Meanderings on a very cold morning, by Tony Attwood
Looking at the list of songs Bob played in his last concert to date (that of 14 November 2024) it struck me that all the songs in that gig were songs that Bob had performed a couple of hundred times – or more. And “or more” is rather an important addition because the concert also included “It Ain’t Me Babe” which he has performed over 1000 times and “Watchtower” which of course has been played over 2000 times.
Then it was with no particular aim in mind that I started flipping through the list of songs Bob has performed live, and found the last song which Bob performed and which one might call an “outlier” was Mr Blue which suddenly turned up between June and September last year (2024).
And at this point I began to start pondering how these songs came to turn up suddenly – for example “Cold Cold Heart” was performed for the one and only time on 21 June 2024. Is it that someone Bob knows who is going to be in the audience that night asks for it? Or is the band sitting around and Bob says, “What can we play that is different?” Or….
I really would like to know, and if you have any thoughts on why a song suddenly has been performed on the tour, maybe just once, maybe a few times, and then vanished again, it would be interesting to know. Please do add a comment here, or if you want to write a whole article about such songs by all means do – and send me either the idea or a full article to Tony@schools.co.uk
There must be a story behind performances of songs like “Will the Circle be unbroken” that was played three times, for the first time in 1961 and the final time in 2019. The other performance was with Neil Young.
I mean it could just be a whim on Bob’s part, or it could be a member of the band or a fellow performer or friend suggesting it, or…. well I don’t know.
And thinking along these lines, there is also that vast list of songs Bob has never performed – indeed at a rough estimate I think something like half of the songs that Bob has either written or recorded have never been played by him in public.
Some of these I can understand – “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” for example would be hard to re-arrange, and if played pretty much as on the album, would really take the life and soul out of a concert. But then again John Wesley Harding has never been performed, and Bob chose to give the album that name.
In fact, as I look at the list of songs never performed by Bob there are so many I would love to have heard in concert. Songs like “No Time to Think” – not just because I like the song but because I think another arrangement could have been really interesting. But of course with that song, as with so many others, other artists have shown that yes indeed these songs can have a life beyond Bob’s version.
But there are also some that I would like to have heard live just because I love the songs so much – such as Angelina. And no, I don’t know a lady named Angelina (although I am always open to new friendships), it is just such a wonderful song. Of course I do recall I devoted a whole article to a cover of this song, but, well, maybe you weren’t reading Untold Dylan at the time, or maybe you have forgotten (it was a long time ago) so I have an excuse to include it again.
I am not quite sure where this meander of mine is going, but the fact that around half of the songs recorded by Bob have never been performed by Bob does give me pause for thought. Maybe if I were a lot younger and still in a band I might suggest we do an album of Dylan’s lost songs.
But I’m not, so I won’t. But I can still dream.