Saw Bob Dylan at Saratoga -- 8/2/2025

Inspiring to see an artist continue to challenge himself, reinvent his music, present new arrangements. Inspiring to watch pros lock in and achieve a great sound in a range of musical genres. Stunning to see someone live up to their own legend when that legend seems so hyperbolic.

Surreal to hear the opening bars of 'Positively 4th Street' (eg. 'You've got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend...') played in a way you've never heard it before and know that Dylan has been doing this new-every-time thing for entire length of my lifetime!

It's like he so internalized the classic genres of American music that he grew up on that he became a fountainhead that pours them all back out -- blues, folk, rock, 50s pop, ballad -- as naturally and masterfully as if they were all his to begin with.



He fittingly closed with 'Don't Think Twice It's Alright' hammering home what his whole career embodies -- life is too short and too full of great possibilities to repeat anything. No matter how good the past was chase the future instead.

- - - -
It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right