Play Me a Song, Mr. Wolfman Bob

2008-11-21, United Palace, New York, NY

I’ve written before about upsinging, the '00s-era vocal phenomenon where Dylan would sing each line like a question, jumping up an octave at the very end like he’d been bitten by a radioactive Chipmunk. But there’s another little-loved vocal tic from around this time I was reminded of listening to this tape. Like upsinging, it too had a cutesy nickname bestowed by fans: The Wolfman.

The Wolfman is a fairly self-explanatory term. You could also call it The Cookie Monster or The Tom Waits Impersonator. Those vocals on Tempest and Christmas in the Heart? Classic Wolfman. Singing the Sinatra songs smoothed his voice back out, thankfully, but he was in that guttural-growl mode for a while before that.

Today’s subscriber request (thanks Steve!), the final show of 2008, is peak Wolfman. Like any of his vocal limitations, he can turn them into strengths when working with them properly—or they can also be really annoying when he’s coasting. This show has some of both! (This era is also peak organ, making it doubly divisive.)

I picked out five tracks with the Wolfman looking down to showcase its highs and lows.

---

Dylan’s first “Gotta Serve Somebody” in five years, a surprise show-opener on the year’s final night, is—spoiler alert—easily the best performance of the show. One of the best performances of the entire year, I’d wager. He stood center stage, just a (wolf)man and his harmonica, growling through this gospel number. He sounds like an old bluesman playing a dirty dive bar for five drunks at 2am. It wouldn’t be as powerful if he voice didn’t sound so ragged.