Bob Dylan – Roseland Ballroom Review 

With a hot streak of live work following the months after his MTV Unplugged performance, Bob Dylan would set a high bar for the rest of his career. It was a reinvigoration of his image, one which had slipped away from that mysterious quality he now sets. He reclaimed much of that not just with the performance given to the long-running music channel but in the shows immediately after. Performances where not only did Dylan dig deep into his discography, relying on the likes of Desire and Jokerman cuts, but on the musician friends he made during his peak period. Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young both join Dylan for this performance; a difference maker it is to hear them on guitar for the final two tracks. But it’s what precedes this star-studded Roseland Ballroom blowout such an incredible listen. All-time great songs pulled onto the stage, Dylan sounding comfortable for the first time in a while in laying the meaning of the songs and their enticing wordplay bare.  

Opening track Jokerman shows Dylan is not afraid to give the audience a deep cut or two. They’re necessary for the sake of kindling his stage presence. He had just about found a refreshing route to wider audiences, ironically by repeating the thrills of his early years. Elusive, exciting, and all of it based in the hits. But it’s not enough to bring hits back to the stage, it has to be much more than that. Instrumental stylings are crucial here, and you can find moments which would be suitable to a modern-day Dylan set. A performance of If You See Her, Say Hello, could easily be dropped into the tone of a Rough and Rowdy Ways show, for instance. Countering that tone nicely is All Along the Watchtower. A little rough and rushed but undeniably a great moment thanks to the vicious guitar work found throughout. Those little details are a massive difference when it comes to these live shows. One little flicker of style is enough to carry a performance across the finish line.  

Considering Dylan had no contemporary material to rely on at the time, Roseland Ballroom feels extremely fresh. Simple Twist of Fate and Tangled Up in Blue as a back-to-back performance is nothing short of beautiful, while the acoustic break for Mama, You Been on My Mind to Boots of Spanish Leather shines a light on that softer tone Dylan could still maintain. He adapts some of his harsher songs to a softer instrumental tone too, namely Positively 4th Street, which is much more laid back than its original recording. It’s a tone Dylan and the band could easily apply to the rest of the songs featured here, but instead they do the originals justice. Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine) is a fantastic example of that – but it’s the Young and Springsteen additions that bring a fiery twist to Highway 61 Revisited and Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.  

Those final two performances are magnificent. Not just because of Springsteen and Young appearing to lay down an instrumental thrill but because Dylan sounds comfortable revisiting the material. Adapting it, too, to new feelings. What you can hear beyond this very strong set is a reinvigorated artist who has made peace with his earlier works. It’s not that Dylan hadn’t performed these songs in the years between his peak creative output and the MTV Unplugged performance, but he certainly wasn’t offering this sort of skill or nuance towards the end of the 1980s. He sounds thoroughly refreshed here and that makes all the difference when the setlist is filled with surprises. It’s not just Young and Springsteen who add a refreshing style to this, but the likes of Joey and God Knows featuring are surprising, welcome moments.