October 27: Bob Dylan @ East Rutherford, NJ – 1981

bob dylan east rutherford 1981

There are a few versions of this show that are circulating and this Durango title appears to have just been released in Japan. This is what the blurb says: “Dylan at the top of his game for ‘81 and for all time, in a show many would rank among his top 25. Al Kooper sits in on keyboards for the first time since ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, and the whole band rocks the Meadowlands with a set rarely matched for the number and intensity of songs.
~bigozine2.com

“Let’s Begin” makes its last live appearance. “Dead Man, Dead Man” is reintroduced into the set. The New York Times review of this show refers to Dylan as “alternately thrilling, exasperating and impenetrable,” concluding that it was “a fascinating performance by a magnetic renegade.”
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)

Meadowlands Brendan T. Byrne Sports Arena
East Rutherford, New Jersey
27 October 1981

Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Fred Tackett (guitar)
Steve Ripley (guitar)
Al Kooper (keyboards)
Tim Drummond (bass)
Jim Keltner (drums)
Arthur Rosato (drums)
Clydie King, Regina McCrary, Madelyn Quebec (background vocals)

Gotta Serve Somebody
I Believe In You
Like A Rolling Stone
I Want You

Thank you, you’re great. You all feel pretty good tonight huh? Oh heaven, I wish I felt that good. If I stay here long enough I might feel that good. Oh yeah? All right! So, how you doing? How far you’d come? Is that right? I might be acting a little strange right now. That’s because this is a mighty strange place. Oh yes, it is. I ain’t seen nowhere like this. Back in the dressing room there, I got a black mirror in my room! I was looking through it just half an hour ago, I see two eyes looking back at me.
Man Gave Names To All The Animals
Maggie’s Farm

Thank you. You feeling all right? Am I singing on key tonight? I’ll try sing this one for you in key.
Girl From The North Country
Thank you. Anybody here tonight paid to get in? What? I can’t hear you. Talk up, yeah. I’m glad you’re sitting there. Phew!
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Simple Twist Of Fate
All Along The Watchtower
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
Let’s Begin (Jim Webb)
Forever Young
We’re gonna do this song here. The songwriter who wrote it is here tonight. There’s a lot of famous people here tonight. I wanna just tell you that you may be sitting next to somebody that’s famous. I know you are. You definitely are. That man over there’s famous too, yes he is. (plays Let’s Begin) I hope we did that right Jim.
It’s easy to say that, but hard to do it. Any gambling men out there? I guess there should be. Yeah! Don’t you have a big gambling resort around here somewhere. What’s it called? What’s that gambling town around here? Reno? Atlantic City. Big gambling town, yeah? Well here’s a gambling song for you gambling men. Gambling women too. I don’t think any women are gamblers though do you?
Gamblin’ Man (trad.)
The Times They Are A-Changin’
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Watered-Down Love
Masters Of War
Mr. Tambourine Man
Solid Rock
Dead Man, Dead Man
Just Like A Woman
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall. Well, what happens when hard rain falls? You get watered-down love! This is off a big hit selling album. I’m not sure if it’s still in print but …, oh yeah. Oh boy.
All right, all right. I want to play …. We had a single record released a while back. I think it sold about five copies. But I like it so much I just got to play it. Anyway, it sold about three copies right here.
Heart Of Mine
All right. I wanna say hello to all the editors of Rolling Stone magazine, oh yeah. All the writers and editors are here tonight I think, checking me out. They’re gonna come back stage later, I’m gonna check them out.
When You Gonna Wake Up
In The Garden

All right, hello. Thank you. I wanna say hello to Mr. and Mrs. Kooper who are out there tonight. Wherever they are, I wanna say greetings! I’m glad you could make it. Anyway this is Mr. and Mrs. Kooper’s relative on keyboards over here. A man I’ve known for quite some time now. I’m not gonna tell you his name but that’s him on keyboards. I should tell you his name anyway. Al Kooper is his name. Played with me twenty years. Maybe some of you heard of him, maybe some of you haven’t. A legend in his own time though. On the drums tonight, Jimmy Lee Keltner from Tulsa, Oklahoma. From New Jersey, state of I think he’s from, Ashbury Park, New Jersey, on the guitar, Steve Ripley. On the other guitar, Fred Tackett. All right, on the guitar, bass guitar Tim Drummond. On the backing vocals, Clydie, Regina, and Madelyn Quebec. On the other set of drums, also from New Jersey is Arthur Rosoto. Give Arthur Rosoto a big hand. I hope I sung something on key tonight, I really do.
—
Blowin’ In The Wind
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door