POP MUSIC REVIEW : ‘Tambourine Man’ Turnabout: Dylan Digs Up the ‘60s

Is Bob Dylan finally looking back?

The radical and independent rocker who once refused to do any of his old songs is now in the midst of a tour on which he is doing almost nothing but material from the ‘60s.

To add to the sense of the past on Sunday night at the Pacific Amphitheatre, the photos on the cover of the Dylan souvenir program, on one of the souvenir pins and on one of the four T-shirts were scenes of the artist as a young man.

The obvious question as rock’s most acclaimed songwriter took the stage was whether Dylan had turned into a nostalgia merchant, or whether he was simply being a realist who was giving his audience what a large share of it has been pleading for all these years.

Most of the two dozen or so fans interviewed before the show thought the question bordered on blasphemy. They didn’t see the emphasis on the past as a dangerous step back by the man who, in stressing the need to move forward, once wrote that he who is not busy being born is busy dying.

Dylan himself hasn’t explained his thinking in designing this tour, a series of intimate shows in which he is backed by just three musicians. In fact, Dylan is keeping such a low media profile this trip that he’s not even allowing the press to photograph him on stage.

Even when he was talking to the press, however, Dylan often insisted that the best answers to questions about him are found in his lyrics. “Look to the music,” was the repeated advice of the man whose music revolutionized pop songwriting by combining the commentary of folk, the energy of rock and the soul of country and blues.

The message of Dylan’s music on Sunday was unmistakable.

Dressed in black pants and jacket and white shirt, Dylan opened the show with a barrage of mid-’60s songs that were sung and played with such blistering fury that he didn’t even seem to pause for a breath for the first half hour.

After a brief stop to welcome the audience, Dylan and the band (guitarist G.E. Smith, drummer Kenny Aaronson and bassist Christopher Parker) went back into action. They will vary the selections nightly from a repertoire of more than 60 songs that have been rehearsed for the tour, which begins a 3-day run tonight at the Greek Theatre.

Typical of the juxtaposition of themes and tones that would be followed in the rest of the show, they stepped into the ‘70s for the gently ironic “Simple Twist of Fate” and then returned to the mid-’60s for the title track from what may well have been Dylan’s most explosive LP, “Highway 61 Revisited.”

With only guitarist Smith (best known as leader of the house band on “Saturday Night Live”) at his side, Dylan then turned to a four-song acoustic set.

Throughout the show, Dylan paid the same attention to vocal detail whether singing one of his best known tunes (“Mr. Tambourine Man”) or a less familiar one (“Barbara Allen,” an old British folk song).

The show was short (just 75 minutes), but the combination of high energy and delightful surprise gems (the lovely “To Ramona” and the graceful “I Shall Be Released”) made it seem even briefer.

In fact, the only times Dylan seemed to be less than fully involved were on the two songs that have been his most popular concert numbers during the last decade: “Like a Rolling Stone” and “All Along the Watchtower.”

The somewhat off-handed manner seemed to be a mischievous attempt to downplay the drama of the songs--his own way of sending out a signal that these songs are no more important to him than dozens of others.

Even in those moments, however, Dylan seemed unusually comfortable on stage, perhaps responding to the intimacy of this show as opposed to the more elaborate productions of his recent tours with the Grateful Dead and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

Aside from easing fears about Dylan’s own artistic mettle these days, the show was also an illuminating lesson in the difference between nostalgia and artistry.

The concept of nostalgia in pop is tied to the belief that most hit singles are simply disposable pieces of entertainment--records that are viewed with great affection by listeners who relate them to particular moments in their lives, but which evoke no new provocation or thought.

And most pop/rock hits are pretty disposable--a reality that makes most veteran pop artists worry about the day they cross the line into nostalgia. With that backdrop, the assumption over the last two decades is that rock artists need to continue coming up with appealing new works if they are to avoid the nostalgia tag.

While Dylan does continue to produce new music of note, this tour’s reliance on the older material underscores the difference between his work and that of almost anyone else in pop-rock.

Dylan has created a body of work that continues to stimulate and provoke the same way a classic film or novel does. The insight and the craft of the songs are not invalidated or diluted by time. “To Ramona” may be 20 years old, but it is still a remarkably absorbing tale of relationships and power.

Dylan’s music most certainly reminds his audience of distant times and places, but the music also challenges the audience to do more than settle for that. The insight and elegance in the best songs haven’t been diminished by the years. Dylan didn’t invite the audience to reflect on the innocence and idealism of the ‘60s, but reminded them of the choices in life they still face. It was yet another remarkable demonstration of the power of art and the persuasion of this artist.

Opening for Dylan on this tour is the Alarm, a Welsh band that once seemed an unbearable mix of far-too-obvious Clash-meets-U2 influences. The group, which was well received by the Pacific audience, has begun to navigate in more original waters, though its eagerness to have its songs recognized as idealistic rock anthems continues to outstrip the actual quality of its work.