Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin’ home every day,
Beatin’ the hot old dusty way to the California line.
‘Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin’ out of that old dust bowl,
They think they’re goin’ to a sugar bowl, but here’s what they find
Now, the police at the port of entry say,
“You’re number fourteen thousand for today.
This is a beautiful version of Woody Guthrie’s “Do Re Mi” performed in Jan 2009. It was aired on the History Channel documentary “The People Speak“.
But first here is Woody Guthrie – The Asch Recordings Vol. 1 (1944):
People can learn everything about me through my songs, if they know where to look. They can juxtapose them with certain other songs and draw a clear picture. But why would anyone want to know about me? It’s ridiculous.
-Bob Dylan (to Edna Gundersen on August 31, 1990 in Lincoln, Nebraska)
Never Ending Tour 1990
1990 Fastbreak Tour; Jan 12 – Feb 8, a total of 15 concerts
1990 Spring tour of North America; May 29 – June 18, a total of 16 concerts
1990 Summer festival tour of Europe; June 27 – July 9, a total of 9 concerts
1990 Late Summer tour of North America; August 12 – September 12, a total of 23 concerts
1990 US Fall tour; October 11 – November 18, a total of 30 concerts
All in all Dylan played 93 concerts in 1990.
Bob Dylan – Never Ending Tour 1990 – Part 1 will cover the first 3 legs.
“My American dream fell apart at the seam,” sing Nelson and Bob Dylan in this elegy to America’s family farmers. A track from Nelson’s 1993 Across the Borderline, the song details in plain language the war between forlorn farmers and unsympathetic bankers, with the latter undeniably the victor. Willie wrote the song with Dylan, who famously inspired Nelson’s annual Farm Aid benefit concerts with his off-hand remark at 1985’s Live Aid that something should be done to help U.S. farmers. The lyrics are unapologetic, brimming with as much indignation as Mellencamp’s “Rain on the Scarecrow,” but it’s the pairing of two of music’s most unconventional voices that makes it a must-hear.
–rollingstone.com
Sec Taylor Stadium
Des Moines, Iowa
28 August 2004
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To New Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell” @ the 17th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards ceremony – 12 January 2012 – was performed as a tribute to Martin Scorsese.
It’s not stand-up comedy or a stage play. Also, it breaks my concentration to have to think of things to say or to respond to the crowd. The songs themselves do the talking. My songs do, anyway.
-Bob Dylan (September 21, 1989 – Edna Gundersen interview for USA Today)
Band
The 1988 band (Smith, Parker, Aaronson) backed Dylan at the first three shows of 1989 and at the fifth through the eighth. At the fourth show, and at every show beginning with the ninth (June 10, 1989), Kenny Aaronson, who had to return to the U.S. for health reasons, was replaced on bass by Tony Garnier, who had played with G. E. Smith in one of his former bands. In late July, Aaronson tried to get his job back, but was told by Dylan, “I’m not sure if I wanna change the band right now.” In the long run, Garnier outlasted Parker and Smith, and is still playing bass in Dylan’s touring band.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performance Artist 1986-1990 And Beyond)
