Category Archives: Bob Dylan Concerts

Bob Dylan – Farm Aid 1985 – True Confession Tour part1 (Videos)

bob dylan tome petty farm aid 1985

“Still, Live Aid and Farm Aid are fantastic things, but then musicians have always done things like that. When people want a benefit, you don’t see them calling dancers or architects or lawyers or even politicians – the power of music is that it has always drawn people together”
~Bob Dylan (to Mikal Gilmore – Sept 1985)

To kick-off this series of posts about the “True Confessions Tour”, I need to start the year before.. in 1985.

Dylan (together with Keith Richards & Ronnie Wood) did one of his worst live performances ever at the “Live Aid” concert @ the JFK stadium in Philadelphia on 13 July 1985. All three were drunk & they couldn’t hear themselves because the stage monitors had been switched off.

The Ballad of Hollis Brown – Live Aid 1985:

We were sabotaged, in some kind of way. There was no way we could really perform there. It’s difficult to play if you can’t hear.
~Bob Dylan (to Bob Brown – about the performance)

Continue reading Bob Dylan – Farm Aid 1985 – True Confession Tour part1 (Videos)

Bob Dylan – Troy, New York 27 October 1989 (Videos)

bob dylan 1989

Here we have a good 89-concert from the “Fall US 89 tour”.

#5 – I Want You

Houston Fieldhouse
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York
27 October 1989

  1.  Gotta Serve Somebody
  2. What Good Am I?
  3. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
  4. Lenny Bruce
  5. I Want You
  6. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
  7. Highway 61 Revisited
  8. Mama, You Been On My Mind
  9. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
  10. To Ramona
  11. It Ain’t Me, Babe
  12. Everything Is Broken
  13. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
  14. My Back Pages
  15. I’ll Remember You
  16. I Shall Be Released
  17. Like A Rolling Stone
  18. Disease Of Conceit
  19. Maggie’s Farm
  • 8-11 Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar), G.E. Smith (guitar)
  • 1, 18 Bob Dylan piano
  • 2, 5, 8, 10, 11 Bob Dylan harmonica.

Band:

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • G. E. Smith (guitar)
  • Tony Garnier (bass)
  • Christopher Parker (drums)

#8 – Mama, You Been On My Mind

The Never Ending Tour 1989 started in Sweden with a performance at Christinehof’s Slottspark on May 22. This was only the fourth time that Dylan had performed in Sweden. He then performed in Finland, his second performance there, before returning to Sweden. He then performed two concerts in Dublin, Ireland, the first time that he had performed there since 1965. Dylan then performed in Glasgow, Scotland his second only performance in the country. The first being in 1966. After performing concerts in Birmingham and London Dylan performed in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, Dylan performed three concerts in Spain, four in Italy, a single concert in Turkey and two concerts in Greece.
After finishing the European tour Dylan returned to the United States performing at many of the same venues that he had performed in the year before, on the first year of the Never Ending Tour. Dylan continued to perform in the United States and Canada until November 15.

Wikipedia

Go ’way from my window
Leave at your own chosen speed
I’m not the one you want, babe
I’m not the one you need
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Never weak but always strong
To protect you an’ defend you
Whether you are right or wrong
Someone to open each and every door
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe

#11 – It Ain’t Me Babe

Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital District. The city is one of the three major centers for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which has a population of 850,957. At the 2010 census, the population of Troy was 50,129. Troy’s motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means “Ilium was, Troy is”.
Troy is known as the Collar City due to its history in shirt, collar, and other textile production. At one point Troy was also the second largest producer of iron in the country, surpassed only by the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Rensselaer School, which later became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was founded in 1824 with funding from Stephen Van Rensselaer, a descendant of the founding patroon, Kiliaen. In 1821, Emma Willard founded the Troy Female Seminary on 2nd Street, which moved to its current location on Pawling Avenue in 1910. It was renamed Emma Willard School in 1895. The former Female Seminary was later reopened (1916) as Russell Sage College, thanks to funding fromOlivia Slocum Sage, the widow of financier and Congressman Russell Sage. All of these institutions still exist today.troy new yorkHouston Field House is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. It is the nation’s third-oldest hockey rink, behind Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena and Princeton University’s Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. Further, it is the second-oldest arena in the ECAC Hockey League, behind Princeton’s rink. Until the opening of the Times Union Center in Albany in 1990, it was the largest arena in the Capital Region.hudson field house troyWikipedia

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

#14 – My Back Pages

They say ev’rything can be replaced
Yet ev’ry distance is not near
So I remember ev’ry face
Of ev’ry man who put me here
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

#16 – I Shall Be Released

Check out:

-Egil

Bob Dylan – Parc de Sceaux – Paris, France – 1 July 1984

bob dylan 1984

And yet to have been present at the best of the 1984 shows (Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, Offenbach), particularly if one was somewhere towards the front of the sea of humanity, able to see the man and hear him, must have been an unforgettable experience. Here is Dylan offering himself – through his singing; he does almost no talking between songs – openly and enthusiastically and warmly.
… Paris (July 1) is my favorite show of the tour (based on the tapes).
~Paul Williams (BD Performing artist 1974-86)

Great 1984 show.

Concert #23 of the 1984 Europe Tour.

Check out -> Bob Dylan concerts @ JV

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”

#3 – All Along The Watchtower

Continue reading Bob Dylan – Parc de Sceaux – Paris, France – 1 July 1984

Bob Dylan – Old Orchard Beach, Maine – 3 July 1988

bob dylan maine 1988 3

Another great 1988 concert… and (again) fantastic sound quality….

  • Concert # 18 of The Never-Ending Tour
  • Concert # 18 of the Interstate 88 Tour, part 1: Summer Tour of North America
  • First Never Ending Tour performance of To Ramona

Check out -> Bob Dylan concerts @ JV

bob dylan maine 1988 2

 

‘Twas in the town of [Jacksboro] in the year of ’73
When a well-known, famous drover came a-steppin’ up to me
Saying, How do you do, young cowboy, and how’d you like to go
And spend the summer pleasantly on the trail of the buffalo

#9 – Trail Of The Buffalo (trad. arr. Woody Guthrie)

Early one mornin’ the sun was shinin’
I was layin’ in bed
Wond’rin’ if she’d changed at all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama’s homemade dress
Papa’s bankbook wasn’t big enough
And I was standin’ on the side of the road
Rain fallin’ on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues gettin’ through
Tangled up in blue

#2 Tangled Up In Blue

Continue reading Bob Dylan – Old Orchard Beach, Maine – 3 July 1988

Bob Dylan – Barcelona, Spain – 28 June 1984

bob dylan barcelona 1984

Good 84-concert.

Concert #21 of the 1984 Europe Tour.

Dylan performed “Lay, Lady, Lay” for the first time since Salt Lake City, Utah, May 25, 1976.

Check out -> Bob Dylan concerts @ JV

bob dylan barcelona 1984 tickett

Standing on the waters casting your bread
While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing
Distant ships sailing into the mist
You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing
Freedom just around the corner for you
But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?

#2 – Jokerman

Setlist

  1. Highway 61 Revisited
  2. Jokerman
  3. All Along The Watchtower
  4. Just Like A Woman
  5. Maggie’s Farm
  6. I And I
  7. License To Kill
    Greg Sutton: I’ve Got To Use My Imagination (Gerry Goffin & Barry Goldberg)
  8. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
  9. It Ain’t Me, Babe
  10. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
  11. Simple Twist Of Fate
  12. Masters Of War
  13. Ballad Of A Thin Man
  14. Enough Is Enough
  15. Every Grain Of Sand
  16. Lay Lady Lay
  17. Like A Rolling Stone
  18. Mr. Tambourine Man
  19. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
  20. Girl From The North Country
  21. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
  22. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
  23. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  24. Tombstone Blues
  25. Blowin’ In The Wind

Musicians:

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • Mick Taylor (guitar)
  • Ian McLagan (keyboards)
  • Greg Sutton (bass)
  • Colin Allen (drums).

8-10, 18-20 Bob Dylan solo (vocal & guitar).
4, 9, 18 Bob Dylan harmonica.
21-25 Carlos Santana (guitar)

Been so long since a strange woman has slept in my bed
Look how sweet she sleeps, how free must be her dreams
In another lifetime she must have owned the world, or been faithfully wed
To some righteous king who wrote psalms beside moonlit streams

#6 – I & I

Continue reading Bob Dylan – Barcelona, Spain – 28 June 1984