1999 was a great year for Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour”.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]
A lot of concerts from this tour is in circulation (both video & audio) and this concert is (…again) a great example from that last leg.
Centrum Arena Worcester, Massachusetts 14 November 1999
I made this record, Under the Red Sky, with Don Was, but at the same time I was also doing the Wilburys record. I don’t know how it happened that I got into both albums at the same time.
~Bob Dylan (to Jonathan Lethem, Aug 2006)
The phone don’t ring
And the sun refused to shine
Never thought I’d have to pay so dearly
For what was already mine
For such a long, long time
We made mad love
Shadow love
Random love
And abandoned love
Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder
‘Accidentally Like a Martyr’ was released on Warren Zevon’s brilliant 1978 album “Excitable Boy”
BF: Who are some of your favorite songwriters?
Bob Dylan: Buffett I guess. Lightfoot. Warren Zevon. Randy. John Prine. Guy Clark. Those kinds of writers.
~Bob Dylan (to Huffington Post – May 2009)
Yes, the gal I got
I swear she’s the screaming end
She wants me to be a hero
So she can tell all her friends
This is a real gem!
..Dylan opened the first two shows with the obscure “Hero Blues” from 1963, singing some of the original lyrics (“The gal I got, I swear she’s the screaming end/She wants me to be a hero, So she can tell all her friends) plus some new ones that seem : relevant to his immediate situation “Running down the highway, just as fast as I can go”; and “Don’t you remember, I told you long ago/… just ain’t gonna work around here no more”, and finally something about what “You can write on my tombstone.” Powerful stuff; one wishes he’d felt free to do more improvising.
~Paul Williams (BD performing artist 1974-86)
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
)
