The great band ZZ Top have an old tune called Jesus Just Left Chicago, but last night He was back in the Windy City and showing up at Bob Dylan’s concert in the Aragon Entertainment Center.

Well, what I’m referring to is this: After performing This Dream Of You, Bob announced a special guest: “Tom Waits!” Guitarist Stu Kimball went to the microphone, said, “Thanks, Bob,” and began a performance of Tom Waits’ song Jesus Gonna Be Here. He sang about a minute of it — evoking Waits himself in a quite compelling manner. (You might find an mp3 linked from here.) As it ended, Bob reportedly shooed him playfully away from the microphone and the gig continued sans anything else too very bizarre.

You can see Tom sing it via YouTube at this link (and others). In the manner of Mr. Waits, it’s a song and performance infused with some layers of irony and distance, and simultaneously (and perhaps paradoxically) great feeling. Sometimes that works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. My own favorite Tom Waits music at this point in my life is that of albums like Small Change (1976), Blue Valentine (1978) and Heartattack and Vine (1980). However, Stu Kimball is clearly a man of more open mind and catholic taste than I, at least when it comes to Waitsian melodies, and it speaks very well of him no doubt.

The set list of Bob Dylan’s show last night in Chicago was also notable for the fifth tune of the evening, which was the live debut of It’s All Good. (Five songs from Together Through Life were performed in total; nine of the total seventeen Dylan songs sung were from his last four albums of original material, i.e. albums since Time Out of Mind. I like noting this kind of thing because it is a very tangible measure of the vitality of this latter part of Dylan’s career. He can get away with giving his audiences a very high proportion of the new stuff, and that’s no small thing at all.)

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Rather lower on the irony scale (as compared to gospel tunes from Tom Waits) is the great hymn Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones, which was a joy to sing at the local chapel today. So, and in honor of All Saints Day for those observing, below is a version from YouTube of that.

Ye watchers and ye holy ones,
Bright seraphs, cherubim and thrones,
Raise the glad strain, Alleluia!

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