It’s already a blessing, just to be walking the streets of Barcelona, the streets of Gaudi, Tápies, Miró, Picasso & Dali, art of endless beauty & artistic innovation, to be listening to the ancient footsteps mixed with the percussive rhythm of the loving tongue. It’s a blessing, just to be here, again, to see Bob Dylan, the innovator & the integrator, of the old and the new, the borrowed and the blue. Last time I saw him here, he sang “Señor” to a deeply receptive audience at the square of Pueblo Español:

“Señor, señor
Let’s overturn these tables
Disconnect these cables
This place don’t make sense to me no more
Can you tell me what we’re waiting for, señor?“

There still might be a few tables to overturn, some cables to disconnect, and we are still waiting for things to make sense. But tonight, tonight we’ll go to the fabulous Gran Teatre del Liseu, to see the show. For a short time we can forget everything else, just dive into the the shadow kingdom of music.

Bob Dylan is the guide, the vehicle we’re driving – he takes us to the river, to the streets of Rome and the Spanish Steps (as the audience cheers), he takes us inside the Coliseum, even to Brussels and then to the Rubicon to cross, to Virginia and to History Street in Key West, down by the Gulf of Mexico, to Black House Tavern on Armageddon Street and to the place three miles north of purgatory, one step from the great beyond. We’re meeting multitudes of people transposed to an invisible backdrop of the stage, like Anne Frank, Indiana Jones and the Rolling Stones, Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac, Louie, Jimmie and Buddy and all the rest. The ghost of Walt Whitman meets the ghosts of William Blake, of Edgar Allan Poe & Mary Shelley, of Beethoven & Chopin, of Leon Russell, Liberace and St John The Apostle. Stepping stones of time reminds us, and makes us think of Freud and Marx, of Sherman, Montgomery and Scott, of Zhukov and Patton, of Presley and Martin Luther King, as we in the same time are taken to the garden of the mother of Muses, Mnemosyne, a godess of memory, the one all of us might be thinking of when the years goes by, and our memory don’t serve us as well as it did once – will it ever again? Calliope is especially called out, the muse of epic poetry and song, the one the poet always will cling to, for just one more time being able to put in words what’s impossible to describe in words. Julius Caesar and St Peter is here, as well as Scarface Pacino and Godfather Brando, they’re all playing their parts in this enormous melting pot of moonglow and cast-iron. Then there is this mystic bouquet of flowers, both they of indulgence, the ones that are dying and the tiny blossoms of a toxic plant, the rose with the blood that flows, it all mixed with the Hibiscus flowers and the Bougainvillea. That’s the story of this show, but not where it ends, this is just one part of it, the one carved in letters and words, maybe the less important part of it, even if its a rich wellspring in itself. Then its the pathos and the gravitas, the foreign sounds to your ears, the winks in the eyes and the phrasings in the spur of the moment, the ones that colors this special night in such a unique way, different from last show and different from the next, dependent on both yourself, the one you are tonight, the artist and the band, the here and the now.

Gran Teatre del Liseu is a beautiful venue, rebuilt after fires both in 1861 and 1994, tonight it shines in a way that still makes us feel inside a centuries old room of beauty.

This night I’m placed in box no. 2 to the left of the stage, looking directly towards Dylan behind the piano, free sight from the start of the show, both when he stands and when he sits down. A perfect place this night, at least visually. As usual, suddenly they’re here, the classic music and the band’s guitars give us a chaotic mix that ends in the first chords resembling “Watching The River Flow”. From where I sat the sound is just awful and messy on especially the first song, even on “Most Likely”, but the sound of the vocals are a bit improving, though the sound of the piano are much too loud in the mix. Tough and a bit scary start. Dylan seems to be in a spirited mood, but the sound makes it difficult to hear if that’s true. It gets better from “I Contain Multitudes” on, thank God! – Dylan’s vocals are great, and the sound keeps improving through the night. A looong harmonica solo at the end of “When I Paint My Masterpiece” makes the audience whistle and shout, but “Black Rider” might be the first really highlight of the evening for me. The new version of “My Own Version of You” rocks, but for me “Crossing The Rubicon” is the next highlight, always a favorite of mine. Tough historic blues. “Key West” is fabulous, Dylan at the height of his vocal magnetic power, making us all listen, whether we know the song or not. Outstanding version.

“Gotta Serve Somebody” starts like a slow train, but are soon picking up speed, feeling more and more like a freight train, Dylan is really rocking, and satisfied introduces the band, cracking jokes and makes them present their instruments, everybody having a good time up there. This is the first show I can see how the cool quartet of Doug, Tony (who tonight looks like Zorro without a mask), Donnie and Bob B are encircling the baby grand piano and Bob, even more as the show goes on, they’re a team building this together with the pianist, the guitarists given more space in Europe than in Japan, improving the songs and arrangements with small, but important licks, bringing another touch of renewal to the show.

A beautiful intro of “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You” makes the audience collectively sigh, sway and applause. “Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum” surprisingly receives even more applause, like most of the audience know that this is just the third time the songs is included in a show since 2015. An okay version, but then we’re in for the real surprise of the evening. Most of us are expecting the well known tones of “Mother of Muses”, but something else is happening, and we don’t know what it is, the musicians turned to each other in the dark, trying to find the right mood of what’s coming up, a world premiere of Bob Dylan singing a touching and heartfelt version of the beautiful “Stella Blue” – another great Grateful Dead cover. Tonight – on the night where Robert Hunter would have been 82 years old.

“All the years combine
They melt into a dream
A broken angel sings
From a guitar
In the end there’s just a song
Comes crying like the night
Through all the broken dreams
And vanished years

Stella Blue
When all the cards are down
There’s nothing left to see
There’s just the pavement left
And broken dreams
In the end there’s still that song
Comes crying like the wind
Down every lonely street
That’s ever been

Stella Blue
I’ve stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel
Can’t win for trying
Dust off those rusty strings just
One more time
Gonna make em shine

It all rolls into one
And nothing comes for free
There’s nothing you can hold
For very long
And when you hear that song
Come crying like the wind
It seems like all this life
Was just a dream
Stella Blue“
(Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter)

I got goosebumbs when hearing it, as I do when I’m thinking of it now. Wow!
What a surprise and what a performance, Dylan again lifting a song high above the original version.

Then comes what might be the finest version of “Mother of Muses” I’ve seen, due to Doug and Bob’s new guitar licks in beautiful co-operation with the piano, making a new and more funky dynamic to the song. A flawless, swinging “Jimmy Reed” before a beautiful “Every Grain of Sand” ends the show (Dylan grabs the harmonica but don’t use it – just teasing??), after the song Dylan quickly moves to the floor, receiving the joyful shouts of love and admiration, he’s making a bow, holds his hand to his heart, and then its over. After a bumpy start, the first Barcelona show of 2023 becomes unforgettable with its 18 songs, a new beautiful cover of “Stella Blue” and an especially strong second half of the show, starting with “Key West”. Tomorrow is another day. Can’t wait.

Johnny Borgan