With at least 200,000 people in attendance, Dylan closes his triumphant European tour at the Blackbushe Aerodrome, in Camberley, Surrey. Twenty five days after the last Earls Court show, Dylan brings a very different set back, performing 10 songs not performed at his previous show in England: “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” “Girl from the North Country,” “Is Your Love in Vain?,” a tentative “Where Are You Tonight’,” an acoustic “Gates of Eden,” “True Love Tends to Forget,” and a first encore of “Changing of the Guards” with Eric Clapton on guitar. Also performed are “Simple Twist of Fate” and “To Ramona,” both performed only one night at Earls Court. Surprisingly, though, Dylan omits “She’s Love Crazy,” “The Man in Me,” and ”I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” all performed regularly on the mainland European dates. Nevertheless, few in the massive crowd notice such omissions, as Dylan proves his pulling power is undiminished by his years away, attracting the largest crowd for a pop festival in Britain since the Isle of Wight nine years earlier.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Blackbushe Aerodrome Camberley, England 15 July 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)
Well, my mama said the girl’s puttin’ you down
She’s gonna ruin my life
I must have loved you too much
(Must of loved you too much)
I must have loved you too much
(Must of loved you too much)
–
You like someone and then you don’t want to like them any more because you’re afraid to admit to yourself that you like them so much.
– Dylan, to Jonathan Cott, September 1978
This song (co-written with Helena Springs and Greg Lake) was never tried out in the studio, and only played twice in concert (sound checked 4 times).
The Finjan tape, similar to the early party tapes in that it’s a small group of people, and Dylan’s aware of the tape recorder and is trying to think of interesting songs to play, has many delights, particularly an electrifying version of Muddy Waters’s “Two Trains Running,” a fine loose rendering of “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” and a haunting fragment of Robert Johnson’s “Rambling on My Mind.” On “Two Trains” Dylan sings, “I’m afraid of everybody/and I can’t trust myself.” The tape also features one of Dylan’s most powerful original blues (if you can draw the line between blues songs he writes and ones be assembles from existing songs; definitely a matter of degree, as is true with most blues singers): “Quit Your Low Down Ways.”
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973)
Finjan Club Montreal, Quebec, Canada 2 July 1962
Released on DYLAN, BOB – FINJAN CLUB, 14 January 2013.
(The release is unauthorized and is not associated with or approved by Bob Dylan or his current recording label)
In his first tour of Europe in 12 years, Bob Dylan played Nürnberg on July 1. Organized by the new “Rock im Park” festival which was established in 1976 with Santana and Chicago, 1978 featured both Eric Clapton and Dylan in front of 80,000 spectators.
The show is imbued with additional meaning since the Zeppelinfeld was constructed in the ’30s and was the site for the Nazi Party rallies between 1933 and 1938 and can be seen in the film Triumph Of The Will. That a Jewish artist such as Bob Dylan preformed there 40 years later provides a special irony for the setting.
~gsparaco(collectorsmusicreviews.com)
Zeppelindfeld
Nuremberg, West Germany
1 July 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)
–
Eric Clapton (guitar) on I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight & The Times They Are A-Changin’
)
, 14 January 2013.