75 greatest Dylan shows.

On this recent tour The Dylan has passed the 2000th show mark of the Endless Tour, at least the part that began in 1987. Of course there were at least a thousand or two before that. Here via the expecting.rain community is a list of the fans' most highly rated shows. Most of these are available for download somewhere on the web, many at expectingrain. Also try bobboots.com for info on bootlegs.

The Final List: The Top 75 Dylan Concerts

November 4, 1961 – Carnegie Chapter Hall, New York, NY
July 2, 1962 – Finjan Club, Montreal, Quebec
October, 1962 – Gaslight Café, New York, NY
April 12, 1963 – Town Hall, New York, NY
October 26, 1963 – Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
May 7, 1965 – Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England
July 25, 1965 – Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI
September 3, 1965 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
December 4, 1965 – Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA
April 12, 1966 – Sydney Stadium, Sydney, Australia
May 16, 1966 – Gaumont Theatre, Sheffield, England
May 17, 1966 – Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England
January 20, 1968 – Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert, New York, NY
August 31, 1969 – Isle of Wight, England
February 14, 1974 (afternoon) – The Forum, Los Angeles, CA
October 31, 1975 – War Memorial Auditorium, Plymouth, MA
November 11, 1975 – Palace Theater, Waterbury, CT
November 21, 1975 (evening) – Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA
December 1, 1975 – Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
December 8, 1975 – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
May 3,1976 - The Warehouse New Orleans, Louisiana
May 16, 1976 – Tarrant County Convention Center Arena, Fort Worth, TX
May 23, 1976 – Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
July 6, 1978 – Pavillon de Paris, Paris, France
December 10, 1978 – Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC
November 16, 1979 – Fox Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA
April 20, 1980 – Massey Hall, Toronto, CA
November 15, 1980 – Fox Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA
June 29, 1981 – Earls Court, London, England
July 25, 1981 – Palace des Sports, Avignon, France
November 10, 1981 – Saenger Performing Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
November 12, 1981 – The Summit, Houston, TX
June 28, 1984 – Minestadio, Barcelona, Spain
February 24, 1986 – Entertainment Centre, Sydney, Australia
September 12, 1987 – Autodroma, Modena, Italy
June 10, 1988 – The Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA
June 30, 1988 – Jones Beach Music Theater, Wantaugh, PA
October 19, 1988 – Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY
February 8, 1990 – Hammersmith Odeon, London, England
May 9, 1992 – State University, San Jose, CA
September 12, 1993 – Greet Woods Performing Arts Center, Mansfield, MA
November 16, 1993 (both) – The Supper Club, New York, NY
November 17, 1993 (both) – The Supper Club, New York, NY
August 14, 1994 – Woodstock ’94, West Saugerties, NY
October 8, 1994 – Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA
March 11, 1995 – Congress Hall, Prague, Czech Republic
March 30, 1995 – Brixton Academy, London, England
March 31, 1995 – Brixton Academy, London, England
June 17, 1996 – Tempodrome, Berlin, Germany
December 8, 1997 – Irving Plaza, New York, NY
December 19, 1997 – El Rey Theater, Los Angeles, CA
May 19, 1998 – San Jose Arena, San Jose, CA
June 9, 1998 – Globe Arena, Stockholm, Sweden
April 28, 1999 – Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, Slovenia
June 14, 1999 – University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
November 14, 1999 – Centrum Arena, Worcester, MA
March 10, 2000 (late) – Sun Theatre, Anaheim, CA
March 15, 2000 – Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA
March 16, 2000 – Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA
September 24, 2000 – Guildhall, Portsmouth, England
September 25, 2000 – Guildhall, Portsmouth, England
October 1, 2000 – Halle Muensterland, Muenster, Germany
October 6, 2000 – Wembley Arena, London, England
October 5, 2001 – Spokane Arena, Spokane, WA
February 9, 2002 – Phillips Arena, Atlanta, GA
October 7, 2002 – Tehama County Fairgrounds, Red Bluff, CA
November 13, 2002 – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
November 23, 2003 – Shepherds Bush Empire, London, England
November 24, 2003 – Hammersmith Apollo, London, England
November 25, 2003 – Brixton Academy, London, England
July 10, 2004 – Estadia Municipal Escribano Castilla, Motril, Spain
November 13, 2004 – Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
November 27, 2005 – The Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
November 12, 2006 – Agganis Arena, Boston, MA
November 20, 2006 – New York City Center, New York, NY






Dylan, Not Dark Yet and Trying to Get to Heaven, 2000

Here are a couple of late Bob Dylan compositions, Not Dark Yet and Trying to Get to Heaven, both performed in 2000. Some of his darker ones, not exactly uplifting. But I want to put up examples of his later songs that most people aren't familiar with, they tend to grow on you. There seems to an awful lot of good stuff from his tour of England in 2000. Lyrics here: Not Dark Yet and Trying to Get to Heaven.




Not Dark Yet, Sheffield, Great Britain, 2000





Trying to Get to Heaven, Birmingham, Great Britain, 2000


Note the reference to Woody Guthrie's This Train is Bound for Glory. Bob's a long way from Woody's " This train is bound for glory, Don't carry nothing but the righteous and the holy. This train is bound for glory, this train." He's been on the train, ridden it a very long way and back again, and he knows that there's more than just the righteous and the holy on it, and now he's waiting for what's next, not exactly looking forward to it. He visualizes getting into heaven the same as trying to make it onto a train pulling out of town, trying to run fast enough to make it before the boxcar door closes.






Bob Dylan video - Series of Dreams.

Here's a truly outstanding Bob Dylan song, Series of Dreams, a genuine Dylan masterpiece that hardly anybody's ever heard. Watch it closely, there are hundreds of images that come and go very quickly. I just love this song, one of Bob's best ever.




This one is from YouTube, which has tons of Dylan performances over the years. But Sony/Columbia also has a page with some more great Dylan videos. "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky" and "Sweetheart LIke You" are also quite excellent. The Sony page also links to lots of other Sony videos and music. I guess I'm really out of it these days. I don't recognize even the names of most of the bands.






Bob Dylan's radio show.

Bob Dylan's got a new radio show on XM satellite radio, Theme Time Radio, "Themes, Dreams and Schemes", and it's just great, and you can find playlists and maybe even links to download the shows here. Each show has a theme. I particular recommend the Baseball episode, and maybe the Summer one for a hot evening. Amazing journeys through American music, he knows and loves it all.






Dead finish first leg of tour

The good ol' Grateful Dead have finished up the first leg of their Summer Getaway tour, the part with Steve Winwood and Willie Nelson, with an amazing night run at Red Rocks amphitheatre in Colorado, where they've played 25 times over the years. Mickey Hart continues to blog the tour on his Trip Diary. Sounds like the last shows came off well.


Second leg is through the midwest with Bob Dylan and Robert Hunter, and then a couple of California shows. But just a few. Closest to me is in Irvine, don't know if I want to drive down there or not. It'd be a lot of hassle. But these shows are each jewels, something to savor, really worth it in the end. Dylan's a big dead head, these guys playing at their best could inspire to who knows what?

Robert Hunter, longtime songwriter for the Dead, has also been keeping a journal of his own recent touring. Also worth a read.






Mickey Hart blogs the Dead tour.

As I mentioned before, the Grateful Dead are back on tour, and Mickey Hart is keeping an online tripdiary of it. Here's a selection from June 17th describing the latest technological innovations, the merging/melding of light and sound.


They're playing with some great folks on this tour. Steve Winwood, then Willie Nelson, then Bob Dylan. With lots of surprises and friends along the way. Joan Osborne is also along to add some sweet vocals.


Warning though. This is the poorest blog design I've ever seen, although he doesn't really call it a blog, so maybe that's a bad criticism. But it's Flash-based (always a bad design decision, IMHO), and hard to access. But worth it if you can get through.

I don't really understand his repeated claims that American democracy is a great thing, occasioned by shows in Virginia and Maryland and visits from folks in Washington, DC, but who am I to quibble? Mickey's probably the most optimistic man in America, relentlessly so, which is great, but not if it blinds him to the truth. I guess I am glad to hear that there are quite a few politicians in DC who are Dead fans though. That's certainly encouraging. Here's a quote from the June 18th entry on that.


One more note. If you can't make any of the shows, you can buy CD sets of each one almost as soon as they're finished playing. Go here for those. They keep adding shows too, so stay posted. And if you want to listen right now, there's gdradio.com.


The music never stops with these guys. I'm so glad they're back. :)






The Dead begin their summer tour.

The Grateful Dead, renamed and rejuvenated as The Dead, hit the road yet once again, starting at Bonnaroo in Tennessee. And Mickey Hart is keeping an online journal of it all. More info on the tour here.


Still no news about the west coast leg, but they keep adding shows and such, so I guess it's a work in progress.






Ol' Robert Hunter is cooking these days.

Checked the online journal of the longtime Grateful Dead songwriter, and it sounds like he's really rolling along. Doing tours, both solo and with The Dead, and most especially, writing tons of songs, something worth noting from the guy who wrote "Trucking."


Good to hear from someone who must be pushing sixty or so by now. Also read what he has to say about the technology behind the new gdradio.com, something called Sonic Focus. Sounds like the guys are really getting going again. Hard to believe but they've got about five bands going on now. Anyway, check out Hunter sometime. He's a real cosmic curmudgeon, always worth a read. Still lots of tickets available for the summer Dead tour, if anyone's interested. They haven't announced the west coast part yet though.






Dylan albums to be released in the new Super Audio CD (SACD) format.

While cruising Bob's site looking for the lyrics to Neighborhood Bully, I noticed this announcement.


Summer tour information is also available there. Note the shows with The Dead.






The Dead will be selling instant CDs of live shows.

Munckmix, the new music distributor for the band, announced that it will begin selling "Official Concert Recordings" of each night's show right on the spot, plus a collection of the CDs from the entire tour.


I've heard of some other bands doing this, but I guess it's going to become a regular practice. It does make a nice souvenir. It also shows that while modern technology may threaten some traditional forms of music sales and distribution, it also allows for new ways to make money. Here are some more ways: include a discounted version with the ticket purchase; allow folks who can't follow the tour to subscribe to it, that'd be real popular; and last but not least, webcast the entire friggin' tour live. Why not? People would pay.






More on Dylan: he's got a new movie coming out.

Wandering around Bob's site (bobdylan.com), I found this link to a new movie he's made, called "Masked and Anonymous". Sounds very, shall I say, dylanesque.


"Skimming, scamming, scheming." Ooh, I like that. Check out this cast:


Wow. Hard to see this cast making a bad movie, especially with Cheech around to keep them laughing. Lots of interesting connections here. Bridges and Goodman were both in the Coen brothers "The Big Liebowitz." Jessica Lange is married to Sam Shepherd, with whom Bob Dylan once wrote an incredible song named Brownsville Girl. OK, cross a Coen brothers movie with a Sam Shepherd play and a Bob Dylan concert and set it "in an America wracked by a endless and senseless civil war." Sounds good to me. Hey, at least it's not a sequel or a remake.

Bob made a movie before, Renaldo and Clara, way back in the seventies. There are two versions, an awesome four hour one, and a two hour abridged one. I remember seeing the four hour version when it came out. It was roundly panned by the critics but I thought it was great. Tons of great music, Allen Ginsberg reading poetry, visit to an Indian reservation, all sorts of interesting stuff.

In fact this all reminds me of the lyrics to Brownsville Girl, which is a classic slice of Americana, and, curiously, about a movie, among other things.





Columbia Records offering custom-made Dylan CDs.

This was announced in February but I just found out about it. What a great idea.


For those who don't want to buy, there's a great page of live performances in Real Audio format on the official Bob Dylan site.






Great Dylan show I missed.

I left Eugene a couple of days before Dylan's concert there. From the sound of this review in Counterpunch, I sure missed a great show. What's really surprising, and rather neat, is that rather than demanding he play his old songs, it would seem that most folks there were looking for him to play the new ones. Pretty great thing for one of the "rock dinosaurs" in his 60s. I have to confess that the more I listen to his latest the more I like it. Anyway, sounds like I should have stayed for the show. Oh well. Maybe next time around.

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