Bob Dylan: As I look back on it now, I am surprised that I came up with so many of them. At the time it seemed like a natural thing to do. Now I can look back and see that I must have
written those songs “in the spirit,” you know? Like “Desolation Row” – I was just thinkin’ about that the other night. There’s no logical way that you can arrive at lyrics like that. I don’t know how it was done.
KL: It just came to you?
BD: It just came out through me.
~Bob Dylan – Kurt Loder interview, Oct 1987
–
“Desolation Row” also focuses on scene, but in a more purposeful way: the images build up powerfully, propelled by the vocal and instrumental performances. The song makes a statement: this scene is important, it needs·to be paid attention to, there is a reality in this life which may not be cheerful but which, once discovered, shows everything else to be a
pose. Desolation Row” is an anthem; it proclaims and forever defines a certain place, certain state of being… ..And finally I can say about “Desolation Row” only that I am in awe of it.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973
Performances:
- 262 times acoustic w/ band – top year 2000 (42 times)
- 19 times acoustic – top year – top year 1966 (13 times)
- 166 times w/band – top year 2011 (32 times)
– - First performance: Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, New York – Aug 28, 1965
- Last performance: Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena, Vancouver – July 25, 2017
First known performance: Forest Hills, NY, August 28, 1965
Last known performance: Empire Polo Club, Indio, California -14 October 2016
Forest Hills, NY, August 28, 1965:
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
Cinderella, she seems so easy
“It takes one to know one,” she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning
“You Belong to Me I Believe”
And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place my friend
You better leave”
And the only sound that’s left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row
Valby Hallen
Copenhagen, Denmark
21 September 1987
- Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
- Tom Petty (guitar)
- Mike Campbell (guitar)
- Benmont Tench (keyboards)
- Howie Epstein (bass)
- Stan Lynch (drums)
Now the moon is almost hidden
The stars are beginning to hide
The fortune-telling lady
Has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love
Or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing
He’s getting ready for the show
He’s going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation RowNow Ophelia, she’s ’neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic
She wears an iron vest
Her profession’s her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Noah’s great rainbow
She spends her time peeking
Into Desolation Row
Check out:
Cardiff International Centre Arena
Cardiff, Wales
27 March 1995
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row
NEC Arena
National Exhibition Center
Birmingham, England
24 June 1998
Musicians:
- Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
- Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
- Larry Campbell (guitar)
- Tony Garnier (bass)
- David Kemper (drums & percussion)
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They’re trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
“Have Mercy on His Soul”
They all play on pennywhistles
You can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough
From Desolation RowAcross the street they’ve nailed the curtains
They’re getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera
A perfect image of a priest
They’re spoonfeeding Casanova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence
After poisoning him with words
And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls
“Get Outa Here If You Don’t Know
Casanova is just being punished for going
To Desolation Row”
Rockhal
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
21 October 2011
- Bob Dylan (vocal & keyboard)
- Stu Kimball (guitar)
- Charlie Sexton (guitar)
- Donnie Herron (violin, mandolin, steel guitar)
- Tony Garnier (bass)
- George Recile (drums & percussion)
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody’s shouting
“Which Side Are You On?”
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain’s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation RowYes, I received your letter yesterday
(About the time the doorknob broke)
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can’t read too good
Don’t send me no more letters, no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row
Check out:
-Egil
Seriously, nothing from the 1966 tour? Sheffield, Liverpool, Newcastle, London, any of those are sublime trips out into the nether regions.
Latest performance was at the desert trip, Coachella.
https://youtu.be/TY99ySmHbVs
Oct 14th 2016
Thanks!
Post will be updated.