This series of remarkable articles complete with audios from the concerts is written by Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet), and charts Dylan’s continuing tour with musical examples throughout.
In each case the mainstays of the tour are listed, with an example of each song taken from one of the concerts in the tour. We believe this is the only collection that has ever undertaken this massive task.
These articles have been published thus far, with more in the pipeline, working in chronological order.
- The Never-Ending Tour: 1987 – Farewell to all that
- 1988: Desperate stratagems, Part 1: Heroes and Villains
- 1988 Part 2: The 60s revisited
- 1988 Part 3: Absolutely still on the road
- 1989 Part 1: A sharper edge
- 1989 Part 2 – A fire in the sun
- 1989 Part 3: Blown out on the trail
- 1990 Part 1: Vomiting Fire
- 1990 Part 2 – Songs of love, songs of betrayal
- 1991: Part 1 Hidden Gems in a Train Wreck – The Undesirables
- 1991 Part 2 – Feet walking by themselves
- 1991 part 3: King of the unsteady
- 1992 part 1: Heading for the promised land
- 1992 part 2: What good am I
- 1992 part 3 – All the friends I ever had are gone
- 1993 part 1 – Tangled up in guitars
- 1993, part 2 – The epic adventures of Mr Guitar Man
- 1993, part 3 – Mr Guitar Man goes acoustic
- 1993, part 4 – The Supper Club and beyond.
- 1993, part 5 – A series of dreams
- 1994, part 1 – Full voice absolute vintage Dylan
- 1994, part 2 – Greatest ever Hard Rain
- 1994, part 3 – Absolutely Vintage Dylan, Encore
- 1994, part 4: I’d give you the sky high above
- 1994, part 5: Dancing to the nightingale’s tune
- 1995, part 1: The Prague Revelation and other astonishments
- 1995, part 2: The Prague Revelation – Salt for Salt, Peak Prague
- 1995, Part 3, The Prague Revelation – down in the flood
- 1995, Part 4, Beyond Prague, London Calling
- 1995, Part 5. Acoustic wonderland
- Never Ending Tour, 1996, part 1. Busy being born. With Al Kooper in Liverpool
- Never Ending Tour, 1996, Part 2 – More Liverpool
- Never Ending Tour 1996 part 3: Berlin and Beyond
- Never Ending Tour, 1997, part 1. The Lonely Graveyards of the Mind
- Never Ending Tour 1997, part 2: Hanging onto a Shadow
- Never Ending Tour 1997, part 3: I came in from the wilderness
- Never Ending Tour 1997, part 4: Like so many times before
- NET 1998 Part 1: One who sings with his tongue on fire.
- 1998 Part 2: Friends and other strangers
- The Never Ending Tour 1998, part 3, What’s a Protest Song?
- Never ending tour, 1998, Part 4. You won’t regret it
- NET, 1999, Part 1: Every night in a combustible way.
- Never Ending Tour, 1999, part 2 – Is everything as hollow as it seems?
- NET, 1999, part 3 Touchdown at Tramps – Archaic Music
- Never Ending Tour, 1999, Part 4 – Minstrel Bob
- Never Ending Tour, 1999, part 5 – Inside the museum.
- NET, 1999, part 6. Honky Tonk Dylan: Despair and sentimentality.
- Never Ending Tour 2000, Part 1 – Master Vocalist: Finding voice
- NET, 2000, Part 2. Master Vocalist – Please heed these words that I speak
- NET 2000 Part 3: Master Vocalist – Rock n roil
- NET 2000 Part 4: Back to Bedrock I
- NET 2000 Part 5: Back to Bedrock II
- Never Ending Tour, 2000, part 6 – Beyond Dylan
- Never Ending Tour, 2001, Part 1 – Love and fate: acoustic 1
- Never Ending Tour, 2001 Part 2 – The Spirit of Protest: acoustic 2
- Never Ending Tour, 2001, Part 3 – In bed with the blues
- Never Ending Tour, 2001, Part 3 – In bed with the blues
- Never Ending Tour, 2001, Part 4 – Down Electric Avenue
- NET, 2001, Part 5: Power, Wealth, Knowledge and Salvation
- NET 2001 Part 6: More power, wealth, knowledge and salvation
- 2002, Part 1: Never Ending Tour, 2002,, Seattle Showdown
- Part 2 Tickling the Ivories
- Part 3: Manchester and other outstanding performances
- Part 4: Magnificent performances
- Part 5: Accidentally friends and other strangers
- Part 6: Atlanta Aftermath and Manchester Moonshine
- NET, 2003, Part One. Things come alive or else they fall flat
- 2003 part 2: Pounding pianos and hectic harps
- 2003, part 3:I know I’m only living
- 2003, part 4: No flash in the pan
- 2003, part 5: Can there be a perfect performance?
- 2003, part 6: The Ragged Clown
- 2004: Part 1: The best singing audience
- 2004: Part 2: The jazz connection
- Never Ending Tour, 2004, part 3, Harping On
- Never Ending Tour, 2004, Part 4 More jazz, regulars and rarities
- NET 2004 Part 5: Rocking on
- Never Ending Tour 2004 part 6: Stone you and then come back again
- NET, 2004, part 7 Epilogue: Sing me back home
- Never Ending Tour 2005 part 1: Choice cuts from London and Dublin
- Never Ending Tour 2005 part 2: More choice cuts from London and Dublin.
- Never Ending Tour 2005 part 3: Seattle Stopovers
- NET, 2005, Part 4, Hello, Goodbye: First Ever, Last Ever
- NET 2005, part 5: Old friends grow old too
- Never Ending Tour, 2005, Part 6: God knows you gotta weep
- The Never Ending Tour 2005 part 7: Epilogue. Tell Ol’ Bill and other matters
- Never Ending Tour, 2006, Part 1, Enter The Organ Grinder
- Never Ending Tour, 2006, Part 2, Enter Modern Times
- Never Ending Tour, 2006, Part 3. Walking through the Cities of the plague
- Never Ending Tour 2006, Part 4. Strange Brews
- NET 2007 Part 1: The light is never dying.
- Never Ending Tour, 2007, part 2: Your servant both night and day.
- NET, 2007, Part 3, One foot on the platform
You might also like to note…
Dylan and T.S Elliot meeting in the Captain’s Tower
And… Mike’s previous mega-series for Untold Dylan: Bob Dylan Master Harpist contains six articles which between them offer the most comprehensive guide to Dylan’s harmonica techniques ever assembled.
Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet) is a novelist and poet, born and raised in shit-faced little towns in the South Island of New Zealand. He graduated with a degree in Political Science from the University of Canterbury, and a sore head from too much educated rap. He has also contributed the major series to this site.