Hey, Nobel Prize guys: Try reaching Bob Dylan in Louisville

Bob Dylan

Here’s a thought. Perhaps a representative of the Swedish Academy bestowing the Nobel Prizes can stop in Louisville on Tuesday. Maybe they can confront Bob Dylan there about honoring him with the Nobel Prize in literature as opposed to getting all those pesky stories about Dylan not taking the Nobel committee’s calls.

Of course, that means they might stay and see what the present-day Dylan is like in performance — which, depending on your perspective, might not be very noble at all.

Don’t get me wrong. I find today’s Dylan outrageously fascinating. Few artists of any musical genre uphold their legacy while simultaneously deconstructing it as he does in performance.

A typical Dylan concert is a grab-bag in terms of repertoire, roughly half of which is devoted a back catalog of the kind of poetic narrative, social observation and personal upheaval that likely won him the Nobel in the first place. But what Dylan typically does to those songs is the musical equivalent of a scorched-earth policy. Classics including “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” “Desolation Row” and even “Blowin’ in the Wind” — all of which wound up in his set lists as recently as last week — are melodically overhauled with a vocal abstraction that, even by the songwriter’s infamous standards, is coarse to the point of being corrosive.

But that’s Dylan. He’s been doing that for decades, bringing what is very much a punkish immediacy and reinvention to his most cherished music onstage. But there are those who think that his concerts, by the mere musical legacy he has created, are nostalgia rides. Those are the ones who probably have never seen one of his shows nor have any sense that the performance standing of his works bears zero resemblance to the mood and perhaps even intent that embraced those songs 40 to 55 years ago.

The remaining half of his repertoire is usually devoted to comparatively recent music that runs from 1997 forward — “Love Sick,” “High Water (for Charley Patton)” and “Pay in Blood,” all of which are subject to the same ragged rewiring as the older compositions. But current Dylan music comes with a twist: a collection of covers of Sinatra-era pop standards that dominate his two most recent studio albums, “Shadows in the Night” (2015) and “Fallen Angels” (2016).

Again, the same strategy applies. If you haven’t heard either record but accept the brutal revisionism Dylan employs in concert, you probably couldn’t fathom him singing “I Could Have Told You,” “Why Try to Change Me Now” (the Cy Coleman gem with a title that all but sums up the current career profile of Dylan) and “All or Nothing at All.” But the records reveal Dylan’s most focused, controlled and, dare we say, elegant singing since the days of “Nashville Skyline” in 1969.

So who knows what will happen in getting Dylan to publicly recognize his Nobel Prize win? Maybe he will continue to ignore it and be a no-show at the award ceremony in Stockholm in December. Maybe he will publicly embrace the prize, as he did with a televised acceptance speech (via Australia, mind you) when “Things Have Changed” won an Academy Award in 2001 for Best Original Song.

Of course, even the lyrics to that work suggest what Dylan might truly think of the Oscars, Nobel Prizes or other accolades any public institution seeks to bestow on him.

“I used to care,” he sings during the tune in his typically raspy, doomsday rattle. “But things have changed.”

The weekend

With Bob Dylan playing Louisville on Tuesday, what, you may ask, is happening this weekend? Well, the big show is tonight’s return of Dierks Bentley to Rupp Arena. We had that story in Thursday’s paper, and if you missed it, it’s up at LexGo.com. We also have another frequent flyer in town. Americana stylist, roots rocker and Slaughters native Chris Knight is back with Paintsville songsmith Tyler Childers (ironically dubbed on Bandcamp.com as “the finest songwriter to emerge from the Bluegrass State since Chris Knight”). Both play Friday (Oct. 28) at The Burl, 375 Thompson Road. (9 p.m., $25). Call 859-447-8166 or go to Theburlky.ticketfly.com.

Halloween with the Gypsys

Lexington guitar rocker DeBraun Thomas has a novel Halloween treat in store for you. He, along with bassist Steve Cherry and drummer David Napier will “portray” Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox and Buddy Miles — essentially Hendrix’s famed Band of Gypsys band — with a tribute show Monday at Al’s Bar, 601 North Limestone, that will also feature DJ Leroy Bones (9 p.m., $5). Call 859-309-2901 or go to Alsbarlexington.com.

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 2:20 PM with the headline "Hey, Nobel Prize guys: Try reaching Bob Dylan in Louisville."