Comrades From The North

Comrades From The North

The recent tour of America has now finished but it had its fair share of surprises. In the early shows Dylan decided to re-examine his Basement Tapes cache. He unrolled a debut performance of the obscure Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby in the first show - it only lasted until the second show which he opened with You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, again it only lasted for two shows.

By the fourth show he revived I Shall Be Released as the closing number, something he employed on several other shows. The set list settled down very quickly but the line-up did not. To lose one guitarist is careless but to lose two, well, draw your own conclusions on whatever wall is available. Doug Lancio quit the tour early on after the second Berkeley gig having been in the band since November 2021. He was replaced by Julian Lage who left the band periodically when he had stage commitments of his own. After the Albuquerque show Bob Britt also quit having been in the band since 2019. He tried to quell speculation about this by posting a message on social media which he subsequently took down:

‘Apparently there are quite a few threads out there with people speculating about my departure from the Bob tour. I’d like to clear it up. I was not fired but left of my own accord for reasons I would prefer to keep private. I will miss my band mates and crew. I am looking forward to getting back to doing sessions (give me a call) and also finishing up Etta’s gospel record. As far as any touring goes, we will see what the future holds. Meanwhile, I have some flower beds to weed’

He was replaced by Joel Paterson who became the sole guitarist whilst Lage was out for a while and then was joined by Jad Tariq for a few shows again whilst Lage was absent. In the final show of the tour Dylan’s band sported three guitarists - Paterson and Lage were joined on three of the numbers by Jimmie Vaughan!As is usual with Dylan shows these days, there was always something in a given show to tingle the spine but those concert-goers who raved about the shows must be hearing something that many of us can’t. Let’s leave it at that.

Neil Young has been singing the praises of Dylan. Published on The Joker and the Thief site, his lengthy message was that of a deep fan:

‘I love Bob Dylan and his music. Always have. He’s a great artist. I’ll never be Bob Dylan. He’s the master. If I’d like to be anyone, it’s him. And he’s a great writer, true to his music and done what he feels is the right thing to do for years and years and years. He’s the one I look to. I’m always interested in what he’s doing now, or did last, or did a long time ago that I didn’t find out about. The guy has written some of the greatest poetry and put it to music in a way that it touched me, and other people have done that, but not so consistently or as intensely’

‘He spoke for a lot of us without knowing it. I felt connected to him in a moment. That was in Toronto, ‘64 or ‘65. Bob left his mark.’

And there is a lot more in that vein. Check it out.

In this edition of the magazine you will find a eulogy and an old article in honour of Chris Cooper, our friend and erstwhile colleague in the old Freewheelin’ monthly. You will never meet a nicer man, someone who would move the planets to try and help his fellows. We will remember him with warm affection.
Stay cool, be fearless and enjoy life.

May you climb on every rung ..........

Mike & John

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