I saw him do an acoustic version in the late 80s that was incredible as well.
I’ll check it out - I was watching the version I think from No Direction Home - a young Dylan singing Visions while on tour in England. The drawing out of the words is obviously something Dylan clearly had in mind in writing and interpreting this song. You can tell it never happens by accident - it’s something that he very deliberately does. I think it’s a Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse thing to go along with the artistic nature of the song. Dylan is distorting, bending, shaping, twisting and elongating words, just as the modern painters got away from representational art as a means of getting to a deeper emotional truth.