A fine, underappreciated and very accessible live album

"Real Live" may not be as grand as the double album "Live 1975", as groundbreaking as "Live 1966" or as intense as "Hard Rain".

In fact, there aren't too many surprises as far as arrangements go, and the band is a fairly ordinary four-piece combo (plus Dylan himself).

So why even buy this? Most of the songs can be found on other live albums anyway, and the new verses for "Tangled Up In Blue" aren't THAT magnificent.



Well, this may not be Bob Dylan's most interesting live effort, but it is actually a fine album nonetheless, and the band is excellent. Dylan's 1984 touring combo may not have been as wild and idiosyncratic as The Band, but you can't put a finger on their musicianship. Former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor is very prominent troughout the album, and plays some excellent solos, and the production is very good, allowing the listener to hear both Taylor's leads and Dylan's rhythm guitar. And drummer Collin Allen creates a superb groove with bassist Greg Sutton and former Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan.



Among the highlights are "Highway 61", a superb piece of garage rock, a swinging, groovy "I And I", the seven-minute rendition of "Tangled Up In Blue" (fine vocal performance by Dylan), and a really rocking "Tombstone Blues". "Maggie's Farm" is great too, it just doesn't match the intensity of the version found on "Hard Rain".



"Real Live" also features an interesting electric version of "Masters Of War", and even though it may seem a bit short at "only" ten songs, it does clock in at 50 minutes, which makes it about as long as you can expect from an LP-era release.



"Real Live" may not be an essential Bob Dylan purchase, but if you are a fan, it provides a nice addition to the Dylan catalogue, sporting lean, muscular versions of some of his best songs.

Great live album!!!

When this first came out in 1984 I didn't bother, thinking, ho-hum another Dylan live album. Yawn. What was this - his FOURTH live album in less than ten years (two of which were double albums)? Plus, he had a whole side of the Concert for Bangladesh in 1972. Did we really need more live material from Dylan at this point? Apparently, that's what a lot of people must have thought and this album sold very poorly. Well, I listened to it for the first time just recently and . . . I was blown away. Energetic performances by Dylan and his band. Absolutely superb lead guitar work. Great crowd reaction and participation. And Dylan is in great voice - absolutely belting out his vocals on the up tempo numbers. Some of the performances probably exceed the originals. The hard rocking version of Masters of War alone is worth the price of the album. The same can be said for Ballad of a Thin Man and Tombstone Blues. If you're a Dylan fan GET THIS!!

Real Live Rocks

My dad says he was blown away when he first heard this record. Mick Taylor had just left the Stones, was now playing with Mr. D, and his smoking guitar work supercharges this record. Sometimes Dad and I disagree, but not about this record. I do wish though, that they would have made it a double CD and released the whole show, cuz this CD just plain rocks. Oh well, maybe if we're lucky, they'll release one of the shows from this tour as a future legal bootleg in the Bootleg Series. Until then we'll have to be satisfied with "Real Live." Five stars for this one.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane