A Bob Dylan Show From 1963 Is Reimagined at NYC's Town Hall: Recap

Prior to that, Laurie Anderson offered a droning “Talkin’ New York” (“This song is just 1, 4 and 5…but we’re going to do just 1!”) and Steve Buscemi ranted amiably through the firebrand talking-blues “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” alluding to how Dylan almost played it on The Ed Sullivan Show before getting axed from the bill (“With all due respect, you blew it, man!”, Buscemi told Ed, beyond the grave).

But the fuse wasn’t truly lit until Lisa Fischer, most famously the Rolling Stones’ backing singer for a quarter-decade, ripped through “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” with a certain severe, wounded passion. Fischer was energized, sending “Rain” through tumultuous peaks and valleys -- the line about “a man who was wounded in love” was sent up like a bottle rocket, the word “hatred” dragged from the pit of her stomach.

This must have been a tough gig to pull off. This is Dylan we’re talking about, but a very specific point in his career: there is no “Like a Rolling Stone,” no “Positively 4th Street.” Teddy Thompson, who seems to appear in 90% of these star-studded tributes, seemed slightly lost in the endless verses of “John Brown.” When someone would truly connect with the subject matter, the show’s energy spiked, especially when avowed boxing nut Mark Kozelek threw his whole body into “Who Killed Davey Moore?”, about the back-door politics of an infamous 1962 fight. Even Bill Murray stopped by unannounced to baby-step his way through a rather vulnerable reading of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." 

Tomorrow is a Long Time often veered between roast and tribute, whether featuring a moving reading of “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie” by old Bob associate Bob Neuwirth or inviting Triumph the Insult Comic Dog onstage to hurl jabs at Dylan’s decaying voice. But the show worked specifically because it wasn’t an obsequious lovefest: no one may despise Dylan’s extremist fans more than Dylan himself. Besides, Dylan is very much still an active force in 2018, whether exhibiting his iron sculptures, hawking his brand of bourbon or dismantling his old hits around the globe.

You can find someone warbling through “Lay, Lady, Lay” at any coffeehouse in America. But last night at Town Hall, where every song was stretched, altered or decontextualized, honored another side of Bob Dylan.