Bob Dylan Visits the Sixties and the Present at First-Ever Brooklyn Show

During the encores of Bob Dylan's concert last night in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Dylan did something he rarely does onstage: he spoke to the audience. "It's a shame the Dodgers left Brooklyn," he muttered between band introductions. The show — his first-ever concert in the New York borough — was a mixture of the very old and very new. He didn't play a single song from the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. In fact, he split it nearly down the middle with eight songs from the 2000s and nine from the 1960s. Highlights included tender takes on the anti-war tracks "John Brown" and "Masters of War," a rollicking "Thunder on the Mountain" and a beautiful "Girl From the North Country."

The bluesy arrangements of his current group — which includes BR549's multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron — grow a little repetitious at times, though they sounded amazing when they kicked into rockers like "Highway 61 Revisited." (Still, the vocal harmonies and slick guitar work of his late-'90s/early-'00s bandmates Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell are missed.) At the end of the final encore of "Blowing in the Wind," Dylan stepped away from his keyboard for the first time all night and stood center stage with his band, grinning from ear to ear while gesturing with his hands. It may not have been the greatest show of the 20 years and going Never Ending Tour, but he certainly seemed pleased with it.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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