Dylan on Tour: concert recordings selected by Tony Attwood
In this series, I’m searching the internet for complete, or near-complete, recordings of Dylan concerts or rehearsals. In each case I’m not particularly concerned with the video – it is the music, and having a record of what it actually sounded like, rather than what commentators have said it sounded like or what it looked like, that interests me.
Sometimes the quality varies, but this time once more we are lucky. The recording really does give us a clear recollection of what the concert was all about.
The recordings we have had along the way in this series are
- Bob Dylan, Little Moses and the complete March 1992 concert
- What Dylan played on 7 July 2024, and how it sounded.
- The concert in full on 3 August 2024.
- Dylan and Petty, Australia 1986
- Manchester 1966, the full concert.
- The Carnegie Chapter Hall concert in full: 4 November 1961
- January 1976: the rehearsals
- Erfurt 8th October 2024
- 9 February 2002: Atlanta. Sublime
The Earls Court concert on 15 June 1978 was an extraordinary affair – as you will be able to see just from the set list of no less than 28 songs. But what comes across are the extraordinary arrangements – this is not a singer going through his “greatest hits” – this is a phenomenally complex re-writing of the catalogue as it existed at the time.
You may not like everything here; I personally don’t care for “I want you” as performed here, for example, as through the change of music the meaning is changed utterly.
Below is the set list – at least I think that’s it. I wrote this while listening to the gig and then found that a different list of songs from this gig has been published on the internet. So it is possible I got carried away listening and didn’t get this right – if so please tell me. But if I listen to the whole show again I’ll miss my lunch date….
- Hard Rain
- Love her with a feeling
- Baby Stop Crying
- Mr Tambourine Man
- Shelter from the Storm
- Love minus zero
- Tangled up in Blue
- Ballad of a Think Man
- Maggie’s Farm
- I don’t believe you
- Like a Rolling Stone
- I shall be released
- Going, going, gone
- Rainy Day Women
- One of us Must Know
- You’re a big girl now
- One more cup of coffee
- Blowin in the Wind
- I want you
- Senor
- Masters of War
- Just like a woman
- Oh Sister
- All along the watchtower
- All I really want to do
- It’s all right ma
- Forever young
- Times they are a-changing.
If you were there, I suspect you are still living this night. If not – here’s a word of warning. This is two hours of utter, sublime brilliance, and it is hard to take it all in, in one playing (and that of course assumes you have two hours to spare). But if not you might like to go to the 1 hour 29 minute marker and listen to “Oh Sister”. Just to get a sense of what is to come. At least even after sitting here listening to this, at the moment of hearing that, I was utterly knocked out.
Have fun.
I’ve got a ticket from the first night (Thursday 15th) if you want one scanned. In fact I have one for each night – was working in London at the time and managed every show (and Blackbushe a month later). GREAT to hear it in such clarity!