This is not a very good live album. The sound quality is not too good and performance is not too exciting except for some nice guitar solos. It has 10 songs ranging from 4 to 6 minutes long. The total lenght of the CD is 52 minutes.

The sound quality is not very good. It is loud and noisy. The audience chatter is way too high in many spots. You can actually pick out some talking in the back ground.

This is one of Dylan's lesser performances. His singing is particularly annoying. He vocals are very affected. He sounds like one of those comedians who do a bad imitation of Dylan with the over exaggerated accent.

The back up band is not very good and renditions of the songs are not anything new or special.

The only thing that makes this CD worthwhile are some amazing guitar solos on 4 of the tracks. And no wonder...the guitarist is Mick Taylor, of Rolling Stones and Gong fame. But, the guitar playing is not enough to recommend this CD.

This is Dylan's second worst CD. His worst is Dylan and Dead.

"Real Live" may not be as grand as the double album "Live 1975", as groundbreaking as "Live 1966" or as intense as "Hard Rain".
In fact, there aren't too many surprises as far as arrangements go, and the band is a fairly ordinary four-piece combo (plus Dylan himself).
So why even buy this? Most of the songs can be found on other live albums anyway, and the new verses for "Tangled Up In Blue" aren't THAT magnificent.

Well, this may not be Bob Dylan's most interesting live effort, but it is actually a fine album nonetheless, and the band is excellent. Dylan's 1984 touring combo may not have been as wild and idiosyncratic as The Band, but you can't put a finger on their musicianship. Former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor is very prominent troughout the album, and plays some excellent solos, and the production is very good, allowing the listener to hear both Taylor's leads and Dylan's rhythm guitar. And drummer Collin Allen creates a superb groove with bassist Greg Sutton and former Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan.

Among the highlights are "Highway 61", a superb piece of garage rock, a swinging, groovy "I And I", the seven-minute rendition of "Tangled Up In Blue" (fine vocal performance by Dylan), and a really rocking "Tombstone Blues". "Maggie's Farm" is great too, it just doesn't match the intensity of the version found on "Hard Rain".

"Real Live" also features an interesting electric version of "Masters Of War", and even though it may seem a bit short at "only" ten songs, it does clock in at 50 minutes, which makes it about as long as you can expect from an LP-era release.

"Real Live" may not be an essential Bob Dylan purchase, but if you are a fan, it provides a nice addition to the Dylan catalogue, sporting lean, muscular versions of some of his best songs.

My dad says he was blown away when he first heard this record. Mick Taylor had just left the Stones, was now playing with Mr. D, and his smoking guitar work supercharges this record. Sometimes Dad and I disagree, but not about this record. I do wish though, that they would have made it a double CD and released the whole show, cuz this CD just plain rocks. Oh well, maybe if we're lucky, they'll release one of the shows from this tour as a future legal bootleg in the Bootleg Series. Until then we'll have to be satisfied with "Real Live." Five stars for this one.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane