Live review: Bob Dylan at Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo

And, of course, he was right. Change has been at the centre of the US singer-songwriter’s 60-year-plus musical career.

Decade after decade, he's maintained a restlessness that means you can never quite pin him down.

Still on the road at 81, last night's show was the 77th this year and 98th overall of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour in support of his No 1 2020 album of that name.

He was in impressive form, his voice stronger and more nuanced than it has been since at least the turn of the century.

It also helps that his 39th and latest album features his strongest material since 2001’s Love and Theft, with all but one of its ten songs, the 17-minute epic Murder Most Foul, featuring in a 17-song set lasting an hour and three-quarters.

Dylan has never strutted the stage Mick Jagger-style, but his movements now seem particularly restricted, occasionally walking gingerly to centre stage from his piano to take in applause.

It was quite poignant, but if you closed your eyes and just listened to the fierceness of his delivery and the power of his piano-playing, you’d never guess this was a guy into his ninth decade.

Highlights included a spooky and delicately-performed Black Rider, a gypsy-jazz take on When I Paint My Masterpiece, a meditative Crossing the Rubicon and a rollicking Goodbye Jimmy Reed.

A shout-out is merited for his band too, with forever-loyal Tony Garnier on bass, alongside a trio of relatively new recruits – Bob Britt and Doug Lancio on guitars and Charlie Drayton on drums – with Donnie Herron on just about everything else, including violin, electric mandolin, pedal and lap steel.

Dylan can on occasion lead his musicians a merry dance, testing their alertness with a sudden change of key when they least expect it, but with this band you feel he’s more than met his match.

Not everything went to plan, though. During a fiery Gotta Serve Somebody, from 1979’s Slow Train Coming album, he expressed frustration with something or other, letting out an audible ‘oh, Jesus!’, and he also lost his way on a verse or two of Key West (Philosopher Pirate). He can be forgiven, it being a nine-minute song jam-packed with lyrics.

A poignant Every Grain of Sand, from 1981’s Shot of Love, ended the show, with Dylan closing the song out with a distinctive harmonica break.

After Dylan and his band twice took the audience’s applause, they were gone. No encore tonight, folks.

Fortunately they’re not “heading for another joint”, however, and will be performing at the SEC Armadillo again tonight, October 31, before heading on to Manchester, Oxford, Bournemouth and Dublin. For details, go to https://www.sec.co.uk/whats-on