Bob Dylan
Marseille Shadow Kingdom, Bon Bon Club
Restless illusionist’s ‘early songs’ intensified.
★ Habitually enigmatic, Bob Dylan was never going to serve up anything as flatly orthodox as a straightforward livestream. Presenting humdrum reality is no longer what he does (if indeed he ever did). Guarded, ingenious, witty and self-aware, Dylan has long been in the business of meticulously preserving his legend by presenting various simulcra of the truth to accentuate his enigma. From his ‘novelistic’ memoir (Chronicles Volume One) to Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story (Scorsese’s fanciful ‘documentary’ remix of reality), the instinctive improviser cannily airbrushes the truth as habitually as he regularly rearranges the flawless jewels in his back catalogue’s crown.