I’m out here a thousand miles from my home
Walkin’ a road other men have gone down
I’m seein’ your world of people and things
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings
Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song
’Bout a funny ol’ world that’s a-comin’ along
Seems sick an’ it’s hungry, it’s tired an’ it’s torn
It looks like it’s a-dyin’ an’ it’s hardly been born
Continental Airlines Arena East Rutherford, New Jersey 13 November 1999
Dylan sounds well-oiled with alcohol on the Houston tape, his voice very low and rich, his commentary between songs (and his
pacing, when he talks) bizarre and rather charming. That voice! If you love Dylan’s work, then you must somehow get hold of copies of “Simple Twist of Fate” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” from Houston, 11/12/81. And “Solid Rock.” The new, “slow version” of “Solid Rock” performed at the fall 1981 shows is one of the highlights of a year of astonishing creativity and expressiveness for Dylan… Of course what you really want is a copy of the entire Houston concert; there are high points aplenty, and a fascinating sense of momentum from song to song, as the strange mood he’s in ebbs and flows, clashing with a song occasionally, more often discovering and magnifying itself in the folds and twists of the song’s lyrics and chord changes and rhythms and most of all in the accumulating composite message that the song exists to express..
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
Throughout 1981, Dylan slowly began reintroducing some of his standards back into the gospel shows. By the end of the year, they outnumbered the religious songs. This soundboard recording features very little audience noise. The vocals are way out front. Dylan’s phrasing and articulation that had made the christian material so powerful is now spilling over into the secular classics.
~bobsboots.com
The Summit
Houston, Texas
12 November 1981
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Fred Tackett (guitar)
Steve Ripley (guitar)
Al Kooper (keyboards)
Tim Drummond (bass)
Jim Keltner (drums)
Arthur Rosato (drums)
Clydie King, Regina McCrary, Madelyn Quebec (background vocals
Well I taught that weeping willow how to cry cry cry,
Taught the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky.
Tears I cried for that woman are gonna flood you big river,
And Im a gonna sit right here until I die.
Baltimore Arena Baltimore, Maryland 8 November 1999
Musicians:
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
They sat together in the park
As the evening sky grew dark
She looked at him and he felt a spark tingle to his bones
’Twas then he felt alone and wished that he’d gone straight
And watched out for a simple twist of fate
Jahrhunderthalle
Frankfurt, Germany
6 November 2003
Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
Freddie Koella (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
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