This series looks at 23 songs Dylan could be induced to play, and the reasons why, with musical examples.
by mr tambourine
12. A Painter Passing Through
Yet another Lightfoot song, but the one Dylan has never performed before.
The reason why I think this is a likely candidate is simply because Dylan seems to be very
interested in painting the last decade or so. Not only are his paintings part of different
exhibitions around the world, but some of the songs of the current set seem to mention
painting, the most obvious one being “When I Paint My Masterpiece” (by the way, a song
covered by the Grateful Dead over the years many times), but also the song “I Contain
Multitudes” features the lyric “I paint landscapes and I paint nudes”.
11. Queen Jane Approximately
With Shadow Kingdom finally getting released on June 2, which was the same date that the European tour kicked off, this song becomes a likely candidate as well. Especially since we know that the Grateful Dead has also covered this song many times over. Not only that, but it must’ve been the Grateful Dead who helped convince Dylan to play this song live in the first place in 1987.
10. Don Quixote
Another Lightfoot song that I’m putting on the list because of a deeper meaning.
Don Quixote is obviously a book by Miguel De Cervantes. Bob mentioned Don Quixote in his Nobel Prize audio speech, one of many books he brought up or referenced.
Miguel De Cervantes is usually associated with William Shakespeare, which Bob also
references a lot, and is even being compared to most of the time. Obviously, Cervantes and
Shakespeare passed away not only in the same year, but on the very same day. Cervantes,
may I add, passed away in Madrid.
They both passed away in 1616, which was 400 years exactly before Bob won the Nobel
prize. So a lot of parallels exist here. Not sure if Bob is aware of them and if that is enough for him to attempt this song at all.
9. Love Minus Zero, No Limit
I simply chose this song because it’s another rare cover of a Dylan song that Lightfoot has
done, and only live, never in the studio, if my research is correct.
Dylan has last performed this song in 2012, the same year he last played Delia and
Shadows, songs I brought up on the list.
8. I’m Not Supposed To Care
Another Lightfoot song, but this is the one that Dylan used to do in 1998 a few times only.
Dylan has even performed this song more recently than even Lightfoot did, as he last played it in 1987.
https://youtu.be/KvAS8f9P0CQ
7. The Wicked Messenger
I mention this one for the exact same reasons I mentioned Queen Jane Approximately. The Grateful Dead helped convinced Bob to play this one in the first place, and it’ll be released on Shadow Kingdom soon.
The final selection will follow shortly.