In the interests of Cross Postings! (it’s what we do here!) here is this interesting article from our Ray [Padgett that is - Flagging Down The Double Es]
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In the midst of all the Rolling Thunder 1976 madness, I wrote this Bob's-birthday piece for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's new newsletter. Check it out if you're all caught up on RTR. |
Bob Dylan & Bruce Springsteen's Surprise Rock Hall Duet
For Bob Dylan's 85th birthday, looking back on his unannounced performance when the museum first opened its doors
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Written by Ray Padgett, a music journalist based in Burlington, Vermont who writes the Substack newsletter Flagging Down the Double E’s all about Bob Dylan performances throughout history. His books include Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members, Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time, and a book in the 33 1/3 series abouttribute albums and Leonard Cohen.
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Bob Dylan turns 85 today. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s third class ever, in 1988, but his greatest Rock Hall performance didn’t come until a few years later.
For the first decade of its existence, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was not an actual place you could visit. But in September 1995, the museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio. Naturally, there was an all-star concert to mark the occasion. The announced lineup included The Allman Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, and most notably, Bruce Springsteen reuniting with the E Street Band for their first public concert in eight years.
Surprise guests were promised too and, given the occasion of today’s newsletter, no prizes for guessing who one of them was.
Rumors about Bob Dylan appearing had circulated for weeks. Robbie Robertson told one newspaper that efforts were being made to reunite Dylan and The Band (minus pianist Richard Manuel, who died in 1986). Little Richard, who’d donned a hard hat and shovel for the museum’s groundbreaking in 1993, told The Hollywood Reporter he might play with Dylan himself. Then again — in other interviews promoting the event Little Richard said he hoped to perform with Springsteen, Prince, James Brown and Bon Jovi.
Dylan did not reunite with The Band, nor did he play dueling pianos with Little Richard. But he did show up, which was hardly a guarantee. His appearance was not only a surprise to the audience — it was a surprise to the organizers! The show’s producer Joel Gallen told me they’d been trying to get Dylan since day one, but he’d remained non-committal until the last minute. He played five songs, and, unusually for someone who has a tendency to throw curveballs at these all-star events, they were mostly greatest hits (the one exception was his 1985 rocker “Seeing the Real You At Last”).
But he saved the biggest surprise for the end of his set. “Now a buddy of mine is gonna come up and play one of my old songs,” Dylan told the crowd. “Let me hear you say, ‘Bruuuuuce.’” Yes, Dylan brought out Bruce Springsteen to share a mic on “Forever Young” — the only time they’ve ever sung it together. They’d reportedly rehearsed it just 30 minutes earlier in Dylan’s trailer backstage. Dylan’s gaudy gold-lamé shirt contrasts with Springsteen’s everyman plaid, but their voices sound great together.
Dylan apparently enjoyed his Rock Hall experience. There are photos of him grinning with Chuck Berry and James Brown backstage and signing autographs for a kid in an R.E.M. T-shirt. My favorite is a picture of him with the loquacious Allman Brother Dickey Betts, who I interviewed about working with Dylan shortly before his passing. Betts is leaning over, hands gesticulating, while Dylan seems to be listening intently. Dylan, however, does not like the photo as much as I do. The photographer who took it, Sidney Smith, wrote that upon taking it, “You’d have thought I had poured muriatic acid onto Dylan. Little did I realize his complete disdain for photographers shooting him without permission.”
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Dylan and Springsteen have only sung together once since the Rock Hall opening, a shambolic “Highway 61 Revisited” at Shea Stadium in 2003. But the mutual appreciation remains. Dylan reportedly rehearsed a mystery Springsteen cover with his band last year (alas, it remains unplayed…for now). And Springsteen is ending every show on his current tour with Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.” Tonight, he’ll play it in Boston on its writer’s 85th birthday. Three decades on from their Cleveland collab, they’re both still going strong. May they stay forever young.
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