There’s one review currently up at Bill Pagel’s tour guide of Dylan’s final night of the tour in Chicago, and — assuming it’s true — Dylan made the most extensive extemporaneous live remarks he’s made in a long time on that night, and they were right on target, so to speak. The short review of the show by a fan named Jeremy Quinn is delightfully written, and towards the end there’s this:

A warm feeling during ‘I Shall Be Released’, with Elvis and Amos taking turns with the stanzas, and a solid, rockin’ finish. His voice has become a pool of water, and he has total control of how much light gets in - it is sometimes clear, sometimes murky, but always in motion. To more cries of ‘We love you, Bob!’ after introducing the band, and as if she were one of them, he said, “. . .and here’s a woman in front who’s been working with her cell phone camera all night - man, she ain’t seen or heard nothin’!” From the line-up, at the standing ovation, he shuffled to the front of the stage at the end to receive a bouquet of yellow roses, then a quick wave and one more tip of the hat.

Bob’s nod (and poke) to the YouTube generation. Of-course he’s referred listeners to his radio show to YouTube on a number of occasions, to check out the likes of Sister Rosetta Tharp and Kay Starr, so we know he has to know what’s out there relevant to him. It’s a whole, whole lot, of-course; a mind-boggling amount of amateur footage. And although he’s famous for his antipathy to being a victim of photography, and restrictions on cameras at his shows have traditionally been pretty strict, I guess we ought to acknowledge and be grateful for his benign bemusement at it all these days, which I assume prevents the kind of legal onslaught that would deny us the pleasure of the countless performance gems that are currently available. Like this just one among thousands, from London in 2003:

Dear landlord,
Please don’t put a price on my soul.
My burden is heavy,
My dreams are beyond control.

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