Bob Dylan Turned the Clock Back at Jones Beach

Bob Dylan turned the clock back–way, way back–in a triumphant concert Aug. 1 at Jones Beach Theater.

It was a pleasure to see the maestro play with purpose and assurance. Dylan, often criticized for subpar singing in concert, featured a strong voice. He performed an eclectic, career-spanning, something-for-everyone 17-song set with a show of intensity. He looked locked in and sang with a sense of urgency. I got the feeling that he really wanted to connect with the audience.

Dylan delivered the goods like a man who had something to prove, even 63 years after he released his first album. He had plenty to live up to. His backing band helped him pull it off, especially drummer Anton Fig, who held the sound together.

It was an evening to appreciate rock legends.

Dylan was only one of the veteran performers who filled the self-proclaimed Outlaws tour stop on Aug. 1. The 84-year-old Dylan joined Lucinda Williams, Wilco, and the headliner, 92-year-old Willie Nelson.

Still, I believe that Dylan had the most on the line. It’s hard to imagine any rock-and-roll star experiencing more twists in the road than he, especially on stage.

Consider my odyssey with the Bard from Hibbing, Minnesota. I had last seen Dylan play at the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 26, 1992 (my 20th or so Dylan concert). It was a heady time for me. I had traveled from my home in Manhattan shortly after the publication of my Dylan book, called Forget About Today. I was scheduled to appear on Tavis Smiley’s PBS television show and give a reading at Book Soup in LA. The Dylan concert would be the culmination of my trip.

But he gave a very disappointing show that night in Hollywood after an inspired set by Mark Knopfler. Dylan seemed to be mailing it in and appeared to be distracted for much of the night. To be blunt, I hated the show—so much that I pledged right then and there that I would never go to see Dylan again.

Thirteen years later, I relented. What got into Dylan at Jones Beach that caused him to soar to those heights? We snobby New Yorkers would like to think he was particularly excited to play in the New York area. Perhaps more to the point, it was our good fortune to catch Dylan after he had three nights off from his previous appearance in Virginia Beach, Va.—an eternity for a performer who plays so many one-nighters on tour. He and his excellent band sounded fresh.

Dylan played with energy and conviction. It amazes both inveterate Dylan followers and newcomers to see this man hit the road night after night, show after show.

While I was doing research for my Dylan book, I asked someone very close to him the billion-dollar question: Why does Dylan tour so much?

He smiled, as if to say, “Here we go again!” He explained that Dylan liked traveling around the world and seeing his friends along the way. He also, uh, appreciated the money he was making. Further, he enjoyed getting the exercise, too. But primarily, the man explained, “He LOVES these songs. They are his babies!”

I imagine that much the same can be said for Willie Nelson (or Paul McCartney, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and Bruce Springsteen et al.). Willie continues to have a large and enthusiastic fan base, which savors his concert appearances.

With stars like Dylan and Nelson, a lot of their appeal is based on the audience’s sense of nostalgia. But not entirely! Many of my teenage college students tell me that they really like Dylan’s 21st-century raspy vocal style. It sounds authentic to them. The Dylan records that I love from my (and his!) youth are wonderful, they tell me, but they want to have a Dylan of their own, for right now. To appreciate. Young New York Yankees fans don’t want to hear tiresone stories of Derek Jeter’s past accomplishments. They want to watch Aaron Judge!

The new generation of Dylan admirers don’t need to hear the legend singing his classics, such as “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Tangled Up in Blue,” to recognize where he is at.

My students don’t want to live in the past, any more than Dylan and Nelson want to cling to their glory days.

Perhaps Dylan said it best in a 1991 interview with the noted rock writer Robert Hilburn when he opined on the curse of nostalgia.

“Nostalgia,” Dylan told Hilburn, “is death.”

Jon Friedman has taught a Stony Brook University class about Bob Dylan many times and is the author of “Forget About Today: Bob Dylan’s Genius for Re-invention, Shunning the Naysayers and Creating a Personal Revolution” (2012, Perigee) .