Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 1/2: Never Ending Memories Pt. 5 Review

Bootleggers could drop listeners into any part of the Never Ending Tour from Bob Dylan and, chances are, there’ll be a performance worth hearing. From show to show there always appeared to be a moment of interest, be it because the hardcore listeners are gaslighting themselves into liking gravelly tones and stripped-back piano-led songs, or because there is a moment of genuine note. Objectively speaking, the latter wins out more often than not. It comes from Dylan reinterpreting his music with a constant switch-up in the talent he uses on stage, bar the ever-present Tony Garnier. The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 1/2: Never Ending Memories Pt. 5 is a fantastic listen for those wanting a varied collection of Dylan’s on-stage talents from across a series of incredible live performances. You would be hard-pressed to find better bootlegs with such a range of material. This part in particular pulls from 1989 all the way through to 2019, and the differences are a real treat to hear.  

Starting with one of the strongest years of the Never Ending Tour certainly helps. Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine is a fantastic start, pulled from a year where Dylan recaptured his former glories and seemed excited by the adaptative process for his songwriting for the first time since the early 1980s. His disillusioned, Tom Petty and Grateful Dead-reliant period had ended, and in its place is a selection of fantastic soft rock adaptations of his very best works. Case in point, this performance from The Theatre of Living Arts. Two years off of Time Out of Mind, but the pieces which were coming together in the studio in 1997 can be heard in this gestation period on stage. While it’s up to Never Gonna Be the Same Again to showcase the post-Time Out of Mind examples on this collection, there is a marvellous Like a Rolling Stone and Song to Woody featured, both from 2000. She Belongs to Me, too, showcases that comfortable, intimate rock blend Dylan provided for an eight-year stretch.  

Like the other Bootleg Series Vol. 16 efforts, this is a broad way to get into the specific tours you may want to listen to further down the line. Most of these efforts, the full shows, can be found if you dig deep enough into YouTube or forums. There’s a real quality to most of the shows, too, evidenced here by the performances of Pay in Blood and Shot of Love, the latest and earliest performances on the compilation. They’re miles away from one another but the consistent tone Dylan wishes to present with his live shows remains the same. He wants to investigate what else his songs can offer, and has done as much for decades, much to the derision of passing listeners. But the creative spell that pulls on those on-stage moments, that’s what makes attending Dylan shows and listening back to them that much more enjoyable.  

Some great renditions of classic tracks are not guaranteed, not every creative step is the right one, but the adventurous tone heard on this bootleg is all part of the charm. You get a feel for where Dylan is willing to take his music. No word is sacred. He treats his work as though it were a standard of the genre, they are in their own way, but it gives Dylan a creative liberty few artists are bold enough to work with. It makes all the difference here, on a bootleg which hears Dylan come to terms not just with the changing pop and rock structures but with his own lyrics, of which he has put some distance between and can now adapt freely, fluidly, and often in ways listeners would never have expected. That’s the point of compiling these efforts, and what a treat of a listen it remains.