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“He’s been great to play with. Great fun as well, mostly because you can never let your mind drift. He’ll give the most familiar song an odd twist – a change of rhythm or a peculiar delivery. Playing with Bob Dylan certainly gives you a good kick up the ass. One night he’ll do something like he’ll say – on Stage – ‘Right, we’ll begin with “Forever Young” and the Heartbreakers have maybe played the song once before. Then he’ll say. ‘And Benmont you start it off´
– Benmont Tench (member of The Heartbreakers, Dylan´s backing band in 1986/1987)

The “Temples In Flames” tour also produced performances of beauty, often of songs that one had had no expectation of ever hearing in concert, let alone in such intensely felt, close-to-the-edge performances. The varied set-lists, the spontaneous recreations of songs, the surprising selections all pre-figured the N.E.T. And Tom Petty and his band, certainly found it startling innovative and a steep and highly beneficial learning curve:

“I learned so much from Bob Dylan,” says Tom Petty. The Heartbreakers toured as Dylan’s backing band from 1986 to 87.  “He gave us a kind of courage that we never had, to learn something quickly and go out on stage and play it. You had to be pretty versatile because arrangements could change, keys might change, there’s just no way of knowing exactly what he wants to do each night. You really learnt the value of spontaneity, of how a moment that is real in a concert is worth so much more than one you plan out.”
-Andrew Muir (One More Night)

The music [Ballad of a Thin Man] is wonderful, the band is at its best (not at all rehashing the 1986 version, but responding to the frontman’s leadership by creating something completely new and fresh and spontaneous). In particular, please notice Stan Lynch’s drumming after the words “Thanks for the loan” and during the “something is happening” chorus that follows. Drummer and singer are clearly getting energy from each other (and the other musicians and singers are responding to both of them). It’s like call-and-response between Bob and Stan. Wow. Please also notice the beauty and inventiveness of the guitar solos and other elements in the instrumental break before the last verse … one discovery after another, by singers and musicians who’d thought they were pretty familiar with this song and are now grateful that it’s making itself so new tonight, and taking them along for the ride.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond)

..as strong as the song starts in Modena, it does get better -band and singer and song go on inspiring each other and sustain that Homeric fire right through to a very colorful and striking evocation of the “town of Brooklyn” in that last verse and chorus. In the hands (and vocal cords) of a great performing artist, songs do indeed have a life of their own. “Joey” at Modena, and the Modena concert as a whole, stand as excellent examples of this gratifying and intriguing phenomenon.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond)

..by listening to Dortmund´s “Shelter” and Dortmund´s “Highway 61” back to back with selections from Live 1966 and finding that they stand up well to both the beauty of ´66 acoustic set stuff and the excitement of ´66 electric set performances.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond)

..the shock of recognition I feel when I hear the unique melody played and evoked by the opening piano notes of this Munich ´87 “Don´t Think Twice” and from every moment of Dylan´s singing here, and when I listen to the remarkable interplay of organ and melodic guitar and rhythm guitar in the between-verse breaks, is the shock of being deeply touched by a musical creation that seems to understand me and illuminate my inner life in ways I didn´t think were possible.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond)