The thing is that MK has made and continues to make enough money that he no longer has to make decisions based on money-making criteria. That is not to say that he is not interested in the success, financially or otherwise, of what he does currently but it does mean that he can do what just he wants to do and just when he wants to do it, that the financial considerations are not the prime motivator. There may be pressures from his recording company and so on but I suggest that these weigh less heavily these days.
My conclusion is that the songs he is writing now and the sorts of albums he is making are simply what he wants to do now - but that may change. Indeed, I would hope that it does change.
My concern is that many AMITers hark back to the DS days, seen almost as a golden era. Take it from someone who knows (I am a Dylan fan after all), get over it. That person, that MK, has moved on. Enjoy the music for what it was then and for what it means to you now. Enjoy it for it meant to you then and for its ability to take you back to your younger days but always remember, nobody can go back in time.
Who knows, maybe MK will reform a version of DS at some future point in time (maybe not) but, if he did and even if the music sounded exactly the same as it did back then, it would not be the same. Both you and the musicians would have changed. You would be different people. In my view, it would all be rather sad. At least you get an MK who does play DS songs with something that, to some degree, at least approximates a DS sound (to my "illiterate" ears, anyway).
If you have followed Bob Dylan over a long period of time as I have (and I first saw him live in 1965), change is about the only thing you can depend - and rightly so - and often the changes have been very abrupt. It is as though, when he makes a step change, he takes ona wholly different personality. He has chopped and changed his style, his demeanour, his outlook, his frame of reference and so many other aspects of his perfomances, so many times, that just keeping up has not always been easy. Each time, you either accept it or you don't. MK's musical development has been a touch slower in pace, more controlled one could say, more considered and deliberate perhaps, a steadier evolution from what he was to what he is now. In that sense, he moves on but still retains some attachment to what has gone before. Enjoy it for what it is.
For me, with a few exceptions, I can't even tell you which of MK's songs, as performed live, come from the DS days and which from his post-DS days and that's a very good thing. It means his doing he's job properly. I have to admit that I can't readily tell you which song comes from which album. I just enjoy, them or not, as I sit and listen - or stand and listen.
If MK chose to do his next tour (should I get to attend any shows) made up entirely or substantially of songs from the new album, I wouldn't be listing the old songs that I wished he had played. I would trying to get into the new songs, as best I am able, given I don't have the same level of keeness that most of you have.
In the words of our American cousins, get with the programme.
