Two-and-a-half hours of Bob Dylan performing after his Nobel Prize for Literature win is quite something. It’s not that he’s gloating. He doesn’t have the award atop his piano as he did his Academy Award in the months following his Things Have Changed victory, but there is a sense of proving that the literature win is deserved. Of course, it is. Conventional writers who are yet to win the award turned their nose up at Dylan winning, but few artists can say just a handful of their songs are worth more than the entire career of others. Soon After Nobel, an unofficial bootleg of live performances from the 2017 Spring selection of the Never Ending Tour is a delight. Dylan profiled the hits with heavy focus on piano and subtler rock swing, a handful of cover pieces featuring also. Respectable shows which feed into the idea that Dylan was seeking out a new sound on stage for his next album. What he achieved with Rough and Rowdy Ways has this tour, and the shows around it, to thank.
It’s a style Dylan is still using today. Opening track Ballad of a Thin Man highlights that coolness to the new instrumental style. Piano-led, hammering away at notes with a clunkier sound, the boxer pianist argument holding water here. But it’s charming all the same to hear Dylan crack through the hits, the likes of Highway 61 Revisited and Desolation Row with a new instrumental fury. He’s finding a tone for his next record here, and with the Nobel Prize for Literature behind him, there’s a slight suggestion that the very best of his writing must be profiled. Soon After Nobel certainly does that, with the likes of Tangled Up in Blue, Don’t Think Twice (It’s All Right), and Blowin’ in the Wind featuring early. Exceptional, each and every track has quite a bold spirit to it that’s founded in the longevity of Tony Garnier and Dylan’s on-stage relationship. It’s that little permission slip to risk the tone, to push the song somewhere dangerous or fresh.
Soon After Nobel is filled with those moments. Later sections of the compilation feature some lesser-known tracks, moving away from the well-written hits and into that fine blur of contemporary quality and still bold commentary. Soon After Midnight and Standing in the Doorway are well placed, and even the frequently featured Early Roman Kings sounds essential. Much of that is built not on the back of an awards win, flattering it may be, it has little effect on the actual performance, but on the ongoing attempt Dylan makes to reinvent his best works. He has done this before, through heavy rock and roll tones, through easy-listening lightness, but ultimately, he has pushed further with what his sound can do. No song is sacred, and thus it makes the original even more hallowed. Soon After Nobel is a great highlights reel of those reinventions.
One of the many late career resurgences from Dylan here, who at the time of this award had hunkered down into cover albums as he had done in the early 1990s. There’s a difference, though. His stock had peaked once more, and he had a free pass to do what he wished to on stage. These are outstanding versions of his greatest hits and a few deep cuts, too. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ is always a treat to hear, while the likes of Stormy Weather and Pay in Blood are treats, too. Variety is crucial but the fine line between what an audience wants, and what they think they want, is walked well. Soon After Nobel is a fantastic listen, its ties to the awards body tertiary at best, but it’s a neat wrap up of what Dylan did soon after receiving a well-deserved awards nod.
And the little black book of his ‘eloquent, artistic statement’ about receiving the Nobel award is an easy wonderful read.