Bob Dylan – Down Along the Cove Review

Bob Dylan’s 2006 tour is a fascinating listen even now. Twenty years on from a series of shows built around a tease of new material, which would be revealed as Modern Times, and these Dylan gigs still have life in them. Those post-Time Out of Mind tours are a bag of tricks from the veteran performer and his ever-changing ensemble. What it gives Dylan licence to do on stage is rework his very best works, to pull deep cuts from out of nowhere, and provide a fresh take on decades-old songs. It has worked before, has worked since, and comes to life in a different way to most of the shows on the Never Ending Tour across Down Along the Cove, a welcome bootleg of those 2006 stage thrills. Parts sound as though Dylan is wounded and reeling from being on stage once more, other times, it sounds like a second wind has hit the veteran performer. It’s a mixed bag, but the contrast between those croaked and breathless moments with a redefined instrumental skill, often in the same song, is what makes Down Along the Cove such an interesting listen.  

Maggie’s Farm, for instance, is a case where that gruff Dylan sound complements the clangs of cymbal and a roaring guitar effort. It’s the lighter touch given when Dylan sings, an improvised spectacle when he bows out to let the instrumental work take the spotlight. It’s a back and forth which has provided Dylan with some of his best on-stage moments. What has never been lost, despite the tempo change across all these Never Ending Tour shows, is the love intensity of certain songs. Maggie’s Farm still has a thrilling core that Dylan and the band rely on here, as they do in later performances too. It’s not as bombastic as the Hard Rain show, but then Dylan is not the same man as he was in the 1970s. Many may forget that, but Down Along the Cove is a steady, considerate reminder that when an artist changes, their work does too. An utterly beautiful, stripped-back version of Boots of Spanish Leather is a signal to this quality overlap, too.  

Dylan may sound a little rough around the edges on this tour, but it sounds just right for where he found himself creatively at that time. Down Along the Cove plants Dylan back on the road with contemporary material at hand. Those arrangements prove insightful not just for the Modern Times material, but the extraordinary renditions of classic tracks featured across the thirty-song bootleg. The likes of Lenny Bruce, New Morning, and Absolutely Sweet Marie all feature across this compilation, and each proves to be a phenomenal showcase of deeper cuts which are hardly in contention for a return to the stage anytime soon. Even songs which had featured more recently, Things Have Changed and Like a Rolling Stone, particularly, sound wonderfully different on the Down Along the Cove compilation.  

Instrumentally thrilling, that’s the main draw of Down Along the Cove. The title track is a magnificent display of that lighter flourish, contrasted well by that rougher Dylan vocal. It’s the age-old criticism made by those who don’t listen to him all that much, that Dylan cannot be understood. Even with the gruff drawl he has for the likes of Cold Iron Bounds, Desolation Row, and Lay Lady Lay, you can hear the intention, the words as clear as can be given the context of his voice now. It’s not a defence of the indefensible, but merely some slack given to one of the all-time greats. Down Along the Cove is a remarkable compilation effort, truly featuring the best of Dylan on stage from that year. Space still for the contemporary efforts like Nettie Moore, but the focus here is on the incredible overhaul of some brilliant classics.