“Because you people should be at the beach. And I only wish that all you people who are sitting out here today or tonight weren't here,” said Dylan. Dylan even suggested that the young people in the audience would be better off somewhere else. In a short, rambling, unscripted monologue, the young folk singer touched on Woody Guthrie, Lee Harvey Oswald, race, baldness, and the strange gifts he received from fans. It was a period of change, and Dylan had risen to fame in large part because of his protest songs of the period-such as the 1962 hit "Blowin' in the Wind"-that touched on themes related to the civil rights and anti-war movements.ĭylan’s address that night was not what America was expecting, however. It was about two weeks before Christmas, and Dylan was on hand to receive the Tom Paine Award, bestowed annually by the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee to honor individuals for service in the fight for civil liberty.
All icons, singing a masterpiece, a legendary live lineup with no equal in rock music history.In 1963, Bob Dylan was a fresh-faced kid probably unrecognizable to most Americans, but he showed he was already an old soul when he delivered a speech in the Grand Ballroom of New York City’s American Hotel that December. For me, though, I have no such doubts about the event and the moment exquisitely captured that night at The Garden. In that one incredible, insightful line, it has been said, Dylan lays bare his disillusionment, disenchantment, and, above all, his doubts, with the counter-culture and the ‘60’s protest movement he had helped to champion. “Ah, But I was so much older then / I’m younger than that now” Maybe if the Wilburys could’ve thrown in a Stephen Stills or a Ray Davies, or even an early round draft pick, we could at least talk.Īmidst its outpouring of engrossing and ruminative lyrics, ‘My Back Pages’ is held together, as so many Dylan songs were, by a repeated line to close out each verse, this one, in my estimation, a particularly resonant couplet: And even so, if I had to break things down beyond the three names in common, I’d be compelled to give the tandem of Eric Clapton and Neil Young the nod over remaining Wilburys, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne (no disrespect whatsoever to those two magnificent greats), and that’s before you even count in the bonus appearance of Byrds founder Roger McGuinn here. But for starters, the Traveling Wilburys never performed live. As for the Wilburys, a very interesting comparison in that three star-studded members (Dylan, Harrison and Petty) overlap. Now I know what you’re thinking, the greatest collection ever…what about the various (blank) Aid events and the like, or even just the obvious Traveling Wilburys? Well, I’d say Live Aid or Farm Aid or whatever other huge benefit concert can’t count in the same category – such a mixed bag of artists, let’s face it – not always all A-listers, and maybe only performing together as a group in a clumsily-arranged hodgepodge finale.
The sequence, too, seems significant: even the guest of honor himself saved George for the last lead vocal: the quiet Beatle receives the loudest reaction.Ĭheck your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. With each contributor stepping forward to the mic the crowd seems to pause a beat or two before the realization hits of just who it is that’s begun has fully sunk in, and a growing roar bursts out. Talk about a murderers’ row! And interspersed, of course, were ripping guitar solos, first from Clapton then closing with Young. As they set forth into Dylan’s 1964 classic ‘My Back Pages,’ the procession of participants taking a turn went as follows (in order): Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison. It was Octoat The World’s Most Famous Arena (otherwise known as Madison Square Garden) on the occasion of the 30 th anniversary tribute concert to Bob Dylan. To me it’s got to be the single greatest collection of superstar artists ever gathered together on one stage, giving one of the most memorable performances of a song to boot.