Where Bruce Springsteen would pay tribute to Bob Dylan with a performance of The Times They Are A-Changin’ at the Kennedy Centre Honours, hearing the pair play together is a wonderful experience. It is hard to forget the innovative thrills Highway 61 Revisited still offers, the siren whistle a stroke of genius, the story told by a songwriter on a hot streak is one of the most entertaining, artistic thrills. A cover of the song with Dylan and Springsteen reforming Highway 61 Revisited is a treat. The last stand of Springsteen on The Rising Tour, a chance to hear Dylan lead the charge on one of The Boss’ biggest shows. One of those covers where the implication of the song is more important than the performance itself, as there is much to be desired from Dylan on stage here.
Brilliant it is to hear Springsteen and Dylan together, backed by Stevie Van Zandt on guitar no less, part of the charm is lost to poor performance. Vocal changes from Dylan are no surprise, but they hit a gravelly low for this performance. Those elongations of the song’s title are nice enough, though there is a staggered, moving effort from Dylan to bring his A-game to this, even if he is far from it. A final performance for Springsteen on a tour which revived wider interest in his music, The Rising did not need those additions on stage, but who in their right mind would turn down a chance to hear Dylan and Springsteen overlap once more? The instrumental work is well-placed, and the blur of Van Zandt and Springsteen on electric guitar is a familiar listen for anyone well-versed in The Boss’ performances. He sounds a tad more laid-back, a little more reciprocative of Dylan as an artist with a changing voice.
To that end, the guitars never hit a buoyant, thrilling high. They are tempered by the rugged vocal work from Dylan. His post-Love and Theft performances, the bootlegs particularly, hear Dylan pull contemporary efforts into the deep cuts of the past with relative ease, so it seems Highway 61 Revisited is more an outlier than a record of his qualities on stage currently. Everyone has an off night. A heavy elongation of the instrumental flow of Highway 61 Revisited is deployed, almost inevitably so, given The E Street Band and their desire to spend if they can jam with Dylan. Understandably so, there are few occasions where playing with Dylan is possible, though it is startling to hear how little is added in the extra five minutes given to Highway 61 Revisited.
“I wouldn’t be here tonight without him,” Springsteen says of Dylan after the song ends. He is right on that. The Boss has paid tribute to Dylan time and again, and the debt he owes the veteran songwriter is clear. Performing with Dylan, as he does on Highway 61 Revisited, is a dream come true for the artists on stage. It translates well to the audience, on paper, as an experience worth hearing. But the “too many cooks” idiom comes to light here. Too much talent means a higher, almost impossible to reach quality from artists who were long past the peak of their careers. Both men have still put out work to rival their heyday, though this moment from the stage in New York City’s Shea Stadium is, sadly, not one of them.
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