Germany, Spring 2007

When you go on an adventure like this you hope for the best possible outcome. You send out a thanks to Jupiter before you travel, and to all those who have gone before you. Bob and his band were on Fire these nights in Germany, and it was made all the more beautiful by the positivity from the country, the streets, the people, and the space around.How do you measure sound? Surely one if the ways is how is resonates within you. A sound has an imprint, it has a functional quality which activates a certain point, music as a state of being, a catalyst for healing, health and happiness, it can create possibilities and like the Superior Doctor, it can create freedom. For me, those three nights in Germany did all of that. Bob was really on fire, delivering and singing and spitting the words, dancing with his feet and hands and head, laughing and smiling and joking. From where I was standing, he seemed to respond really well to Donny playing behind him. It is quite hard to hear Donny sometimes but you can feel him playing, and can see the way Bob moves and dances to his rhythm. One of the many highlights for me was hearing Highway 61 in Frankfurt, I have heard it many times before live but it is always a great pleasure to hear it played like this. George was almost levitating from his chair, Denny was doing some kind of dance, the crowd were clapping and dancing and Bob was laughing. It is really exciting to be listening to this wild rock n roll, and to be a part of the spirit of the performance, and in the middle of this massive pulse, there is Bob Dylan! Hearing Nettie Moore live definitely takes you to a mystical land, you see the mist rise, hear the marching band. "all I ever do is struggle and strriiffffee". It is very emotive, something akin to magic. Like doing Qi Gong under a willow tree. Beautiful, painful, all embracing, sweet and easy, honest and tough. I love the way Bob sings in this song... "I can't eat all that Stuff in a single Bite". Since the shows I have woken up every morning with the sound of "I'm gonna travel the world ... and come back and see you", the combination of his organ, his voice, and the boom boom boom in the background creates this dynamic impression of being in another world but when you are almost there you feel yourself pulled back and planted back firmly on the ground of this one. There is a wonderful mixture of magic and realism with this song, and I appreciate it in this way since hearing it live.