Set List update: What Dylan played on 7 July 2024, and how it sounded

By Tony Attwood

Bob is of course always touring, and I thought it might be interesting to have a look at what he has recently been playing.  So I have chosen the show on 7 July 2024 in Hershy Pennsylvania, for no particular reason other than the set list was available along with a full recording of the concert.

You can see the whole show here

The set starts with Highway 61 Revisited, a fairly standard approach to the song which is a fair way to get the band going and make sure everything is working ok.  It just has the slowdown ending which is a surprise if you’ve not taken it in before.

Then by contrast we have Shooting Star which is half sung half spoken, held together by a very solid drum beat.  It is now up to 136 live performances.  There’s a harmonica solo, but the start of it seems to have difficulty with the microphone.

Love Sick which follows is getting on for 1000 performances and it continues the downbeat approach, and once again we have a lot of the song declaimed rather than sung.  When I watch the video an advert pops up which is annoying, but if you want a complete concert there may be another copy around on the internet that will deliver the show without ads.

Bob then seemingly wishes Ringo Starr happy birthday, before bouncing along with Little Queenie – the Chuck Berry song.  Here’s the original if you want a diversion

Next up it is Mr. Blue. It’s not a song I’m familiar with but the internet tells me “”MrBlue” is a popular song written by DeWayne Blackwell that was a hit for The Fleetwoods, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1959″

So then after this break away from Dylan compositions, we have Early Roman Kings another song with over 500 live performances by Bob, and once more with a lot of declaiming in the vocal line.

Can’t Wait which follows is another tour favourite with over 200 performances, and this is one song that we have here that is performed in an utterly different way from that which we heard on the original album.  And just in case you can’t immediately bring the original to mind, here it is by way of contrast.

For me the sung version is more interesting.

And it is noticeable that the declaiming approach continues with “Under the Red Sky”  It’s an interesting song to choose with this treatment.  After all the lyrics are not ones that many people would put at the top of the list of their Dylan favourites…

There was a little boy and there was a little girlAnd they lived in an alley under the red skyThere was a little boy and there was a little girlAnd they lived in an alley under the red sky

There was an old man and he lived in the moonOne summer's day he came passing byThere was an old man and he lived in the moonAnd one day he came passing by

It may well be that there is an interview with Bob where he explains what songs he chooses for a tour, and if you know one, perhaps could you point me towards it.  I would love to get an insight into how he’s been choosing these particular songs.

But then in total contrast to the rural idyll nature of that song we have the ultra-challenging “Things Have Changed”.  There’s a fair amount of re-arranging of the song here to accommodate Bob’s approach of declaiming rather than singing in the concert.  So we have the 12 bar format with the varied end of each verse.

And I do find this an interesting and enjoyable re-working which certainly makes for an extraordinary contrast with Stella Blue – the Grateful Dead song.  And again in case you are not familiar with it, here is the original.

This is followed by “Six Days on the Road” which became a hit for Dave Dudley as a country song.  I am not quite sure why I remember it, but I certainly do, and I think it was the Dave Dudley version I recall, rather than the later re-release by Sawyer Brown.

There was also a country version by Paul Davis which is available on line here.

But then we come back to Bob’s songs with “Soon after Midnight” which has now knocked up well over 400 performances in the last dozen years.

After this we jump way back in time to Ballad of a Thin Man which began life in 1965 and is now, according to the official site at 1263 performances, making it the sixth most performed song by Dylan.  The only songs performed more often are Watchtower (of course), Like a Rolling Stone, Highway 61, Tangled up in Blue and Blowing in the Wind.

“Thin Man” brings with it a real intensity, and it is a song that is clearly suited to the sort of declaiming approach that Bob is now using instead of singing the melodies, and it seems somehow very appropriate as we’re getting close to the end now.

Next is Simple Twist of Fate – a real contrast to Mr Jones – and here I must admit to a disappointment that we get the recited slow version, as I really do love the song in its original glory.  The harmonica solo is however really worth listening to,… but it is not played by Bob.   Indeed when have we ever heard him play like this.   But the various harmonica solos in this performance really are among the highlights of the show…

So what will Bob end up with?  It’s I’ll be your baby tonight – at a very slow speed.  It does then become a rocker of sorts working its way through the chord sequence until that suddenly stops and we get the coda.

I am not sure this version really matches the lyrics “Kick your shoes off – do not fear, Bring that bottle over here, I’ll be your baby tonight” but I think again maybe in a sense it does.

The fact is that we don’t get melodies any more, but we get Bob on stage, and that is still something worth appreciating.

 

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