COME ON, GIVE IT TO ME…

Welcome to the summer.

I love Bob Dylan. “I’ll Keep It With Mine” from Bootleg Series 1 might just be my favourite song ever. As well as Neil’s “Thrasher” and “Don’t Be Denied” of course, and maybe Bobby Charles’ “Must Be In A Good Place Now”, and about 58 other tunes by other champs.

Baby, he’s been on my mind recently as we prepare for a Cat Power Sings Dylan tour in March. I’ve already seen that show this year and it’s very, very good. And it’s Cat Power. It’s powerful and fragile at the exact same time, and the band is shit hot.

It’s been nearly 60 years since Dylan played Australia in 1966, the year of my birth. All the venues he played are gone, except the glorious ol’ dame Festival Hall in Melbourne. Say what you want, but for me it holds sweet memories: Skyhooks, Cold Chisel, Neil Young x 5 nights, the Gillian Welch spectacular we did there in 2016. Name a band in history, they’ve played there. I thought it would be good to honour that past as Cat Power is playing the same set that Dylan played back then at Festival Hall. It’s all seated, like back in the day, and you can dream about any and all of your heroes who have graced that very stage as you relax and wonder in the moment in March. Buck Meek from the mighty Big Thief and his band are opening the night. What’s not The Greatest about that?

Anyways, Dylan. 

First memory of him is playing cricket one day in Dandenong under the carport and seeing the Desire album in probably my brother’s hands, and for some reason I still have the Hurricane 45 from back then. I guess it was a hit, or on Countdown? Not sure. The first Dylan record I remember buying was Live at Budokan with the fold out poster. Great tunes, great set, bunch of the hits and classics to set a young man’s mind musically wandering. Next thing I remember buying was Infidels when it came out. I guess by that stage I’m well and truly buying new music and digging deep in the past. And what an unknown joy it was to know that there was a zillion other albums yet to discover. My friend Lloydy turned me onto New Morning, which might be my fav. But who knows, there is depth and weirdness and magic in ‘em all somewhere.

I first saw Bob live for a 3-night stand at Kooyong in ‘86 with Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers, selling the shirts. Poly cotton Nile shirts. They were a new supplier to us at the time.  The range was simple. Four shirts, one even without Bob’s name on the front which was wildly rare for that time. They were all great prints and it was in the days when the local tour art could influence the merch range and it did with Dave Jeffrie’s Frontier tour art being used for the front of a shirt and a common backprint. Was there a program, maybe? There were these awesome red Double Swan sweatshirts we made for Frontier for tour gifts and I managed to grab one. Don’t know where it went sadly - it was maybe the coolest thing I owned at the time. I’ve since seen Tom or a Heartbreaker, or maybe even Bob wearing one in a pic from back then. Cool as shit. Like seeing a pic of Gudinski in the recent Neil Young Archives three-book box set. He really did mean a lot to people, and to be in a documentation made by an Artist, with the detail of someone like Neil, well that may be some life’s work.

These shows were around the time of Dire Straits Brothers In Arms massive tour. I had tickets for one of the nights at the now Collingwood Football Club training facility, then the Sports & Entertainment Centre, and who got up for a four-song set of his own songs… Bob! Unreal. Didn’t expect that. Things like that happen right. Out of the 13 Melbourne Dire Straits’ shows, I was at the right one for the treat. 

Next time was on the ‘92 tour at The Palais, which was funky as hell back then. Colin Hay’s mum may have still been selling the candy in the snack bar, not sure. This was around the time there was some heroin talk about Bob. He was certainly hazy, as was I, but it was down and dirty and cool. Bob was only 51 then so he was certainly in some good shape to do whatever he wanted. The set list was quite amazing. Thanks for the tickets Popey, they were sweet, and being able to crawl to and from the Palais to my then-home in Acland St, made for an easy night.

And speaking of a Budokan and Dylan coincidence, my lawyer(sic) and me jetted off to Tokyo for a brief junket in 2001 and who should be playing the Budokan? Yep, Bob. Still unreal set list and my first ever show in Japan. This was just before we actually co-promoted a Bob Dylan tour of Oz with the recently Frontier separated, out on his own, Michael Chugg. I’ve known Chuggo since ‘85 and when he split with Gudinski and co, somehow I ended up being his financier on a Bob Dylan tour. Kerry Packer may have also been involved (true story). Anyways, to have Love Police on a Bob Dylan poster, wow. To be able to roll around on the tour and see many shows, even better. To make 80k for my share, extra bonus! The shows were pretty sweet, Bob being awarded an Oscar live to air from the Centennial Park show. A show that featured Paul Kelly and band opening, and a site that witnessed the “greatest fish taco” experiment. That’s another story for another day. Me and my lawyer(sic) also DJ’ed an after show party on site that night, where one Gene Simmons of the pop band Kiss was mingling. We played an old, rare Kiss song, and he didn’t even flinch. Too busy looking at the ladies I think.

The next time the great man hit town was 2003. Thinking that I’d saved the 2001 tour, which was hailed a great success,  I expected to be lauded by my former partner from that tour with the best seats in the house, backstage invites etc. Nope. Two years is a long time in rock n roll financier time. I literally had the worst seat in the house, but after some internal fuming, and the anxiety loosened by the green stuff and a stiff drink, I settled into my fav ever Dylan show. It was when the band really hit that stride they still roll on now. I guess, R & B with twang, or something like that. I was there solo, and it truly was a Top 5 gig of my life. 

Bob next appeared to me at the 2004 edition of the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. We had just started working with the Wilco outfit and I was all sorted for credentials and they were playing the main stage before Bob. Note: Bob’s Oscar was now positioned on his amp. This is also where for the first of two times I would come within centimetres of Bob without my knowledge. Passing thru a backstage carpark a hooded Bob in semi disguise was unrecognisable until I glanced at this stranger as he brushed by. As I looked deep into his eyes, there he was. Shrouded and hidden, but definitely Bob. There’s a great pic of a then recovering Jeff Tweedy and Bob from that day that was taken minutes after our pass.

The next time I was within centimetres of him was backstage at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 2007. We had recently merged my tour merch operations with Gudinski, and his merch company represented Bob. Walking thru the darkened backstage area once again a hooded figure appeared from a Winnebago parked inside the centre backstage near the old merch cage. Who is this hobo off the street I thought? But no, it’s just Bob in disguise cruising by on his way to backstage proper. 

As the years rolled on I’d see him again at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 2011, and 2013 in Nashville and Memphis at the Bob/Wilco/My Morning Jacket, and with Bob Weir (in Nashville) and Richard Thompson (in Memphis) one-year-only Americanarama touring show. At the Nashville show word got around to those in the know that Bob was about to dump his new guitarist, and sure enough, the next night in Memphis there was Buddy Miller! I’ve since spoken to both Wilco and the Jacket about this tour. Appears the Dylan love-in that was anticipated between the bands didn’t quite happen, and was very far from that. I do remember Bob Weir playing Birdsong with My Morning Jacket and Tomorrow Never Knows with Wilco though. That was pretty sweet. It’s wild the line ups you look at in hindsight and think wow, but at the time they didn’t quite capture the public’s attention or wallets. I don’t think the tour was a big success numbers or vibe wise, but I bet a lot of folks probably wish they had gone there now!

2013, arguably the biggest and best touring year for Love Police, I managed to find time to see the first show of the tour down here in Hamilton, New Zealand. I think it was a new venue and they had paid a bunch to have him there. Show was sweet with a bunch of farmers and country crew trying to decipher what was actually going on on stage, and wondering why the songs didn’t sound like the record. Me, I was ready for all that. You just gotta embrace Bob and let him flow through ya.

The last time I saw Bob and the band for a full show was on his last tour here in 2018. Fortunate enough to be able to snag some great seats for an intimate show at The Enmore in Sydney, and Margaret Court in Melbourne. Great shows, great band, Bob being all Bob on a piano sort of near the back of the stage. Weird and wonderful as they say.

Anyways, let’s hope he never goes. Like Neil, that’s gonna be some day.

See you at the Cat Power shows.