Welcome to the West 102nd & 103rd Streets Block Association
Contact us via
  • Home
  • Board of Directors
    • Bylaws
  • Join Us
  • Blog
  • Special Events
  • Resources
    • YouTube Page
    • Alternate Side Parking
    • Tree, Hydrant, and Lamp Map
    • Eco-friendly Block
    • Open Streets W. 103rd Street
    • Bloomingdale Aging In Place
    • Hunger Resources
    • Bloomingdale History
    • TriBloomingdale
  • Quarterly Newsletter
  • Hall of Fame
    • 2025 Honorees
    • 2024 Honorees
    • 2023 Honorees
    • 2022 Honorees
    • 2021 Honorees
    • 2020 Honorees
    • 2019 Honoree
    • 2018 Honorees
    • 2017 Honorees
    • 2016 Honorees
    • 2015 Honorees
    • 2014 Honorees
    • 2013 Honorees
    • 2012 Honoree
    • 2011 Honorees
    • 2010 Honorees

Shaking the Sugar Down in Sugar Town

12/10/2019

4 Comments

 

Bob Dylan's Return to the Upper West Side

Picture
Post-concert scene at the Beacon Theater on December 6, 2019
By Caitlin Hawke

Bob Dylan has been in a long-term relationship with Greenwich Village, but he's been spotted in the throes of a torrid affair with the Upper West Side.

Even non-fans know the story of how he hunted down Woody Guthrie and then settled into the basket-house scene of Greenwich Village in early 1961. From his first apartment at 161 West 4th Street to his Stanford White townhouse uptown near City College on “Striver’s Row” Dylan is, at heart, a New Yorker.

I, like 20,000 others, will never forget the November 19, 2001, concert at Madison Square Garden when he played “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” to a packed house of aching souls, still in shock after 9/11. As he got to the last couplet — “I’m going back to New York City/I do believe I’ve had enough” — the hometown crowd erupted in a cry of solidarity and civic pride. I recall that he spoke between songs that evening — a rare occurrence in the second half of his career. He didn’t say much, but in acknowledgement of the tragedy he said simply that no one had to tell him how he felt about New York. Again a cheer brought down the house.

I could go on about all the Dylan landmarks and connections of this town — how he picked up violinist Scarlet Rivera on an East Village corner and convinced her to record with him on the seminal album “Desire.” Or that half-mile taxi ride with Lenny Bruce. How the fabulous folkloric “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour of 1975-76 was cooked up at a back table at the Other End with Bobby Neuwirth. As landmarks go, the one with the tightest connection to my heart is the legendary Supper Club, where on November 16, 1993, Dylan played an acoustic show that fans have traded bootlegs of with abandon for the last quarter century.

​But thanks to his two-week stay at the Beacon Theatre from November 23 to December 6, Bob Dylan was shaking the sugar down in our very own Sugar Town for ten sweetest of shows on positively 74th Street.

Read on here at the West Side Rag where I wrote an appreciation and here for a review of the first concert of the run. 

It's all over now, baby blue, but buck up, because in 50 short weeks, he'll be back.

Til then, I am pressing on.

Don't miss a post! To receive Block Association blog posts directly via email, enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Subscribe in a reader
4 Comments
Mel Van Horn
12/11/2019 09:55:47 am

I'm not a New Yorker, but a huge Bob Dylan fan. His connection to New York is strong. Love that you celebrate his love for NY. Loved your review

Reply
Cathy Pratt Dwiggins
12/12/2019 05:42:58 pm

I LOVE BOBBY DYLAN. Saw him in Lowell, Massachusetts on 19 November 2019. Highlight of the winter for me. The crowd was so sedate it has driven me to Dublin where I expect to meet musicians who appreciate Dylan's work and don't demand the old songs sung in the old same way. Perhaps the Lowell crowd was stoned out of their minds? Got me.

Reply
Terence
12/22/2019 02:25:43 pm

Thanks Caitlin, and right on!
I had kinda given up seeing Bob because the first performances I saw were with bands like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1986) and the Grateful Dead (1987) backing him...tough to beat.
But I find myself going back every five or six years and was overdue. When a friend of mine said "hey, I've never seen Dylan, think we can get two tickets?" I decided to spring for 3rd row Orchestra seats on the aisle. When you are that close to genius it is a real treat. Especially when he is doing a song you know well, like "When I Paint My Masterpiece" and he starts delivering new lyrics from what you thought you were going to hear next, and have it work!
I'm grateful to have seen Bob on this Beacon run.
My friend enjoyed it way more than I thought he would too!

Reply
THFC News link
7/16/2023 09:03:56 am

Great blog I enjoyed rreading

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Aging In Bloomingdale
    BA Events
    Blog Favorites
    Community Issues
    Families
    From The Vault
    Green Neighborhood
    History
    Hyper-local Eats
    It's Elemental
    Local Events
    Mom & Pop
    Neighbors
    Seen
    Throwback Thursday
    Traffic

    Archives

    October 2022
    December 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Subscribe to our email list and receive regular news.

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.