Bob Dylan – Live in Santa Monica Review

Just days after the release of his game-changing album, Bringing It All Back Home, Bob Dylan took to the stage in Santa Monica. His fresh batch of songs is rapturously received, as can be heard on the Live in Santa Monica bootleg. The unofficial recording is a magnificent documentation of another reaction to the master songwriter. Where he may have been called Judas and caused controversy at the Newport Folk Festival just a year later, his set here is rapturously received by a crowd still getting to grips with his sharp wordplay. Songs like Mr. Tambourine Man, Gates of Eden, and Love Minus Zero/No Limit feature here and are likely the first times an audience heard them outside of listening to the record. It’s a revolutionary time, one of many in Dylan’s career, and Live in Santa Monica captures an intensity only found in the presence of revolutionary artists.  

Not the best quality, but still listenable. Such is the case for audience tapes from the mid-to-late ‘60s. Some hidden tape recorder in a handbag or blazer pocket, ruffled occasionally by the whoops and cheers of those in the seat next to it. There may be an echo and a difficulty in hearing what Dylan is singing, Live in Santa Monica offers enough that’s worth hearing. Partially complete the tapes may be, there is such a historical significance to the performance. Beyond that stealth documentarian in the crowd, recording what would be the first show to follow Bringing it All Back Home’s release, is a solid set for those who enjoy the early years. A hugely different sound to the decades which would follow, and some of the last folk-only moments from Dylan on stage. They are worth pushing through. The occasional harmonica spike is not enough to put you off this one.  

Gates of Eden is particularly brilliant in this show. The audience is as responsive as can be at this time, latching onto as many words as they can for an album which, for many, is a tricky beast. Lyrical trickery, a sleight of hand Dylan would utilise plenty on stage and in the studio, here too, no less. There’s a confidence shared across these early years recordings which suggests Dylan is a veteran of the stage and not an artist who bagged his first record deal just three years before Live in Santa Monica took place. That confidence is what makes the difference to these songs, performed with a fairly rigid style, a very similar display to how they sounded on Bringing It All Back Home. Dylan is not at the state of reinvention here, he still has plenty of the contemporary noise to enjoy.  

As such, Live in Santa Monica offers a listenable recording of an outstanding show. It’s a performance which highlights the lyrical nuance of his best works at the time. A gig which provides evidence of Dylan’s lyrics as poetry, rather than songs. Strip the guitar away and keep the vocal pitch and you have some extraordinary moments still. But what occurs here, with Dylan, his guitar, and harmonica, is a revolutionary set. A truly impactful moment in music history, recorded in a quality which can be enjoyed. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue is a suitable final song for this recording, a song which has the audience laughing along with lyrics that, over time, would be cemented as some of his best. It’s an incredible experience listening along to this, a must-listen for those interested in the immediate aftermath of Bringing It All Back Home.