Hide Article Text (OCR)
dylanatmontrealBy HICK KIDDERDid you ever wonder what the people in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Greenwich Village were doing during the early sixties? While the teenagers in American Graffiti were hanging out at Mel's hamburger stand, groovin’ to the tunes of the Big Bopper and the Beach Bovs, the beatniks weren’t into the FiveVSatins.They weren’t totally into classical music.So they had to have an alternative, and folk music provided (hat alternative. With folk music came a young Robert Zimmerman.Bob Dylan wasn’t singing about a 427 sitting under his hood or rockin' away at the class hop.The questions he asked did not concern why fools fall in love,’ but more “relevant” material.Anyway, people started to listen to Bob Dylan, and when “Like a Rolling Stone” came out, not only the beatniks (who were turning into hippies) were listening, but even the screaming little girls were deserting the ranks of the British invasion.He wasn't as popular as the Beatles, or even the Zombies, but he was coming along. He had his own clique of devout supporters.lt took a couple of years and a little bit of San Francisco for Dylan to become the guru of American music.San Francisco of the middle sixties was becoming the home town of the counter culture, and Dylan fit right in.He was the counter cnlture.He didn’t have the foot stomping of Janis, or Jimi’s fire, but look where they are, then look where he is.The San Francisco scene was the beginning of the bell-bottom era.If you want to see the roots of the acid rock era, go take a look at the movie “Monterey Pop”. If you’ve seen it, see it again.It is a fascinating portrait of a movement caught between the holdovers of the early sixties, and the acid generation to come.The first thing that you will notice is the lack of blue denim. Then you will notice the make-up on the women’s faces, and that the crowd doesn’t even boogie. Most surprisingly, if this was the center of the drug culture, then why isn’t there even a joint shown in the film? It all seemed very controlled, and even the hippies looked downright straight by today’s standards.Dress and habits are strange. Almost cyclical.The night of the Bob Dylan concert in Montreal last week I noticed some of the same things. It wasn't the normal crowd that I had seen at Allman Brother concerts, or Dead concerts, or even an abysmal Quicksilver concert.Sure there were a few joints, but not a lot of blitzed geeks floating around. The crowd was a bit more reserved, older, dressed more conventionally, and had less hair.It was a time lapse, a feeling of unreality, but as you sat down in the Forum, there was a general feeling that something good was going to happen. You just didn’t want to spoil it.So during most of the concert, people just sat and listened, and maybe that’s why I didn't hear one request for a song shouted at Dylan.It seemed that everyone had just too much respect for Dylan to shout at him.Dylan and his old group, The Band, started off withcontinued on p. 1Bv THOMAS TEICIIOLZ%And what rough star his hour come round again Slouches towards the Garden to he reborn?Yes, Dylan is back and this time around 650,000 people are going to hear the sage of the sixties. He’s touring with his old back-up group. The Band,Is it 1966 all over again? Not quite.The times they have a-ehanged indeed.Bob Dylan is no longer a cross between a choirboy and a hillbilly.His face has rounded out with time, and so has his musical perspective. Dylan is no longer the spokesman of a generation.He’s just a musician playing what he likes and playing it well.I was too young for Dylan’s coffee house days when he played with Hamblin’ Jack Elliot down at Gerdi’s.I was too young for Newport and by the time I got into Dylan’s early material he was out of it.Until Montreal, I had never seen Dylan in concert, or in person, for that matter. I’d seen films of him at Newport and at the Isle of Wight. I saw “Don’t Look Back” three times.1 have a collection of underground tapes.I read Tony Scaduto’s hook and Toby Thompson’s also, and for a while, I hung out at 8th Street and MacDougal trying to catch a glimpse of the elusive Mr.I). So let's just say that when my tickets came for the Montreal concert, I was psyched.Montreal was the only city on the tour where there was no mail order requirement for tickets.lt was also the only concert that wasn’t sold out, but Montreal and Dylan get along.In 1961, when Dylan was getting thrown out of (he folk clubs in New York, the Pot Pourri in Montreal (now the Rainbow Bar and (H ill) gave him a job for 200 dollars a week.And in 1900 when Dylan was booed off the best stages in Kuro|c ((lie Europeans couldn’t get into Dylan on an electric guitar), lie got a standing ovation at the Place des Arts.This time around Dylan was playing the Forum, Montreal’s biggest concert hall. The crowd encompassed all ages and all social strata, from 12 year old pot-puffing teeny-boppers to thirty year oldcontinued on p 1
Newspaper Details
Middlebury Campus
Middlebury, Vermont, US
Thu, Jan 31, 1974
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
GB 02 Mar 2023
Other Publications Near Middlebury, Vermont
Middlebury Riddleybum Scaump
Middlebury Muddlebury Crampus
Middlebury Itis
Middlebury College News Letter
Middlebury College News
