Harsh views of the so-called religious trilogy meant Bob Dylan pivoted to pop rock soon after their release. It was a nasty decade for Dylan, which saw him elevated occasionally by a series of honorary awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame helped him along, as did a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award a few years after the 1984 Rehearsals. This compilation highlights Dylan’s return to classics after a few years of sermon-like delivery on stage. Maggie’s Farm still sounds loose in the wake of its Hard Rain version, but the rest of the songs to feature are a masterclass in presenting the very best of his career to audiences wanting to hear just that. Bolstered by the release of Infidels, and including a few of those underrated gems like I and I, is a neat way of blurring the songs, old and new, together. 1984 Rehearsals has Dylan prepare exactly that in a hits-heavy set that soon turns into a tribute to Always on My Mind.
Why there was a ten-minute break practising this song makes more sense when you listen to a bootleg like the Tell Ol’ Bill Sessions. Dylan would spend an hour or more with songs which went either unused or were later cut from an album. He would trial much the same style on his stage show performances. Now, Dylan can offer the occasional cover to excite the crowd and feed in a song from his backlog, each show passes, and every song would be a rarer appearance. Mr. Tambourine Man is notably absent here but the sheer vastness of a hits-laden backlog means it can be replaced by one of the many other all-time greats. Putting together a best-of setlist for Dylan would run for well over the hour-and-a-half he provides now, let alone the three-hour marathons he could offer. No chance of the latter now, but there is a lot to love about the versions provided on these tour prep bootlegs.
A ridiculously brilliant guitar solo on All Along the Watchtower is a defining moment early into this set, while hearing Dylan hammer out the finer details of Masters of War and Simple Twist of Fate is nothing short of brilliant. Some questionable vocal inflexions on Just Like a Woman can be heard, but it’s all part of Dylan finding a new route through an old song. Instrumentally, these are rapidly changing pieces as the band keeps up with the rock and roll times. They’re very strong interpretations of songs which had been on stage before, in one form or another. Watered-Down Love is a neat inclusion, a rarity from Shot of Love which fits this rock and roll style a slight bit better than the religious fervour Dylan was taken by at the turn of the 1980s. That is not to say the original is not good. It’s how Dylan fits the various decades of his instrumental and vocal form into one spot. That’s the real draw of his rehearsal tapes.
Live stage shows from Dylan around this time were fairly hit or miss. Most of the shows he would play are no better than the 1984 Rehearsals heard here. That is not to say they are not worth listening to outside of these recordings from the Beverly Theatre in Los Angeles, California, but it is hard to beat this version of Simple Twist of Fate. Other classics are given the same treatment. Rock and roll stylings for Ballad of a Thin Man and It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, are different enough to work. The former lacks that punchy guitar riff between verses, but that would come to life on later shows. 1984 Rehearsals is an excellent blueprint of what the band and Dylan would create on stage across this tour. A rather underwhelming time in the studio is followed by some solid live work. It’s a common occurrence for Dylan.
