Bob Dylan: the final song of the final show

By Tony Attwood

As you may have noticed we have been publishing recordings of a few of Bob’s concerts from across the years (a list of these is given below).

And now the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour which started in 2021 seems to be over, finishing with Every Grain of Sand at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 14th November 2024.   Which gets some of us wondering…

The band for this final performance with Bob was Tony Garnier on bass, Jim Keltner on percussion, Bob Britt and Doug Lancio on guitar.

Bob has of course spent a career in doing the utterly unexpected, and so just as some people (to a large degree including myself) suspect this might be the end of all the tours, you never know.

And because of that we’ve taken a peek at what the official Dylan site has to say on the matter, and there we find this:

Watch this page on bobdylan.com for updates. All information is subject to change.

That’s it.  There is nothing else.

But if you want to go back through a few memorable moments there are of course countless recordings on the internet.  The recordings we have selected as being of particular interest 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
• Earls Court: 15 June 1978 in full.: the astonishing re-arrangements

However because for the moment at least, this seems to be the end of the last show, I thought it rather fitting to present just this final song of the final show, on its own, along with the lyrics.  And I do this particularly because it seems to me that reading these lyrics again, and hearing them through the recording above, if there is to be a planned final moment, then this is a perfect song to finish with.

But knowing Bob (at a distance of course, nothing more) and his music, I wouldn’t put it past him to watch the response to the last show, have a long rest, and then suddenly pop up again, doing something quite different…..

However I’ve no special insight on this, so all I can do is offer the last song of the last show (so far) with its lyrics of the last song….  For if there is a way to say goodbye, this is certainly as good as it can get.

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet floods every newborn seed
There's a dying voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and the morals of despair

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beams down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I'll always hear my name
Then onward in my journey, I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand