30th Anniversary Concert – an eye-witness report

Thanks to a 30th Anniversary Concert eye-witness who wishes to remain anonymous:

“It's funny just how divergent different views of the same event can be sometimes. I attended the 30 Year Tribute and I found Sophie B Hawkins one of the low points in the evening's proceedings - all that weaving around added nothing to the song.

“The event was more to celebrate Dylan's music than Dylan and she had no obvious relevance to his music. I'm no expert on Hawkins but had she recorded any Dylan songs before the event and has she recorded any since? I suspect not. Maybe she was just put there because it was a high profile event.

“Sinead O'Connor had a touch more relevance, at least, but I must say that a place the size of Madison Square Garden could hardly be filled solely with music biz types, even in New York and even with execs coming in from the coast. There were a lot of ordinary folk present, like me.

“As for the booing, it was certainly nowhere near the whole audience who did this; if that had happened, the roof would have lifted off. Some booed, some supported her and some just waited for her to get on with the song.

“What annoyed me about her appearance was that, on more than one occasion, her band struck up the intended song (‘I Believe In You’) only to have her gesture to them, with her right arm, to stop.

“Had she allowed them to continue and had she started to sing the song (especially with that early line about intolerance), she could have faced down the booers, made her point forcefully and probably got a cheer from her supporters into the bargain.

“Worse than letting the booing carry on first, when she did start to sing, it was a non-Dylan song, which went against the whole point of the evening.”