Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Some facts:
Dylan has played “Like A Rolling Stone” 2011times live
The guilty undertaker sighs
The lonesome organ grinder cries
The silver saxophones say I should refuse you
The cracked bells and washed-out horns
Blow into my face with scorn
But it’s not that way
I wasn’t born to lose you
I want you, I want you
I want you so bad
Honey, I want you
Some facts:
Dylan has played “I Want You” 214 times live
First time was in San Antonio, TX – May 11, 1976
Last performance: Vancouver, BC – Jul 20, 2005
Peak year: 1978 with 56 renditions
Here are five great live versions:
Westfalenhalle 1 Dortmund, West Germany 15 September 1987
Bob Dylan (vocal, guitar & harmonica)
Tom Petty (guitar)
Mike Campbell (guitar)
Benmont Tench (keyboards)
Howie Epstein (bass)
Stan Lynch (drums)
On this Dortmund tape you can hear an intro to “I Want You” that gathers such momentum as piano is joined by bass and then drum and then harmonica, that its energy and personality become unstoppable and can be felt throughout the song, in the spirit of the vocal and the way singer and musicians work together.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performance Artist 1986-1990 And Beyond (Mind Out Of Time)
Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there
Some facts:
Dylan has played “Not Dark Yet” 152 times live
First time was @ Columbus Civic Center, Columbus, Georgia – 30 October 1997
Last performance: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Connecticut – 8 September 2012
If you see her, say hello, she might be in Tangier
She left here last early Spring, is livin’ there, I hear
Say for me that I’m all right though things get kind of slow
She might think that I’ve forgotten her, don’t tell her it isn’t so
This brilliant song has been performed 88 times live by Dylan.
First performance: Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida – April 18, 1976
Last performance: Coveleski Stadium, South Bend, Indiana – July 4, 2009.
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
The whole world is a prison. Life is a prison, we’re all inside the body. Freedom only comes from knowledge and knowledge is power. So just because you’re out there in the desert, facing an endless sky and an unknown nothingness, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re free. You’re trapped in the desert. Only knowledge of either yourself or the ultimate power can get you out of it. I don’t know that much.
– Bob Dylan to Philip Fleishman (Feb. 1978)
Performances:
51 acoustic w band – top year 2001 (18 times)
28 acoustic – top year 1976 (27 times)
1 time as an instrumental in 1978
420 times w/band – top year 1978 (111 times)
First live performance: War Memorial Auditorium, Plymouth, Massachusetts – 30 October 1975.
