Recommendations of the Editorial team
Bob Dylan opened his set at the Outlaw Music Festival in the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Darien Center, New York, with “Masters of War”. For the first time since the Desert Trip Festival 2016.
Gulf War 1991 and Grammy appearance
Dylan has taken very few political positions since the civil rights movement of the early 1960s. He even refused to condemn the Vietnam War. His views on current topics are practically unknown today. But it is difficult to ignore that he is now playing the song again, while the wars in Ukraine and Gaza continue without a clear end.
He did something similar at the beginning of the Gulf War on February 20, 1991. At the Grammy appearance-shortly after he had received the Lifetime Achievement Award-he played a rough, reggae-based version of “Masters of War”. But when he accepted Jack Nicholson’s award, he did not mention the conflict with any word.
Instead, he paraphrased Psalm 27:10. “Well, my father. He didn’t leave me much, you know? He was a very simple man. And didn’t leave me much. But what he said was. ‘Son … it is possible to be so contaminated in this world that your own mother and your own father leave you. And if that happens, God will always believe in your own ability to improve yourself.'”
Classic and rare cover in the set
“Masters of War” is one of several classics from the 1960s, which he recovered in the program at the Outlaw Music Festival this summer. This also includes “The Times They Are A-Changin ‘”, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Positive Fourh Street”, “It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”.
His repertoire also includes several rarely played cover versions. Among them Charlie Richs “i’ll make it all up to you”, Bobby Blue Bland’s “Share your love with me” and George “Wild Child” Butler’s “Ax and the Wind”.
The Outlaw Music Festival continues on Saturday evening at the Hershey Park Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It ends on September 19 at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin. In October, Dylan then started a long European tour with concerts in large parts of the continent.