CBS records this concert. A PA recording of the acoustic half of the show is subsequently widely bootlegged. The extant tape features “Visions of Johanna,” “Fourth Time Around,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” “Desolation Row,” “Just Like a Woman,” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” (but not “She Belongs to Me,” presumably performed). Although the acoustic set seems to be well received, the audience is hostile throughout the electric set. One review of the show is headlined “Night of the Big Let Down.” According to Robbie Robertson, some of the audience were even holding up placards saying “Stop the War.” A recording of “I Don’t Believe You” from the electric set is eventually released on the Biograph set, incorrectly assigned to Belfast.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
Queens Wharf Events Centre Arena
Wellington, New Zealand
24 February 2003
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bill Burnette (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
Nice version with some fine keyboard playing by our man.
Rockhal
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg 21 October 2011
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
)
