WITH ONE HAND WAVING FREE BOB DYLAN 1995 by Olof Bjorner A summary of recording & concert activities. New releases, tapes & books. Copyright (c) 1996 by Olof Bjorner All Rights Reserved This article may be reproduced, retransmitted, redistributed and otherwise propagated at will, provided that this notice remains intact and in place. Part 1 of 8 CONTENTS: ========= 1. INTRODUCTION \ | 2. THE YEAR AT A GLANCE | | 3. CALENDAR | | 4. RECORDINGS |-- part 1 of 8 4.1 New releases | =========== 4.1.1 MTV Unplugged | 4.1.2 Highway 61 Interactive | 4.1.3 Greatest Hits Volume 3 CD+ | 4.2 Recordings from 1995 | 4.3 New tapes | / 5. THE NEVER-ENDING TOUR CONTINUES \ 5.1 Introduction | 5.2 The Musicians | 5.3 The show | 5.4 Europe Spring Tour | -- part 2 of 8 5.4.1 Dates and venues | 5.4.2 The songs | 5.4.3 Statistics | 5.4.4 Comments / 5.5 US Spring Tour \ 5.5.1 Dates and venues | 5.5.2 The songs | -- part 3 of 8 5.5.3 Statistics | 5.5.4 Comments / 5.6 Europe Summer Tour \ 5.6.1 Dates and Venues | 5.6.2 The songs | -- part 4 of 8 5.6.3 Statistics | 5.6.4 Comments / 5.7 The Fall Classics Tour \ 5.7.1 Dates and Venues | 5.7.2 The songs | -- part 5 of 8 5.7.3 Statistics | 5.7.4 Comments / 5.8 The Paradise Lost Tour \ 5.8.1 Dates and Venues | 5.8.2 The songs | -- part 6 of 8 5.8.3 Statistics | 5.8.4 Comments / 5.9 Summary \ 5.9.1 Show statistics | 5.9.2 Alphabetical song list | 5.9.3 Song statistics | -- part 7 of 8 | 6. NEW BOOKS | | 7. REFERENCES & SOURCES / APPENDIX: THE SET-LISTS -- part 8 of 8 1. INTRODUCTION 1995 proved to be yet another high profile year for Bob Dylan in terms of released products, TV appearances and live performances. 116 concerts make this the year with most played concerts ever, even topping 1978. The consistently excellent quality of the live performances won high praise from fans and critics alike. Released products included the MTV Unplugged both as audio and video, the interactive CD-ROM Highway 61 Interactive, Greatest Hits Volume 3 as enhanced music CD. The thing really missing was a new record with new Dylan songs or at least some new songs played live, and a long over-due change of the touring band, which when the year ended had backed Dylan on exactly 300 shows. 2. THE YEAR AT A GLANCE Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----| X release of Highway 61 Interactive ====== Europe Spring Tour X X release of MTV Unplugged US Spring Tour ======= Europe Summer Tour ====== Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Museum Opening X The Fall Classics Tour ======== Sinatra 80th Year Tribute Concert X Paradise Lost Tour == |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----| Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. 3. CALENDAR January 5 World Gone Wrong is nominated for a Grammy in the Traditional Folk Album category. January According to the Edna Gundersen interview in USA Today on May 5, Dylan spends three weeks in January writing new songs. February Release of Highway 61 Interactive CD-ROM, see 4.1.2. February The so called Emmett Grogan acetates finally come into circulation. They were given to Emmett Grogan by Dylan sometime in late 1965 or 1966 and contain acetates from the recording sessions of ANOTHER SIDE and HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED as well as one track from the 1964 Newport Festival. Please refer to 4.3.1. March 1 World Gone Wrong gets a Grammy as best Traditional Folk Album! March 10 For the second time since he resumed the regular touring in 1974 Dylan has to cancel a show due to illness, in this case influenza. March 11 Still week from his illness Dylan performs the first of no less than 116 concerts in 1996. Shortly before the concert he decides to skip his guitar for the evening and perform the entire set with hand held mike and harmonica. This pattern would prevail during most of the Spring and Summer shows, with the first two electric and the first two acoustic songs guitar-less. The show starts with Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood), which is to become a regular opener. First known live version of this song, not counting the guest appearance at The Band's New Year's Concert 1971. March 14 Unbelievable is included in the set for the first time since November 6, 1992 in Gainesville, Florida. Dylan plays harmonica on all songs except the last. March 20 "A Primitive's Portfolio", an interview by Malcolm Jones Jr. conducted in early March, is published by Newsweek. March 24 Elvis Costello is the support act playing an all acoustic solo set, trying out a number of new songs. This is the first of five opening shows, the other being the Brixton concerts and the concert in Dublin. March 28 Release of the Doc Pumus album 'TILL THE NIGHT IS GONE which includes "Boogie Woogie Country Girl" with Bob Dylan backed by his regular touring band. The track was recorded in New Orleans in May 1994. March 30 At the second of three shows at The Brixton Academy in London, Dylan finally starts varying the set a bit more, leaving out both Tangled Up In Blue (for the first time since October 8, 1993 in Sacramento, California in a full length concert) and Maggie's Farm (for the first time since November 9, 1994 in Nashville, Tennessee). Elvis Costello joins Dylan for a great version of I Shall Be Released during the encores. Costello plays guitar and shares the vocal. March 31 Elvis Costello again joins Dylan during I Shall Be Released and they are then accompanied by Chrissie Hynde and Carole King on back-up vocals on Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35. April 11 The European tour ends in Dublin with a two hour show including guests Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, and Carole King during the encores. After the show Dylan hugs Carole King so hard that she falls off the stage and breaks her arm! April 11 MTV Unplugged is released in Europe, se 4.1.1. April 12 Dylan and Costello are filmed in a Dublin street doing I Shall Be Released presumably for some TV program. May 5 MTV Unplugged is released in USA. May 5 Release of MTV Unplugged commercial video. May 5 "Dylan on Dylan, Unplugged and the birth of a song" is published in USA Today. Another Edna Gundersen interview, probably conducted in late April. May 10 The Spring tour starts in San Diego, California. The set includes Seeing The Real You At Last, last played in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada on August 27, 1992. May 15 At the show in McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, California, Obviously Five Believers finally makes its live debut. Also included is a slow version of Never Gonna Be The Same Again, which has only been tried once before, in Melbourne, Australia, February 21, 1986. May 17 Pledging My Time is played again for the first time since September 9, 1990 in Austin, Texas. May 19 Sheryl Crow, who has been opening for Dylan at the LA shows joins Dylan for yet another duet version of I Shall Be Released. June 15 Dylan plays the first of five concerts as opening act "a very special guest", for the Grateful Dead. June 21-22 In great contrast to the huge outdoors concerts with The Grateful Dead, Dylan plays two shows in the 800 all- standing Theater of The Living Arts in Philadelphia. The first night is particularly intense and ranks as one of the best concerts during the Never-Ending Tour. An acoustic Visions Of Johanna is one of the highlights. This song has not been in the set since Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 3, 1992. Tangled Up In Blue returns to the set, but now in acoustic version! At this concert it is the acoustic encore. It will be played regularly in acoustic set during the remainder if the year. The second show opens with Drifter's Escape, which turn out to be a fairly common alternative to Down In The Flood as opener. Drifter's Escape was last played November 12, 1992 in Clearwater, Florida. June 24 The band plays about 4 minutes of an instrumental run-through of "Brownsville Girl" during the sound check. June 25 At the last show of the spring tour in Washington DC, Jerry Garcia joins the band playing guitar on the encores. June 29 As usual Dylan plays the summer festival circuit mixed with a number of regular shows, this time starting in Oslo, Norway. July 15 Martin Banks from the Birmingham Evening Mail manages to get an ad-hoc interview in the hospitality tent after the Phoenix Festival show. July 27 Dylan opens for The Rolling Stones in Montpellier, France, playing one of his shortest sets ever, just 9 songs and no encores. Later Dylan joins The Rolling Stone on, you guessed it, Like A Rolling Stone. The whole thing was recorded and filmed by The Rolling Stones for a possible later single & video release, but as could be expected, Dylan's contribution was less than impressive, so in the end they had to use another live version for their fall release of the Stripped album and the accompanying CD single. July 30 The Summer tour ends with a show in Nyon, Switzerland. August 9 Jerry Garcia dies of a heart-attack at a California drug rehabilitation center, Serenity Drug Treatment Center in Marin Co., California. August 10 The Bob Dylan press statement on Jerry Garcia is issued: "There's no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player. I don't think any eulogizing will do him justice. He was that great, much more than a superb musician, with an uncanny ear and dexterity. He's the very spirit personified of whatever is Muddy River country at its core and screams up into the spheres. He really had no equal. To me he wasn't only a musician and friend, he was more like a big brother who taught and showed me more than he'll ever know. There's a lot of spaces and advances between The Carter Family, Buddy Holly and, say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes, but he filled them all without being a member of any school. His playing was moody, awesome, sophisticated, hypnotic and subtle. There's no way to convey the loss. It just digs down really deep. " August 11 Dylan attends the Jerry Garcia funeral service at the St. Stephan church in Belvedere, California. September 2 At the concert that opened the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Dylan and the band plays a five song set. Bruce Springsteen is the main attraction during this whole shebang and duets with most artists as well as playing his own set with the E-Street band. Dylan and Springsteen sings Forever Young as the last song in Dylan's set, which also includes a powerful Seeing The Real You At Last. September 23 The Fall Classics Tour (yes, the tours seem to have names again!) starts with a kind of public rehearsal at a small club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida called The Edge. The 14-song set contains no less than 8 covers. Most notable is that the acoustic set includes no Dylan song. September 24 At the show at Lee Civic Center in Fort Myers, Florida, Dylan signs about a dozen autographs for people who climbs on-stage between the encore numbers. He even signs a guitar that someone had brought into the show. September 29 The Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale publishes an interview by journalist John Dolen called "A Midnight Chat with Bob Dylan". The interview takes place at Dylan's hotel in Fort Lauderdale after a band rehearsal. At the show in Sunrise Music Center, Alison Krauss, who is the opening act, joins Dylan on-stage and plays fiddle on One More Night, which makes its live debut with vocals by Dylan. September 30 Dickey Betts joins Dylan on-stage at the show in Tampa, Florida, playing guitar in the second electric sets and on the electric encores. He also sings his own Ramblin' Man as the first encore. October 16 Sheryl Crow returns to play accordion on 5 songs as well as sing back-up on Alabama Getaway at the show in New Orleans, Louisiana. October 24 The enhanced CD version ("CD+" in Sonyspeak) of Greatest Hits Volume 3 is finally released. Unfortunately it is impossible to access it on most computers, even though the 2-disc set is accompanied by a third disc only containing drivers for various CD-ROM reading devices. The music is the same as on the regular music CD release and in addition there is a lot of lyrics and two videos, one is Tangled Up In Blue from Renaldo & Clara and one is the promo video for Jokerman. For more details please refer to 4.1.3. November 4-5 The shows in Austin, Texas see a number of guests: On the first night Charlie Sexton on electric guitar in the second electric set and the last encore, and Ian Moore also playing electric guitar on the electric encores. The second night Ian Moore returns and again plays electric guitar on the electric encores. Doug Sahm plays electric guitar in the second electric set and the last encore and sings on Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues. November 9 Yet another duet takes place in the Symphony Hall in Phoenix, Arizona, when Stevie Nicks joins Dylan on I Shall Be Released (what else?). November 19 The Frank Sinatra 80th Birthday Tribute is recorded at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. Dylan intends to play That's Life but instead, at Sinatra's request, performs a beautiful version of Restless Farewell backed by the touring band and a string quartet. A live version of this song is known only from the 1964 Canadian TV-program Quest. At the post-show party at Sinatra's home only four musical guests are invited. Eydie Gorme, Steve Lawrence, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. November 26 Dylan attends the Bruce Springsteen solo acoustic concert at Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, California. December 7-17 Contrary to his habit of ending the touring after Thanksgiving, Dylan plays 10 shows in December with Patti Smith as opening act. The tour is billed as "Paradise Lost Tour". Although the tour with Patti Smith was set up after a request from Dylan, it takes three shows before they meet, but during the last 7 shows the acoustic set is augmented by a duet with Patti Smith on Dark Eyes. December 14 Former band-leader on The Never-Ending Tour (1988, 1989 and most of 1990) G.E. Smith joins Dylan on stage at The Beacon Theatre in New York City for the last encore, as always on this tour, Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35. December 11 Music critic, journalist and biographer Robert Shelton dies after a severe stroke a week earlier in his home in Brighton, England. Robert Shelton wrote the influential New York Times review of Dylan's performance (opening act for The Greenbriar Boys) at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village on September 29, 1961. In 1986 he published his biography No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. 4. NEW RECORDINGS ------------------ 4.1 New releases ================ 4.1.1 MTV Unplugged ------------------- MTV Unplugged is released on CD, Cassette, Video, Laserdisc and vinyl double LP. The tracks selected are: On European US CD LP CD LP video recording date Tombstone Blues x x x x x 11/17/94 Shooting Star x x x x x 11/18/94 All Along The Watchtower x x x x x 11/18/94 The Times They Are A-Changin' x x x x x 11/18/94 John Brown x x x x x 11/18/94 Desolation Row x x x x x 11/17/94 Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35 x x x x x 11/18/94 Love Minus Zero/No Limit x x x 11/17/94 Dignity x x x x x 11/18/94 Knockin' On Heaven's Door x x x x x 11/18/94 Like A Rolling Stone x x x x x 11/18/94 With God On Our Side x x x x x 11/17/94 On the European CD and LP versions Knockin' On Heaven's Door was originally released with an overdubbed three second loop of audience hand clapping and whistling, making the track virtually unlistenable. This overdub was removed on later releases and Sony Music replaced the CD at the customers wish. Dignity, John Brown and Knockin' On Heaven's Door are also released as CD and cassette singles in various versions. On one of the Dignity singles It Ain't Me, Babe from Renaldo & Clara (Cambridge, MA, November 20, 1975) is released for the first time. 4.1.2 Highway 61 Interactive ---------------------------- The CD-ROM "Highway 61 Interactive" contains a number of "worlds" which the user can visit and check out various scenes with photographs and memorabilia, listen to interviews or song snippets, and watch videos. Lyrics to most released Dylan songs are included. The CD-ROM was produced by Graphix Zone Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment, 1995. It contains one song, "House of the Rising Sun", that is playable on an ordinary CD player and 1879 files totaling 612,781,934 bytes for use on a multimedia computer. The same CD-ROM works both on a PC (with MS-Windows) and on a Macintosh computer. There are at least two official releases of the CD-ROM plus a promo release. The latter is rumored to contain some early material (1958), which was excluded on the official releases. The main difference between the different official releases seems to be that some bugs in the earlier release(s) have been fixed, e.g. that the program hanged when you tried to save your progresses. The CD-ROM contains among other things: 8 Dylan interviews 7 pictures and paintings by Dylan 103 Dylan songs (most only snippets: 15-60 seconds) - 23 videos - 12 unreleased but circulating - 12 previously uncirculated - 2 unreleased videos from The Supper Club 1993 14 songs by other artists. The videos are: Blood In My Eyes, Promotion Video Blowin' In The Wind, From "Hard Rain" TV Blowin' In The Wind, Live w. intro, photos Dignity, MTV Unplugged video Girl From The North Country, Live in MSG Hattie Carroll, Live Leicester, 650502 If You See Her, Say Hello, Renaldo & Clara Isis, from Renaldo & Clara, Montreal Jokerman, Promotion video Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Album parade Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Live MSG Maggie's Farm, Live, Newport 1965 Masters Of War, Video illustrated - full length My Back Pages, Live in MSG 1992 Only A Pawn ... From Silas Magee's farm Series Of Dreams, Promotion video Simple Twist Of Fate, Video Renaldo & Clara Song To Woody, Pictures of Woody & BD Subterranean Homesick Blues, Don't Look Back - full length Talking New York, Scenes from the Village When He Returns, Live video, Toronto 1980 You Ain't Going Nowhere, Spinning CD The unreleased recordings are: Blue-Eyed Jane from the May 1994 sessions in New Orleans I Shall Be Free No. 10 Like A Rolling Stone 9 different takes Mr. Tambourine Man with Rambling Jack Elliott from Another Side Sessions Note. This information is abstracted from the article "A GUIDE TO THE HIGHWAY 61 INTERACTIVE CD-ROM" or "I wouldn't know how to use it if I had to" by Sven Erick Alm (sea@math.uu.se) with the author's kind permission. Please refer to this excellent work for further details. 4.1.3 Greatest Hits Volume 3 CD+ -------------------------------- The CD Plus Version consists of two disks, with 7 songs on each. The order of the songs is changed compared to the regular, non-multimedia one disk release in order to get the disks in chronological order. Disk one: 1. Knockin' On Heaven's Door Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid 2. Forever Young Planet Waves 3. Tangled Up In Blue Blood On The Tracks 4. Hurricane Desire 5. Changing Of The Guards Street-Legal 6. Gotta Serve Somebody Slow Train Coming 7. The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar Shot Of Love Disk two: 1. Jokerman Infidels 2. Series Of Dreams Bootleg Series Vol. 3 3. Brownsville Girl Knocked-Out Loaded 4. Silvio Down In The Groove 5. Ring Them Bells Oh Mercy 6. Dignity Greatest Hits Vol. 3 7. Under The Red Sky Under The Red Sky The 14 audio tracks are playable on an ordinary CD player, but can also be played on a computer from the Audio and Lyrics sections of the CD Plus. Multimedia Content ------------------ The Main Menu of the CD Plus contains the following sections: Audio Plays the audio tracks, shows photos/credits Lyrics Plays the audio tracks, showing the lyrics with the current line highlighted. Clicking on a line in the lyrics makes the audio jump to that line. Catalog Shows the album covers of all Dylan albums. Clicking on a cover plays a short sample (15 seconds) from one of the songs and shows the song titles or the liner notes/song credits. Video Each disk contains a full length video, see below. Discography Contains the albums represented on the CD Plus disguised as tape boxes. Clicking on a box brings up that album, where you can hear short (15 seconds) samples from all songs on the album. Photos Contains photos of Dylan with accompanying music samples. Parts of the Jokerman video is also showed. Biography Contains a time axis covering the period 1972-1989. Clicking on a year shows information about Dylan's activities that year and plays a music sample. Video ----- Disk one: Tangled Up In Blue (Live, Boston, MA, November 21,1975) Disk two: Series Of Dreams (Promotional video) In addition, there are several samples from the Jokerman video in the Photos Section on both discs. Note. This information is abstracted from the "Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 CD Plus. A summary of the audio content." by Sven Erick Alm (sea@math.uu.se) with the author's kind permission. Please refer to this excellent work for further details. 4.2 Recordings from 1995 ======================== (Please note that this section does not include the shows of the Never-Ending tour. They are covered in section 5 below). July 27 Guesting The Rolling Stones =========================== Espace Grammont, Montpellier, France 1. Like A Rolling Stone Bob Dylan (guitar and shared vocal) plus The Rolling Stones. Stereo audience recording, 6 minutes. Sep 2 Opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum ================================================ Cleveland Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio 1. All Along The Watchtower 2. Just Like A Woman 3. Seeing The Real You At Last 4. Highway 61 Revisited 5. Forever Young Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar), Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar), John Jackson (guitar), Tony Garnier (bass), Winston Watson (drums & percussion). 5 Bruce Springsteen (guitar & shared vocal). Broadcast live by various TV-stations in the US. Stereo TV broadcast, 28 minutes. Nov 19 Frank Sinatra 80th Birthday Tribute =================================== Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California 1. Restless Farewell Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar), Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar), John Jackson (guitar), Tony Garnier (bass), Winston Watson (drums) and a string quartet with unidentified musicians. Broadcast in "Sinatra: 80 Years My Way" by various television networks all around the world on Frank Sinatra's birthday December 12, 1995. Stereo TV recording, 6 minutes. 4.3 New tapes ========= 4.3.1 The Emmett Grogan Acetates -------------------------- All tracks previously released except where noted. Most tracks are longer than the released versions and several contain comments by the producer, Tom Wilson. June 9, 1964, Columbia Studios, New York City --------------------------------------------- CO 82218 I Don't Believe You CO 82219 Chimes Of Freedom CO 82220 Motorpsycho Nitemare CO 82221 Mr. Tambourine Man (1) CO 82222 All I really Want To Do CO 82223 Black Crow Blues CO 82224 I Shall Be Free # 10 (2) July 26, 1964, Newport Folk Festival, Rhode Island -------------------------------------------------- All I Really Want To Do (3) July 29, 1965, Columbia Studios, New York City ---------------------------------------------- CO 86838 Tombstone Blues Tombstone Blues CO 86839 It Takes A Lot To Laugh CO 86840 Positively 4th Street Positively 4th Street July 30, 1965, Columbia Studios, New York City ---------------------------------------------- CO 86843 From A Buick 6 (so-called rare version) From A Buick 6 (regular version) CO 86844 Please Crawl Out Your Window (4) August 2, 1965, Columbia Studios, New York City ----------------------------------------------- CO 86846 Highway 61 Revisited CO 86847 Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues CO 86848 Queen Jane Approximately Queen Jane Approximately CO 86849 Ballad Of A Thin Man August 4, 1965, Columbia Studios, New York City ----------------------------------------------- CO 86937 Desolation Row (1) unreleased, with Rambling Jack Elliott on the choruses (2) unreleased, except most of last three verses (3) unreleased, except for the last verse, which is in the film FESTIVAL. (4) mistakenly issued as Positively 4th Street 4.3.2 "Bootleg Series Volume 4-5" --------------------------------- A tape from what is supposedly the finalized mastered version of The Bootleg Series Volume 4-5. It has the complete show from Manchester, England May 17, 1966, thus adding a few new tracks, previously not in circulation. 4.3.3 Other new old tapes ------------------------- - a complete audience tape from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, May 4, 1976 is now in circulation. - a 45 minute telephone interview from Portland, Oregon on November 30, 1980. - a full Avigon 1981 PA-tape - a PA-tape from Jones Beach, New York, June 30, 1988