– “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)
The Never Ending Tour is the popular name for Bob Dylan’s endless touring schedule since June 7, 1988.
AD: Tell me about the live thing. The last tour has gone virtually straight into this one.
BD: Oh, it’s all the same tour. The Never Ending Tour…
-Adrian Deevoy Interview (October 21, 1989)
Bob Dylan has later rejected to “Never Ending Tour” tag.
Don’t be bewildered by the Never Ending Tour chatter. There was a Never Ending Tour but it ended in 1991 with the departure of guitarist G. E. Smith.
-Bob Dylan (album sleeve notes to World Gone Wrong (1993))
..but many of us like this tag, and continue to refer to his endless touring since June 7, 1988 as “The Never Ending Tour”.
A year of great cover versions dedicated to the dead and dying. All of these covers came in the last leg of 2002 – US Fall Tour (Oct 5 – Nov 22).
Please use the Comments section to post your personal favourites from 20002
Bournemouth International Centre
Bournemouth, England
5 May 2002
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
Jim Keltner (drums & percussion)
He even cracked its kernel in 2002, coaxing a rare moment of artistic calm out of the general hubbub at a show in Bournemouth on the fifth day of May, when he was so much reminded of the Criteria vibe by the presence ofJim Keltner that he raised a harmonica to his lips, to rasp against the dying of the light.
-Clinton Heylin (Still On The Road)
Not Dark Yet
Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there
–
Pauline Davis Pavilion
Tehama County Fairgrounds
Red Bluff, California
7 October 2002
Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
George Recile (drums & percussion)
You´re A Big Girl Now
Our conversation was short and sweet
It nearly knocked me off-a my feet
And I’m back in the rain, oh, oh
And you are on dry land
You made it there somehow
You’re a big girl now
Open Air Theatre
San Diego State University
San Diego, California
19 October 2002
Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
George Recile (drums & percussion)
Carrying A Torch (Van Morrison)
I’m carryin’ a torch for you
I’m carryin’ a torch
You know how much it costs
To keep carryin’ a torch
Flame of love it burns so bright
That is my desire
Keep on liftin’ me, liftin’ me up
Higher and higher
–
Hilton Coliseum
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
29 October 2002
Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
George Recile (drums & percussion)
You Ain´t Goin´ Nowhere
Clouds so swift
Rain won’t lift
Gate won’t close
Railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!
–
Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 13 November 2002
Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
George Recile (drums & percussion)
Thank you. There’s a tribute coming, I guess it’s the next week or the week after, it’s over in England, for George Harrison and lot’s of people i’m not sure who. But we can’t make it I just want to do this song for George because we were such good buddies.
-Bob Dylan introducing “Something”
“Dylan’s performance stands as an outstanding tribute, one that would make George Harrison so very happy and proud were he around to hear it.”
-Andrew Muir (One More Night)
Something (George Harrison)
Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
–
Civic Center Coliseum
Hartford, Connecticut
17 November 2002
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
George Recile (drums & percussion)
Mutineer (Warren Zevon)
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Hoist the mainsail – here I come
Ain’t no room on board for the insincere
You’re my witness
I’m your mutineer
…the most famous of Dylan’s many “home” tapes, the so-called “Minneapolis Hotel Tape.” Recorded by Tony Glover at Bonnie Beecher’s apartment in Minneapolis, whimsically dubbed The Beecher Hotel by Dylan (hence the title of the tape), large portions of this tape appeared on the first Dylan bootleg album, the legendary Great White Wonder.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
The December tape has been in wide circulation for many years. It was actually the first bootleg ever produced. It was released on a 2 LP set in 1969, and went by the title ‘Great White Wonder’ It has been available under various titles a countless number of times in the decades that followed. The quality has generally been very good, and the performance tells the story of a fresh faced boy just out of high school, who had the energy and natural ‘world-traveled weariness’ quality that would forever change the world. It is absolutely required material for even the smallest collection.
~bobsboots.com
–
The Home Of Bonnie Beecher Minneapolis, Minnesota 22 December 1961
most audio from grooveshark…
Candy Man (trad. arr. by Revd. Gary Davis)
Baby Please Don’t Go (Big Joe Williams)
Hard Times In New York Town
Stealin’, Stealin’ (trad. arr. Memphis Jug Band)
Poor Lazarus (trad.)
I Ain’t Got No Home (Woody Guthrie)
It’s Hard To Be Blind (trad.)
Dink’s Song (trad. arr. by John & Alan Lomax)
Man Of Constant Sorrow (trad. arr. Bob Dylan)
Story Of East Orange
Naomi Wise (trad.)
Wade In The Water (trad.)
I Was Young When I Left Home
In The Evening (Brownie McGhee)
Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Eric von Schmidt)
Sally Gal
Gospel Plow (trad. arr. Bob Dylan)
Long John (trad.)
Cocaine (trad. arr. Revd. Gary Davies)
VD Blues (Woody Guthrie)
VD Waltz (Woody Guthrie)
VD City (Woody Guthrie)
VD Gunner’s Blues (Woody Guthrie)
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (Blind Lemon Jefferson)
Ramblin’ Round (Woody Guthrie)
– Hold the bottle in here. OK wait I gotta fix this, he man you gotta see some pictures of me. I’m not kidding yeah at Whittakers. I look like Marlon Bran.. James Dean or somebody. You gotta see. Like two of this blue turtle neck sweater on. All kinds of pictures of me, without a guitar. Or else you can just see the top of it. (Dave Glover talks off mike) Ha ha I know what you mean. ~Dylan – before “Black Cross”
Black Cross (Lord Buckley)
According to Scaduto [Anthony Scaduto], Dylan gave copies of this tape to several friends, suggesting that he felt it was a good representation of his development as an artist. According to Shelton [Robert Shelton], Glover also taped Dylan at this time “doing [some] r&b-type Chuck Berry songs.” There is no evidence to support Shelton’s assertion, although Dylan and Glover may well have jammed together on those kinds of songs.
Bob Dylan: It means singing when you really don’t want to sing. It means singing against your wishes to sing.
–
Dylan’s second west coast press conference in two weeks takes place in Los Angeles. His mood is far less amenable than it had been in San Francisco. The conference lasts just over half an hour.
-Clinton Heylin (A Life in Stolen Moments)
Columbia Recording Studios
Los Angeles, California
16 December 1965 Los Angeles Press Conference.
The single disappeared without a trace, becoming the man’s first serious collectible (it was so unsuccessful that “stock” copies are rarer than “promos”).
~Clinton Heylin (Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973)
The song was recorded with an electric band on November 14, 1962, during the sessions for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan but was not used on that album. Instead the song, backed with “Corrina, Corrina” (a different take from the Freewheelin‘ one), a traditional blues song, appeared as Dylan’s first single, released in the United States on December 14, 1962, as Columbia 4-42656.
According to legend, Dylan wrote the song in a cab on the way to the Columbia studios for the recording session.
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