Meanwhile, Dylan launches into a string of classics, continuing the illusion of nostalgia act. “You Ain't Goin' Nowhere,” “Just Like A Woman,” “Tears Of Rage,” “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again,” all as familiar as the radio. But each is played askew; the rhythms are somehow asymmetrical. You can tap your foot -- Mom is dancing now, in a way -- but you can’t anticipate the changes. Even the band seems lost at moments: someone can’t find that tricky chord in “Tears of Rage” until the final chorus. (I blame the pedal steel, but maybe only cause he lacks the mustache of authority.) Is this the technique Dylan described cryptically in his autobiography Chronicles as, “based on an odd- instead of even-number system”?
Or is that another wry Dylan joke -- because odd this is, that’s for sure. But this is an odd country, and the mirror he holds up to it is right as rain.
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