Bob Dylan playing in Vietnam... wow! We arrived back from a party the weekend before in the wee hours and decided it would be a once in a lifetime fling to see Bob play in Saigon, so late night booking of tickets and preparation for the six and a half hour bus journey across the border to sweet Saigon!Now I'm a fan of Bob, so I'm on his side when I hear about all the criticism he's been getting for is Asian concerts in the communist world... after all, he's had a 51 year career so far, by all accounts only three of which were in his so called "protest song phase" back in the 60s, which he wrote some of his most famous and powerful songs, but he's done a lot of stuff since and shouldn't be cast into that role. Also for the likes of the Guardian, everyone in Vietnam isn't suffering terrible oppression and living lives of misery under an evil totalitarian regime... having lived in the country for six years and been in South East Asia for 8, I can confirm most Vietnamese people are generally happy with their lot, especially compared to many of the world's so called democratic regimes. Enough said.
Great show all around, couldn't say I knew all of his songs (he played a lot of his later stuff), but he did sing the classics "A hard rain's a gonna fall" and "Rolling stone". Got so say the guy's got a wicked voice - listen to some of the clips if they upload/download properly. All in all a great night at the RMIT campus; outdoor venue on a warm summers night, oh and the San Miguel draught was pretty good too.
And as for deep and powerful meanings of his songs, poems and words, I take away his last song of the evening and message sung with a smile on his face... "may you remain forever young"
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