Rare performance from an Amazon.com company event 2006

Every once in awhile you can come across a rare Dylan performance that’s not on YouTube. This is it: Bob Dylan performing at an Amazon.com private event in July 16, 2005. For reviews, see Bill Pagel’s page.

I’d lie if I told you how I got it. I remember an invitation to an Amazon.com company event with Bob Dylan coming off the concert circuit to perform. He does that from time to time. After all he’s a mentsh, someone who works for others like the rest of us. Good for him.

So the video was stored away on an old drive and found today, glik good luck for us. Enjoy but remember we don’t own this video and merely present it as something given, lost then found.

The video is dated October 25th, 2006. Dylan appeared in Seattle on October 13th, 2006 at the Key Arena. Glen Boyd wrote a review Concert Review: Bob Dylan And His Band – October 13, 2006 at Key Arena, Seattle WA of that date.

Another entry says the performance was July 16th, 2005. Amazon 10th Anniversary Concert With Bob Dylan and Norah Jones

Bill Pagel’s Bob Tour Guide doesn’t confirm either date.

The crowd at Amazon HQ in what appears to be a theatre setting are moderately appreciative. They must have been killing themselves to stay in their seats when Dylan gets a groove going like he does here. If you were there in October 2006 or know more about the event, please leave a comment.

Dylan has a great time taking over five minutes on the song. Dylan has a long harp solo and then gives lots of room to the band before bringing it home. The slide break is sweet. The guitar break is muted but still cool. The performance has a nice country blues feel.

The song Watching the River seems linked to the New Morning LP with it’s laid-back country feel. It was recorded after New Morning and first appeared as a single with Leon Russell (yes) and Bob Johnston, Dylan’s old producer in the control room. Bob Johnson had taken over from Tom Wilson with Highway 61 Revisited and had produced Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Skyline, John Wesley Harding, Self Portrait and Dylan. It was released on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.

The song has great tension between Dylan’s bucolic Woodstock life and his urban life:

Wish I was back in the city
Instead of this old bank of sand,
With the sun beating down over the chimney tops
And the one I love so close at hand.
If I had wings and I could fly,
I know where I would go.
But right now I’ll just sit here so contentedly
And watch the river flow. Bob Dylan Watching the River Flow

He drops the last verse and chorus this time to build the band groove which goes along nicely for 5 minutes and 44 seconds. Dylan’s recent performance of these “country” classics shows the maturity of his approach. He does the same thing with the treatment of “Down Along the Cove” which he rocks out on tour beyond what the song seemed to have for potential.

The video is probably copyright by Bob Dylan or Amazon.com.