“He’s been great to play with. Great fun as well, mostly because you can never let your mind drift. He’ll give the most familiar song an odd twist – a change of rhythm or a peculiar delivery. Playing with Bob Dylan certainly gives you a good kick up the ass. One night he’ll do something like he’ll say – on Stage – ‘Right, we’ll begin with “Forever Young” and the Heartbreakers have maybe played the song once before. Then he’ll say. ‘And Benmont you start it off´
– Benmont Tench (member of The Heartbreakers, Dylan´s backing band in 1986/1987)
In 1987 Dylan first made a guest appearance @ a Taj Mahal concert in Los Angeles, February 19, then performed with the The Grateful Dead 6 times in July & finally the “Temples in Flames Tour”.
The guilty undertaker sighs
The lonesome organ grinder cries
The silver saxophones say I should refuse you
The cracked bells and washed-out horns
Blow into my face with scorn
But it’s not that way
I wasn’t born to lose you
I want you, I want you
I want you so bad
Honey, I want you
Sportpaleis Ahoy
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
19 September 1987
..spectacular from start to finish.. Bob Dylan feels good about himself and his work, this night in Dortmund. You can hear it in his voice. It’s a unique, very wonderful Bob Dylan voice, special to this show. His presence this time is not a matter of being one with the protagonists of the songs or the persons being sung to. It’s a matter of his enthusiasm for the act of
singing, and for each of these songs that he gets to sing. An a subtle but measurable sense, this “Tangled Up in Blue” vocal is not like any other rendition.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond)
Westfalenhalle 1
Dortmund, West Germany
15 September 1987
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar) with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
Tom Petty (guitar)
Mike Campbell (guitar)
Benmont Tench (keyboards)
Howie Epstein (bass)
Stan Lynch (drums)
The Queens Of Rhythm: Carolyn Dennis, Queen Esther Marrow, Madelyn Quebec (backing vocals)
“After an hour or so, it became clear to me that the band wanted to rehearse more and different songs than I had been used to doing with Petty. They wanted to run over all the songs, the ones they liked, the seldom seen ones. I found myself in a peculiar position and I could hear the brakes screech. If I had known this to begin with, I might not have taken the dates…. There were so many songs that I couldn’t tell which was which-I might even get the words to some mixed up with others. I needed sets of lyrics to understand what they were talking about, and when I saw the lyrics, especially to the older, more obscure songs, I couldn’t see how I could get this stuff off emotionally.”
– Bob Dylan (Chronicles Vol.1) after his first rehearsal with the Dead
Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can’t help but wonder what’s happenin’ to my companions
Are they lost or are they found
Have they counted the cost it’ll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they’re gonna have to abandon?
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend
Sportpaleis Ahoy Rotterdam, The Netherlands 19 September 1987
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Tom Petty (guitar)
Mike Campbell (guitar)
Benmont Tench (keyboards)
Howie Epstein (bass)
Stan Lynch (drums)
The Queens Of Rhythm: Carolyn Dennis, Queen Esther Marrow, Madelyn Quebec (backing vocals)
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