Jack White, Neil Young, Beck, Bruce Springsteen Perform Tribute to Bob Dylan, Dylan Gives Speech

Jack White, Neil Young, Beck, Bruce Springsteen Perform Tribute to Bob Dylan, Dylan Gives Speech

Photo by William Claxton via MusiCares

Last night, Bob Dylan was honored at a tribute concert to benefit MusiCares. The lineup featured Jack White, Beck, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Willie Nelson, and many others. It also featured a lengthy speech from Dylan, who thanked his early supporters and derided critics of his voice and some famous detractors, Rolling Stone reports

Beck did “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Springsteen did “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, Young did “Blowin’ in the Wind”, White did “One More Cup of Coffee”, and CSN performed “Girl From the North Country”. Find the full setlist below via Consequence of Sound.

In his speech, Dylan thanked icons like Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Joan Baez, the Staple Singers, the Byrds, the Turtles, Peter Paul & Mary, Sonny & Cher, and more for supporting his music. “He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere, turned them all into classics,” he said of Hendrix.

He also talked about some famous artists who wrote him off early on, including the iconic songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and country legend Merle Haggard. “I didn’t really care what Leiber & Stoller thought of my songs,” he said, “’cause I didn’t like their songs, either.”

“Critics say I can’t sing, I sound like a frog,” he said (via The San Diego Union-Tribune). “Why don’t critics say that about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice is shot. Why don’t they say that about Leonard Cohen? What have I done to get this special attention?”

Setlist:

Beck: “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”
Aaron Neville: “Shooting Star”
Alanis Morissette: “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
Los Lobos: “On A Night Like This”
Willie Nelson: “Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)”
Jackson Browne: “Blind Willie McTell”
John Mellencamp: “Highway 61 Revisited”
Jack White: “One More Cup Of Coffee”
Tom Jones: “What Good Am I?”
Norah Jones: “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
Derek Trucks And Susan Tedeschi: “Million Miles”
John Doe: “Pressing On”
Crosby, Stills & Nash: “Girl From The North County”
Bonnie Raitt: “Standing In The Doorway”
Sheryl Crow: “Boots Of Spanish Leather”
Bruce Springsteen: “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”
Neil Young: “Blowin’ In The Wind”

Watch a news report about the show via Stereogum:

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