is not proof that he cannot, but it is certainly a look at how fortune was not on Dylan’s side.
