Last Monday my Dad and I ventured down to Santa Barbara to see Bob Dylan in concert. I have grown up listening to him my whole life. I have heard every Bob Dylan song ever written & recorded (either by a CD, tape, or my Dad singing it). I even had my Dad and I dance to a Bob Dylan song for the Father Daughter dance at my wedding.
When I hear Bob Dylan, I go down memory lane.
My sister and I dancing on our boat at Shaver Lake singing "Everybody must get stoned..." (little did we know what that acutally meant...I'm still shocked my parents let us sing that at the top of our lungs...they were probably laughing hysterically in their heads).
On our way to school, my dad, sister and me, all snug in a truck singing to my dad's Bob Dylan tape "Froggie went a courtin and he did right, uh huhhh. Froggie went a courtin and he did right, uh huhhh...".
Snuggled up in bed with my sister while my dad played his guitar and sang us some old Bob songs to bed.
Studying in the library for college midterms-putting Bob Dylan on to help me relax and stay focused on the task at hand (and give me a little boost from being homesick).
Dancing with my daddy at my wedding "May God bless and keep you always, may your wishes all come true. May you always do to others, as others do to you... May you stay forever young."
So, for my Dad's birthday I was racking my brain (as always) to figure out what to get him. I didn't want the usual socks, undies, shirt...etc. to be the gift for this year. Then I saw on the TV that Bob Dylan was going to be at the Santa Barbara Bowl! I've heard about this venue and how awesome it is. And I REALLY wanted to see him with my Dad. (You can call it a Happy Birthday to me present as well!) ;) So I asked my mom and sister if they wanted in on the deal-and they thought it was a perfect gift. WAHOO! I was probably just as, if not more, excited as my dad. I couldn't even wait til his birthday. I blurted it out the next weekend (in August when we were visiting) that I had bought us tickets. Ha.
So the evening comes. Of course, the one day, in a billion surrounding it, that it was supposed to rain. OHHH WELLL! I told my dad to bring his rain coat because I'm goin either way! We jumped in the car and headed down the coast. When we got there, after parking a thousand miles uphill, we made our way inside. The evening ended up being perfect-with not a drop of rain! It really was a beautiful venue. Mark Knopfler played before Bob came on, and he was amazing. Him and his band were very entertaining. I turned to my dad and said I wanted some fish & chips and a Bulmers cider. His band reminded me of Ireland. A very good show.
Then it was Bob's turn.
(I have to mention here that I have seen Bob once in concert before with my mom, dad, and Jon in Fresno. It was in a stadium where he played with John Mellencamp and Willy Nelson. Very cool show. Jon and I pushed and shoved our way through so I could get a coveted glance of Mr.Dylan himself. Awesome. And my dad has seen him a handful of times.)
Anywho-out came Bob.
If you have never been to one of his concerts I'll set the scene for you. He usually stands behind his keyboard-facing sideways (which my dad says is rude..hah).
But on this rare occasion Bob found some dance moves from yonder. He was all over the stage, bouncing his old man knees to the beat-getting down with his bad self. He even SANG a couple of really good notes! (again, setting the stage for his concerts-you can't always understand what ol Bob is saying/singing. He tends to change up the compositions of his tunes, so songs that should be easily recognized aren't. And....you just can't really understand a darn thing he's singing most of the time. Some notes even came out as squeaks. But you gotta love that "gravelly voice". It's how he's always been. And I LOVE IT (even if I don't understand every other word coming out of his mouth) :) I know my dad understands it all-he's just that big of a fan ;)
After the concert we made our trek back to the car. (I forgot to mention that upon arriving there were people on bikes with trailers attached to the back that would take you right to the bowl entrance. When we left and saw all of them waiting to take people back my dad and I started laughing. We were tempted to have them take us back. No joke, biggest hill we parked on. I could lay down on the road and almost be standing up straight. Ha. We should've done it!)
We then stopped at In n Out on the way home and scarfed a hamburger down. It was 11pm. Ha. Gotta love it!
The evening was wonderful. Bob was in rare form that night. My Dad said it was the best he's seen him. So thankful I got to share this special evening with my father. I am also so thankful to have a dad like him. He has always been there for me and our family. And I have never, ever, doubted his love for me. Hopefully he had just as much fun as I did :)
