Bob Dylan Live

Even if a Bob Dylan concert doesn't flat-out change your life, you're at least guaranteed one thing: it ain't gonna sound like the record. For example, Dylan's 1966 Royal Albert Hall version of "It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue" sounds surprisingly intimate and personal. "It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (Live)" is just the opposite — a ferocious performance that more than fills the hall . . . and is way more intense than the original recording.

"Simple Twist of Fate (Live)," the studio version of which was originally featured on the Blood On the Tracks album, gets a reflective treatment on At Budokan, with the tempo slowed markedly. His live version of "Hurricane," from the following year's Desire album, remains fairly faithful to the original, complete with violinist Scarlet Rivera's tasty riffs. And his "Forever Young (Live)" also from At Budokan, has the fully realized sound of a gospel-inflected benediction.

The Rolling Thunder Revue version of "Just Like a Woman" takes the song into country territory, reinventing it magnificently. It's only natural that two premier '60s musical icons, Dylan and the Grateful Dead, should perform together, and their 1987 tour is represented here by "Joey" and "Queen Jane Approximately." Dylan's Real Live version of "License to Kill" invests the song with an urgency not evident on the previous year's Infidels studio version.

While Bob Dylan has been one of rock music's most consistently interesting performers for more than 40 years, his live performances are, to put it politely, highly variable. He has the capacity to reveal unimaginable facets of songs you thought you knew, or he might just mumble his way through an abbreviated evening at double-speed and hit the tour bus. Dealer's choice. Fortunately, many of his epic live performances have been captured on tape, and we've sorted through the tailings to pull out the revelatory diamonds that show Dylan at his best.