I was recently fortunate enough to attend a show in Nottingham as part of Bob Dylan’s most recent tour, Rough and Rowdy Ways. This tour has lasted almost exactly three years and ended with a bang only last week at the Royal Albert Hall. Now aged 83, and showing no hint of any future concerts, there has been much speculation as to whether this could, in fact, have been his final public tour.

Not a big Dylan fan until recently, I was still more than excited to see such a legendary man up close and, hopefully, to hear him sing some of the classics. However, as I had begrudgingly expected, he played only a few famous songs (‘All Along the Watchtower’, ‘It’s All Over Now’, ‘Baby Blue’, and ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, to be precise). The rest of the setlist was drawn from his newer albums – still great songs, but not exactly the rousing folk for which he is celebrated.

“We aren’t in the 1960s anymore, and Dylan is an old man”

Even the famous songs were somewhat obscured by the performance. Long introductions and different arrangements made many of them almost unrecognisable at first. It became something of a game to guess the song before the chorus revealed it (which it usually, but not always, did). In many cases, he spoke rather than sang the lyrics, so at times it felt more like a poetry reading – particularly during ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, which was impossible to sing along with. True to form, Dylan made no introductions and said maybe five words to the audience in total. But as an older man who has had one of the most musically and culturally impactful careers in Western popular history, can we really blame him?

Of course not. The concert was incredible, even if it was a bit difficult to sing along to. But it did make me wonder: how much of my excitement was about the music, and how much of it was just to be able to say I’d been there? To see Bob Dylan in person, to hear him perform the defining songs of the 1960s, and to have a great story to tell?

I felt, somehow, that it was shallow of me to see Bob Dylan just for the sake of seeing Bob Dylan. On the way to the concert, I couldn’t deny that this was part of what excited me: to see him in real life! Someone with such a rich history! But I also knew he was old, and that neither his voice nor his playing would be what they once were. As expected, his voice was deeper, even more raspy than we are used to, and often hard to understand.

Coming out of the concert, though, I felt completely different. It became about the music and how the music has changed. We aren’t in the 1960s anymore, and Dylan is an old man. The longer introductions, spoken lyrics, and unorthodox setlist seemed to reflect that perfectly. It would be disingenuous for him to play the same concert he did 60 years ago, even if he could. The songs are changing just as he is changing, and the times are changing. And it felt perfectly appropriate.

Perhaps his spoken rendition of ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ captures this best. It feels as though Dylan is being exactly who he is, not who we want him to be. He isn’t the person we construct such glorifying images around – those are only images. He is someone else, something else.

So, the answer, my friends, is that it was all about the music. And through the music, I learned more about the man I had come to see on stage. The answer is blowing in the wind.