The event was indoors, the capacity not even a thousand, but Majaw in his trademark shorts and others made environs and numbers irrelevant as they belted out Dylan numbers, ranging from The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest and My Back Pages to Tambourine Man, Forever Young and Blowing In The Wind.

THE evening before the concert, Majaw and gang meandered through their long love affair with Dylan’s music at The Shillong Club. The USP of Dylan’s music is probably its range, covering both style and issues, making it mean different things to different people. For Nondon Bagchi, it’s Dylan’s musical and songwriting prowess that appeals. ‘‘Look at his 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited. With tracks like Maggie’s Farm and She Belongs To Me, it has pedigree as a composition. It grabbed us as 15-year-olds.’’

Anjan Dutt says Dylan’s music hit him at a time when Kolkata was going through the turbulent ’70s. ‘‘Big changes were happening in Bengal then, student movement was on the rise. I connected through Dylan with the turmoil going on in my city. I love to write ballads, about people, and I’ve been trying to translate Dylan into Bengali. My singles Shunte Ki Chao (What would you like to hear?) is an adaptation of Tambourine Man. Even while playing Bengali songs at concerts, there would invariably be requests for a Dylan number. It may seem strange, but we’d break into a Dylan number in English in front of a hardcore Bengali audience.’’

But for Majaw, the man who has put Shillong on the international map as a Dylan tribute destination, says he has only respect and admiration for the man. ‘‘I have been playing music since 1955. I was playing with the band Oracle Bones when I came across Dylan through a record. His unique voice and lyrical depth got me hooked. The idea behind the first birthday celebration and this latest one as well is to inject the fuel of education.’’

... contd.