This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration" is a live album recorded in 1992 in recognition of Bob Dylan's 30 years as a recording artist.(To think, it is 50 years now.)
Recorded on October 16, 1992 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the album captured most of the concert, with Booker T. and the MG's as the hosue band and long-time "Saturday Night Live" bandleader G. E. Smith as the musical director.
The album featured many stars performing Dylan songs, including Neil Young, George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Tom Petty, among many others.
But the best performance of the night belonged to two young men named Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready whose rendition of Dylan's "Masters of War" dwarfed the original with its intensity. Smith added his mandolin to the performance.
Pearl Jam wasn't a house-hold name at the time, but the performance was galvanizing, regardless of how we all felt about past, current and future wars. It also served as the meeting place for Neil Young and the two members of Pearl Jam, who years later would record one of Young's most under-rated albums, "Mirror Ball."
I remember listening to this performance over and over again on the way to Adolfo Camarillo High School, me in the shotgun and a friend at the helm of his old pick-up. It helped sustain a long love for the band and Dylan, which continue to this day. "Masters of War" was a track on the first Dylan I ever owned.