Dylan delivers a knock-out performance. The gospel material is powerful and biting without a condescending edge. The older standards are performed with a new fire and passion that includes them among the best live versions to date. Dylan stumbles on the lyrics once or twice, but adds new lines as well that more than compensate. The vocals are crisp are over the top out front and in your face. The music is tight, well mixed, and well performed.
~bobsboots.com
Saenger Theater Saenger Performing Arts Center New Orleans, Louisiana 10 November 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 Havis, Madelyn Quebec (background vocals)
You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, “Who is that man?”
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get home
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
The importance of identifying Bob Dylan as a performing artist, as distinct from the popular perception that he’s a songwriter and recording artist, is immediately clear when one has a chance to hear his fall 1979 concerts. “What Can I Do for You?,” “Solid Rock,” “Saving Grace,” “Covenant Woman” and “In the Garden” as performed at these shows are some of the finest works in Dylan’s oeuvre..
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
I love Dylan’s Gospel tours from 1979 & 1980. And the concerts @ Fox Warfield Theatre November 1979 might be the best of them.
Fox Warfield Theatre
San Francisco, California
2 November 1979
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar), Fred Tackett (guitar)
Spooner Oldham (keyboards)
Tim Drummond (bass)
Terry Young (keyboards)
Jim Keltner (drums)
Regina Mcrary , Helena Springs , Mona Lisa Young (background vocals)
1999 was a great year for Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour”.
For all the splendours of earlier in the year [1999], this last leg was the most consistently triumphant. By the time Dylan brought the year’s touring to an end, with an extended set on November the 20th, he had played 121 shows – the most in a single year of his entire career. It had been a very good year, the best since 1995.
~Andrew Muir (One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour)
A lot of concerts from this tour is in circulation (both video & audio) and this concert is a great example from that last leg. Highlights include: One Too Many Mornings, This Wheel’s On Fire, Not Dark Yet & Not Fade Away.
Assembly Hall
University Of Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
27 October 1999
As a precursor of things to come, Winston Watson is the sole beatmaster tonight. Watson does not attempt anything too ambitious, although Dylan does attempt “Pretty Peggy-0” and “Queen Jane Approximately” to test his mettle.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Broome County Forum
Binghamton, New York
12 October 1992
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
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