Artist still spinning old hits in new ways

The last time Bob Dylan played in Columbus — spring 2015 — he rummaged through a 50-year-old songbook, saving the Sinatra-associated classics from his newest album for the end. It felt like a review of his career, the melancholy tunes representing its autumn turning to winter.

Sunday night in the Palace Theatre, he sprinkled five of those old chestnuts into the entire set, beginning with “Why Try To Change Me Now.” Dylan left his post behind the piano for all of them, playfully gesturing during the first as he tilted the mic stand from behind. For a time, the old songs seemed to make him feel young and romantic.

The two originals that came before, though, actually came from his youth. “It Ain’t Me Babe” was retooled with a shuffle beat; and though “Highway 61 Revisited” was not so far from the original, Dylan fairly narrated the morality tale.

The songwriter has continually changed directions for most of his 57-year career. He has reconstructed his material, especially the early hits, for so long that the question no longer is if he will change something, so much as how he will.

At 76, Dylan still can’t be tied down.

Sunday night’s show was a feast of reinvention, a few songs completely unrecognizable without their telltale lyrics. “Tangled Up In Blue” was one of the most radical, its painful first person memories taking on the tone of distant recollection.

Between all the songs the band created a fussy cacophony that made each transition something like scene changes in a play and allowed the songbook to tell a story. As the old cover songs wore on, they became more remorseful, finishing with “Autumn Leaves.” Dylan ended the set proper with “Love Sick,” the only original delivered standing at the mic. The dirge instantly took its place among the sad old songs and provided dramatic closure.