Bob Dylan – As Plain as It Can Be Review

Bob Dylan’s turn of form on the Fall 2006 tour (that’s winter to those not exposed to those across the Pacific) is an all-timer. He set a fantastic standard with the performances given between the Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft tours. It was an eight-year stretch of brilliant, easy-going rock and roll, which Dylan started toying around with post-2000. He backed himself on a keyboard, rather than the electric guitar, and it’s a change which has stuck ever since. Dylan may dip back into electric and acoustic guitar on occasion, but it appears he has done all he wants to on that particular instrument. Case in point, the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour aesthetic. Glimmers of that can be found on As Plain as It Can Be, a bootleg compilation of that Fall 2006 tour. A few Modern Times songs stick around the set, but it’s the likes of Things Have Changed and Highway 61 Revisited that are worth revisiting.  

Whether it’s the tape quality on the fritz or an active choice from Dylan for Tombstone Blues, the echoed effect on his vocals is a nice turn of form. It’s the little differences which make a version memorable, whether that’s because of the effect on the song or a strange change of tone. Dylan whipping out a miniature wrench for Desolation Row decades later is likely the most recent example of this sudden change, an inconsequential moment to the passing listener, amplified by those who believe they know what to expect. As Plain as It Can Be is filled with those moments, a fifth instalment to the Fall 2006 tour, and, like its previous entries, well worth listening to. It’s a glorious bootleg to lose yourself in. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat is a delightful surprise, while the performances of Lonesome Day Blues, Tangled Up in Blue, and Nettie Moore, profile the instrumental integrity of this period for Dylan and his onstage ensemble. Loud and boisterous but still delivered with the frailty of a veteran considering his every move and word. That much is not lost. 

In fact, it serves as the core purpose of As Plain as It Can Be. Dylan rushes through Tangled Up in Blue while the instrumental section takes its time. It’s a contrast that doesn’t quite work when compared to the original, but that feels like cheating. You can’t compare the decades of work Dylan has put out on stage, misfires aplenty, to the polished renditions heard elsewhere. Breathless-sounding at times, as though Dylan is trying to muster the spirit and energy of the original but has nothing left to give, it redefines the song in more ways than just overhauling the original. Take a song like Ballad of Hollis Brown or It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) featured in this set, and you can hear the contrast between a familiar-sounding instrumental tempo and a new, hurried tone from Dylan.  

Sometimes jarring, other times, utterly brilliant. When the backing band is given the chance to break from Dylan’s tempo and explore the instrumental variety, new interpretations are pulled from nowhere. You can hear that well enough on Tangled Up in Blue with a fascinating, sudden instrumental bridge halfway through. Instrumental swells such as that feature enough on As Plain as It Can Be to warrant listening through the whole bootleg, rather than just skipping around to your favourite song. There are some great, at-the-time contemporary pieces worth experiencing, as well as a few great classics. It’s the standard route through Dylan’s touring from Modern Times onward. He never quite had a reason to feature this song or that instrumental flourish; he was simply guided by an interest in reinterpretation at this point in his career. Rarities were oddly frequent, but what remained was a desire to overhaul these songs.