By Mark Brown (October 2002)

BOB DYLAN WRITING AND PLAYING MORE, YET STILL SURPRISING

Bob Dylan has made a career of many things.
Foremost, he's a songwriter, composing songs that literally did change the course of music.
Ask him about his career, though, and he'll tell you he's a performer, a working musician who tours constantly because that's the way he was taught to do it.
He's also made a career of keeping fans and critics guessing.
When Dylan agreed to participate in a rare, short e-mail interview with the 'Rocky Mountain News', one question that seemed obvious concerned Dylan's guitar playing.
Over the years he's worked with the best. -- Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Mike Bloomfield.
Carlos Santana related several years ago that he sat down with Dylan in 1974 at Dylan's request and gave him guitar lessons before the recording of 'Blood On The Tracks'. But Dylan himself in concerts in the past few years has stepped it up a notch, playing searing lead guitar solos throughout his songs, jamming out classics such as 'Tangled Up In Blue' and 'Like A Rolling Stone'.
So a couple of guitar questions were e-mailed off, along with other questions about Dylan's work and career.
"You can learn something both good or bad, watching any guitar player," Dylan says. "You learn what to do or what not to do. Over the years I've learned things from Carlos, Mike Bloomfield, Clapton, George (Harrison), from (Jerry) Garcia, Steve Ripley, Knopfler and let's not forget Robbie Robertson."
Soon after, the 61-year-old Dylan kicked off the next leg of his current tour -- and stunned fans by playing rollicking keyboards through much of the show.
"I wouldn't call myself a piano player," Dylan responded when asked about the change. "My playing is very perfunctory. But having keyboards in the mix changes the complexion of a lot of my songs."
Indeed, some of his biggest anthems are filled with keyboards, including 'Like A Rolling Stone'. It's just that nobody had ever seen him before onstage pounding away like 'Jerry Lee Lewis'.
"It's not that unusual for me to play the keyboards," he says. "Outside of three or four songs on the 'Love and Theft' record, I think I played keyboards on just about everything else. On the 'Time Out Of Mind' record I played keyboard on five or six songs. I probably played them on a lot of my records in the past."
Dylan, who played at the Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado, had plenty more surprises up his sleeve, doing Warren Zevon songs, pulling out tunes by Neil Young and Don Henley, and even doing a faithful version of 'The Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar.
His tour this fall is part of what fans still call 'The Never Ending Tour', a name that irks Dylan. Dylan has been on the road almost constantly since 1988, playing more than 110 dates a year and changing up his setlist constantly. This, he says, is simply what he does. He takes music -- his own, old folk standards, and more -- and presents it differently every night.

Dylan's history is well known. Bursting out of the New York City folk scene in 1961, he wrote songs that became instant standards -- 'Blowing In The Wind', 'The Times They Are A-Changin' and 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall', among scores more. He went electric in 1965, went underground in 1966 and puts out a masterpiece every few years, from 1975's 'Blood On The Tracks' to last year's 'Love And Theft'.
But in recent years, the road has been his home. While there have been years when he's not toured much -- particularly 1968 to 1973 -- there have been good reasons, ranging from burnout to raising his family.
After the Rolling Thunder Revue cranked up in 1975, Dylan hit the road and rarely looked back. In 2001 he played six concerts in Colorado alone.
And all the while Dylan remains as puzzling as ever. While he was willing to answer a handful of questions about his work, Dylan didn't address any that even hinted at his private life or thoughts.
Dylan continues to be revered by fellow musicians, whether it's a musical homage from Beck or three songs that 'Dave Alvin' sat in on in Grand Junction, Colorado in August that left him speechless. "Some funny things happen in life," Alvin said of his 20 minutes onstage with Dylan.
Even those who have had a stormy relationship with him can't help but admire the work. Joan Baez alternately has been Dylan's lover and one of his harshest critics, taking him to task in song such as 'Diamonds And Rust'.
"His music is so wonderful, but his personality is so, sorta like a reverse charisma. So overwhelming. But it is. Who else do we know who could turn his back to the audience and sing for four hours all his own material and they're all wetting themselves out there?" Baez said in a 2001 interview with the News. "It's extraordinary. That needs to be paid respect. His personality, I had problems with it in my lifetime."
Dylan continues to be contradictory over the acclaim for his own career. With last year's release of 'Love And Theft', L.A. Times interviewer Robert Hilburn reported Dylan was ecstatic over the great reviews the album was getting. When Dylan won the Academy Award for best song for 'Things Have Changed' in March 2001, he was similarly awestruck, this time on live TV. "Oh, good God, this is amazing," he said, accepting the award. "And I want to thank the members of the Academy who, who were bold enough to... to give me this award for this song, which obviously, a song that doesn't pussyfoot around nor turn a blind eye to human nature. And God bless you all with peace, tranquility, and good will."
And Dylan himself seems to be treating his career with renewed respect. He has written 'Chronicles', the autobiography that no one ever expected him to write. It originally had a December release date, but has been pushed back to early 2003. He's releasing even more work from his massive archives, this time a double-disc set of live work from 'The Rolling Thunder Revue'. The Dylan Camp has finally begun work on a long-overdue documentary that will focus on his '60s work, reportedly including footage from the legendary 1966 British tour, filmed for a never-released TV special called 'Eat the Document' (the documentary/DVD is still at least two years off, sources say).
But asked today about the effect of this renewed respect for him and his work, Dylan dismisses it.
"I am unaware of any renewed respect," he says. "I just write songs and perform shows and hope that people come out."

Mark Brown