The Never Ending Tour Extended: I don’t believe you (she acts like we never have met)

I don’t know what it means either: an index to the current series appearing on this website.

The Never Ending Tour Extended: This series uses recordings selected by Mike Johnson in his inestimable masterpiece The Never Ending Tour, and looks at how those performances of individual songs change as time goes by. The selection of songs from the series, and the commentary below, are by Tony Attwood.

I Don’t Believe You (She acts like we never have met) appeared on “Another Side of Bob Dylan) and was performed by Bob 349 times between 1964 and 2013. Which as noted in the commentary below means that the song was approaching 50 years of age by the time Bob finally put it to rest. An extraordinary achievement.

And not for the first time do I find myself reflecting on how much poorer my life would be, and how much shallower my understanding of Bob Dylan’s work would be, if we didn’t have a) these recordings and b) Mike’s extraordinary work in putting them together for the Never Ending Tour series.

In the case of “I don’t believe you” (and I’ll use the first half of the song’s title here just for simplicity) my thought is that from the start Bob was trying to find ways to do something different with the song from the way it appeared on the album, but perhaps not always as successfully as we might wish. However by the time of the final performances in 2013 a real fondness for the old piece was really there, and it does sound to me as if he knows he is saying goodbye to a friend who had been there for much of his life.

But let’s go back to the earlier times… And as I say, although the song was written in 1964, for the purposes of the NET we pick it up when it was already 30 years old.

1994 Absolutely Vintage Dylan, Encore

This version sounds to me like one of those moments on the tour when Bob wanted to do something different with the song but couldn’t quite find. The vocals start out plaintive and gentle but then there is the curious singing of a note at the end of the last two lines of the first verse which doesn’t fit the chord.

Indeed I get the feeling that this version is all about the sound, not the lyrics, for lots of the words are not clear, but there is a huge amount of interweaving of different musical lines as the performance progressed. And although the song is so sad it is now played with a jolly beat which contrasts with the clash of the last note Dylan sings in many lines. But there is a lovely expressive guitar instrumental break half way through. And around the 6 minutes 15 seconds mark we do get a moment of peaceful reflection before all the instruments get entwined and then slow down.

1995: The Prague Revelation – down in the flood

But now within a year we have a slower more plaintive version with a much sader voice, and with hints of those slightly strange melodic changes which don’t fit with the chords. Does this express the disharmony which is the heart of the commentary of the song? It is now a seven minute song, but is it? In the instrumental break the organ is also occasionally playing chords that don’t exactly fit. Plaintive it is, but also a display of disharmony, at least until we approach the final minute of the performance

2002: Manchester and other outstanding performances

So this is seven years on and now although it is a little hard to hear on this recording we open with a harmonica, and then Bob declaiming the lyrics rather than singing them. I quite like this – at least more than his work of singing notes that are outside the melody itself. This is Bob the story teller. And it is consistent throughout the song. It is prolonged as heart break and breakups often are, but also has a relaxed gentle instrumental section. All told it sounds as if the singer has come to terms with her change of attitude.

2009: Contending forces: through the tears and the laughter

Now we have more emphasis on the percussion, and just when I thought it could not get sadder we have an even sadder voice. To me this is almost as if he is now blaming her more than before. And musically I get the feeling that he is deliberately trying to find something new to do with the song without losing the style that he has adopted through out.

Butfor me that is when it doesn’t work so well. Dylan re-writes are at their best when they flow naturally as an alternative version of the song. This sounds to me like a deliberate attempt to find a new musical angle.

But then… there is the prolonged harmonica solo, which redeems everything and by the end I find I’ve forgiven Dylan for all his meanderings.

Also I find it interesting that seven years after the previous recording there are still similarities. What was at first an unappealing version becomes one that I rather like.

2010: Fires on the Moon

And now suddenly we have a version that is much stronger in its approach – it was also a moment when Dylan gets out the harmonica for the first time in the evening. The beat is now a central point of the performance. And suddenly the whole song has got a lot shorter.

2013 Shedding old Favourites: A Roman Farewell.

“A Roman Farewell” as with all the titles of each section in this article, are the titles Mike gave to his complete article. But this does also apply to this song. We are just about at the end of the live performances of this piece 49 years on from the first outing. And yes it still stands up to the test of time.

Other articles in this series…

I don’t know what it means either: an index to the current series appearing on this website.

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