..to draw a crowd with my guitar, that’s about the most heroic thing that I can do. To play a song to calm the king, well everybody don’t get to do that. There’s only certain things a King wants to hear. And then if he don’t like it, he might send you to the gallows. Sometimes you feel like a club fighter who gets off the bus in the middle of nowhere, no cheers, no admiration, punches his way through ten rounds or whatever, always making someone else look good, vomits up the pain in the backroom, picks up his check and gets back on the bus heading out for another nowhere. Sometimes like a troubadour out of the dark ages, singing for your supper and rambling the land or singing to the girl in the window, you know, the one with the long flowing hair
~Bob Dylan – August-September 1985, Cameron Crowe Interview (for Biograph)
I really don’t have any place to put my feet up…. well, we want to play ‘cause we want to play… Why tour? It’s just that you get accustomed to it over the years. The people themselves will tell you when to stop touring.
~Bob Dylan to Kathryn Baker – Aug 1988
It’s not stand-up comedy or a stage play. Also, it breaks my concentration to have to think of things to say or to respond to the crowd. The songs themselves do the talking. My songs do, anyway.
~Bob Dylan to Edna Gundersen – Sept 1989
Here are 8 videos you absolutely need to see. They are chosen for their historical significance and/or blistering performances.
The [1988] tour “ended” on 24 September 1988 in New Orleans, but this was not quite the finish.
As previously mentioned, popular demand had led to four further nights being added at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
These shows quickly became a focus for the press and fans alike.
The former, previously misguided critics of the tour, now praised Dylan to the skies;
the latter, trying to read the runes of relatively unchanging set-lists, talked of a live album being released from the shows.
All this is rather ironic as the shows themselves, although fine, were far from being the best, or even up to the average standard, of the year.
~Andrew Muir (One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour)
I’ve never minded touring, touring is part of playing. Anybody can sit in the studio and make records, but that’s unrealistic and they can’t possibly be a meaningful performer. You have to do it night after night to understand what it’s all about. …
I’ve always loved to travel and play my songs, meet new people and see different places. I love to roll into town in the early morning and walk the deserted streets before anybody gets up. Love to see the sun come up over the highway. ..
Then, of course, there’s playing on the stage in front of live people, feeling hearts and minds moving. Everybody don’t get to do that. Touring to me has never been any kind of hardship. It’s a privilege.”
~Bob Dylan (to Edna Gundersen, July 20, 1988)
The 88-tour was great, surely one of N.E.T.’s best.
Interstate part 3 was the weakest leg of this tour, but still some wonderful concerts.
I really don’t have any place to put my feet up. We want to play because we want to play. Why tour? It’s just that you get accustomed to it over the years. The people themselves will tell you when to stop touring.
~Bob Dylan, August 5, 1988
The Tower Theatre
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
13 October 1988
