'Bob Dylan Changed My Life': A Musician's Homage To A Legend

SAG HARBOR, NY — Michael Weiskopf sat next to Bob Dylan and his wife once. It was at the Bitter End, the iconic Greenwich Village club where so many dreams have taken shape and sound on Bleeker Street.

The year was 1975, when Bob Dylan was in the throes of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Dylan, like Weiskopf, had come to the Bitter End that night to see Ramblin' Jack Elliot. Dylan wanted to ask him to join the Rolling Thunder tour, Weiskopf said.

So close to Dylan, Weiskopf said nothing. "Everyone knew he was Bob Dylan. I didn't have to say anything. He had enough people around him. He didn't need to meet me."

What Dylan didn't know was that he was seated next to a man who would go on to spend years celebrating the music and man who has shaped generations. While Weiskopf might be humble, he's fierce in his passion to not only keeping Dylan's music alive, but to breathing ever-new life and interpretation into the work.

Weiskopf, lead singer for "The Complete Unknowns," will perform the music of Bob Dylan at a performance at the Bay Street Theater during HarborFest on Sept. 7 at 8 p.m.

"The Complete Unknowns" a popular Dylan tribute band, returns to Bay Street with some special guests for what has become an annual event celebrating Dylan's immense body of work.

"The band never runs out of material to mine from the catalog that has earned Bob Dylan so many awards, including a Nobel Prize," an announcement for the event said. "This year's program will feature songs spanning Mr. Dylan's six decade career and focusing on the three albums 'Planet Waves,' 'Blood on the Tracks,' and 'Desire,' plus other favorites that were essential to the Rolling Thunder tour of 1975 to 1976 recently documented in Martin Scorcese's Netflix film."

The Complete Unknowns, Weiskopf said, has been together for 12 years with largely the same musicians, including Weiskopf, as lead vocalist and also on harmonica and guitar, guitarist Randolph Hudson, keyboardist Stuart Sherman, vocalist Lauren Matzen, bass player Taka Shimizu, guitarist Klyph Black, and drummer James Benard. The show also features performances by guest artists.

"This kind of music is made to be played live," Weiskopf said.

The greatest challenge, Weiskopf said, is choosing songs. "There are so many great ones. We rotate them in and out, and we have a theme to every show."

Dylan, he said, seemed to "do a lot of thing in waves."

The three 1970s albums to be featured in the upcoming performance, Weiskopf said, were chosen "because they're seminal work that defines that period. Looking at Dylan is a lot like looking at Picasso. There are different periods."

The period highlighted at Bay Street is one that's pre-religious, before Dylan began focusing on gospel music. "There are hints of it in the songs," Weiskopf said. "There was a period where he was exploring new ways of communicating and leaving behind that wilder rock-and-roll sound."

Planning the shows, Weiskopf said, is a balance of what the band wants to perform, along with what diehard fans want to hear, as well as what people expect — the crowd pleasers that get even the most casual fans singing along.

Just as Shakespeare can be interpreted in myriad ways, so, too, can Dylan. "I've seen Bob Dylan more times than I can remember and I've never heard him do the same song in the same way twice. That's inspiring. It's not like some bands when you could just as well stay home and listen to the record," he said.

Dylan's music, Weiskopf said, is organic, and the band works seamlessly to keep it alive and evolving. "That's why it's hard to define this band," he said. "I don't like the term 'tribute band.' It connotes nostalgia and we're not about nostalgia. The songs today are as relevant as when they were written. That's why he won a Nobel prize."

While some songs from that era, such as protest songs, don't stand up to the test of time today, Dylan's songs, even the "finger pointing songs, as he called them," do, because they're more eternal, rather than about specific instances," Weiskopf said.

The lyrics resonate now, as then, he said.

Touring in Europe recently, Weiskopf said the music appealed to young audiences as well as the traditional older crowd.

This year's performance at Bay Street will mark the band's fourth appearance at the venue. "Each show is different, every song is different," he said.

But all have a common thread — a respect and love for Dylan that colors every show.

"Bob Dylan changed my life," Weiskopf said. "I'm not the only one. Bruce Springsteen said the same thing. Tom Petty."

Growing up in Brooklyn's east Flatbush, Weiskopf heard Dylan and was inspired.

"The best part about Brooklyn was the D train. It got me to West 4th Street in Greenwich Village, which was much more interesting than high school," he said.

Sitting on the wooden floor of the iconic Bleeker Bob's record store was the first time Weiskopf heard John Wesley, Jimi Hendrix. "Those were great days," he said.

His band, he said, has played at Cafe Wha?, where Dylan played his first gig. "To me, it's like a shrine, even though the sound isn't that good," Weiskopf said. "Underneath that floor, there are the same cockroaches." He laughed.

Dylan, he said, not only sold a lot of harmonicas — he lit the fire inside that led to Weiskopf's own career in music.

Living on the East End, Weiskopf met Hudson, the co-founder of the band, who said, "Why don't we do a Dylan thing?' I told him, 'You don't have to twist my arm.'"

The put together a gig at the Cutting Room in New York City and since then have played venues in Europe, across the United States, Long Island spots including Patchogue, Boston, and at BB King's in New York on Dylan's birthday every year until the club closed.

But Sag Harbor, he said, holds a special place in his heart. "At Bay Street, people get up and dance. It's amazing to me that the people get up and dance to Dylan, but they do."

To his East End audience, Weiskopf said the upcoming Bay Street show is the only one in the area this year — and tickets are selling fast.

Of Dylan, he said, "I'm devoted to his work." He even owns some of Dylan's original paintings. "He was transformational to me, to many of us. I guess that's why the work still holds up."

Tickets cost $25 or $35. To purchase, click here.