Fantastic soundboard recording of a great show. .. The acoustic versions of Tambourine Man, Hard Rain and, particularly, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue (where he places all the emphasis on “All” when singing the title-line) are stunning.
–bobsboots.com(9½ stars)
Hala Tivoli
Ljubljana, Slovenia
28 April 1999
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
On the 15th, Dylan plays his first London concert in 12 years, enough of an event to warrant TV coverage on both the ITN and BBC News. He plays a standard set, with “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” in the “variation slot.” The reviews, though, are anything but standard. The Daily lvlail headline says “The Greatest Concert I Have Ever Seen,” the London Times reviewer writes, “One of the best [concerts] to happen in London for years,” and even The Sun admits, “Dylan lives up to his legend.” In its next edition, Melody Maker includes an eight-page pull-out special comprising four reviews of the show.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Earls Court
London, England
15 June 1978
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Billy Cross (lead guitar)
Alan Pasqua (keyboards)
Steven Soles (rhythm guitar, backup vocals)
David Mansfield (violin & mandolin)
Steve Douglas (horns)
Jerry Scheff (bass)
Bobbye Hall (percussion)
Ian Wallace (drums)
Helena Springs, Jo Ann Harris, Carolyn Dennis (background vocals)
“On this album, I took a few steps backward, but I also took a bunch of steps forward because I had a lot of time to concentrate on it. I also had the band sounding like I want it to sound. It’s got that organ sound from ‘Blonde on Blonde’ again. That’s something that has been missing.”
~Bob Dylan (to Robert Hilburn – May 1978)
Jonathan Cott interview – Sept. 1978: Jonathan Cott: What do you think of all the criticisms of Street Legal? Bob Dylan: I read some of them. In fact, I didn’t understand them. I don’t think these people have had the experiences I’ve had to write those songs. The reviews didn’t strike me as being particularly interesting one way or another, or as compelling to my particular scene. I don’t know who these people are. They don’t travel in the same crowd, anyway. So it would be like me criticizing Pancho Villa.
First of all… “Street-Legal” is a fantastic album. I have never “understood” all the criticism it got.. and still gets, and I even dig the original overall sound & production.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you
Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming
Madison Square Garden
New York City, New York
27 July 1999
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
JUN 13, 2016
San Diego, CA
Humphreys Concerts By The Bay
“At 75, Dylan shows every sign of rising to new heights. He is doing so by embracing anew his own legacy, and adding new twists, as has long been his style, and by embracing some of the Great American Songbook gems he pointedly spurned in the spoken introduction to his 1962 song, “Bob Dylan’s Blues.”
“This is unlike all the rest of the songs comin’ out of uptown New York — a Tin Pan Alley thing,” he said at the time, the derision in his voice unmistakable. “This one wasn’t written up there … this was … written down in the United States.”
Today, 54 years later, Dylan’s songs are as indelible a part of the American music fabric as any batch of Tin Pan Alley classics. Things have changed, undeniably, since then. But Dylan — in the autumn of his years — remains sturdy and vital. We’re lucky to have him.” – San Diego Union Tribune
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