Positively Bob Dylan » Live

European Tour Finale 2011 with Mark Knopfler

Mike Hobo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:12:48 +0000

On November 21st Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler wrapped up their 2011 European tour in London, performing a rare duet of “Forever Young” at the Hammersmith Apollo. Even though Knopfler had constantly joined Dylan’s band on stage playing guitar, the fans had to wait until the last song of the last show of this tour to enjoy them singing a song together.
Mark Knopfler had collaborated with Dylan for the first time more than 30 years ago, playing guitar on the album “Slow Train Coming” (with the hit single and Grammy-awarded “Gotta Serve Somebody”), and producing his album “Infidels” in 1983 including the beautiful classic outtake “Blind Willie McTell”.

The YouTube-user “Knopflermania” created this nice split-screen video version based on two previously uploaded audience cam videos. Thanks, and enjoy!

Have you been there? Post your opinion on the performance!

Bob Dylan live at 53rd Grammys

Mike Hobo — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:31:06 +0000

Bob Dylan performed his 1965 classic “Maggie’s Farm” at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 13, accompanied by a backing band including members of the younger folk-based bands “Mumford & Sons” and “The Avett Brothers”. Enjoy!

In my flashforward I had breakfast with Bob Dylan

Mike Hobo — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:41:37 +0000

An Internet video of Bob Dylan’s 1976 “Hard Rain” live version of “Shelter from the Storm” is featured in episode 9 (“Believe”) of the first season of the ABC TV-series “FlashForward”. The woman Bryce saw in his flashforward – Japanese office employee Keiko Arahida – watches the video on her PC in the office, trying to learn how to play the guitar like Dylan.

The full song is also used as a background song at the end of episode 9.
Learn more about the live version and the album “Hard Rain”, as well as the original song and the original album “Blood on the Tracks”. You can also rate the song and post your comments.

From Iceland to Portugal

Mike Hobo — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:53:21 +0000

Bob is currently touring Europe again. In six weeks he will have played 30 venues in 16 countries, all the way from Iceland trough Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, Italy, and Spain to Portugal. For the first time Bob is going to play 11 concerts in one country – Spain, where he opens his tour at the Zaragoza Expo 2008. He also has recorded a new version of “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall”, and participates in the international promotion for the event.

UPDATE: Due to a copyright claim, the song had to be removed from the promotion video.

It’s Rolling Thunder hat time again!

Mike Hobo — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:26:52 +0000

Bob seems to have found his RTR hat again. In a series of recent gigs he performed wearing a hat that looked like the one from the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Keep on keepin’ on, Bob – it still fits!

Any opinions on that?

Rollin’ and tumblin’ through Europe

Mike Hobo — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:56:03 +0000

It was a unique experience for 800 lucky fans to be privileged to see Bob Dylan play a rare club gig at the Debaser in Stockholm. Dylan and his “Modern Times” touring band (Tony Garnier, Stu Kimball, Danny Freeman, George Recile, Donnie Herron) are currently touring Europe for a number of concerts in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France.
While the live audience is happy to see Dylan playing his Fender guitar again, those fans who did not have the chance to grab a ticket are being surprised by a number of good-quality bootleg audience recordings of the first shows. So far it seems that Dylan performs more new songs than usual after having released a new studio album. Apart from the always very loose selection of classics and live rarities (“Cat’s In the Well”, “Country Pie”, “Tears of Rage”), this time Dylan’s setlists also included the new “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”, “Thunder On the Mountain”, “When the Deal Goes Down”, “Nettie Moore”, and “The Levee’s Gonna Break”.

It’s the simple fact that each of Dylan’s live performances is different from the previous one, and the audience never really knows what to expect both in terms of the setlist and the way of interpretation of that wild selection from the Dylan repertoire, that still entertains the audience and keeps them coming back again. Just like a bottle of good red wine, the fascination with Bob Dylan grows every time you experience him – live or on record.

In June 2007 Dylan and his Neverending Tour band will return to the US and Canada.

Official Tour Information

Piano Man Standing

Mike Hobo — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:37:12 +0000

For the past three years Dylan was rarely ever seen performing on stage with a guitar. The typical set-up was him playing on the left side of the stage standing in front of a keyboard, the other musicians on their usual spots. Only for two or three occasions a night he moved into the center of the stage to play his harp.
Something is happening and we don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones? Why is he exchanging his guitars for a keyboard? The most likely reason is that Bob might be suffering from arthritis. Also his sets are no longer than 90 minutes, about 30 minutes less than a usual rock concert. But what’s “usual” in the world of Bob Dylan anyway? Isn’t it the variety of styles, performances and interpretations of songs that fascinates us the most? And having heard a few of his latest live sets, he seems to enjoy the jam-session like stage set-up. There is no electric and acoustic set anymore and his set-list mainly includes songs from the mid-60s and his latest two albums. Bob might not be a piano man like Billy Joel or Elton John, but the new arrangements are interesting to an audience that has heard the songs a million times and thinks to know them by heart.

Bandanas in a hard rain 30 years ago

Mike Hobo — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 16:39:16 +0000

Following the release of “Desire” Dylan continued his Rolling Thunder Revue in 1976, but it was hard if not impossible to recreate the spontaneity of the 1975 tour. When the Revue finally performed in Fort Collins on May 23rd, it just seemed so symbolic that in probably one of their best shows of the tour they had to confront a hard rain. The concert had been recorded on film (for an NBC broadcast) and for an album, both entitled “Hard Rain”.
The show was recorded at the Hughes Stadium of the Colorado University and broadcast on TV on September 14. Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, T-Bone Burnett, Scarlet Rivera, Rob Stoner, Bob Neuwirth, Mick Ronson and Howie Wyeth joined Dylan among others from the 1975 leg of the tour.
A month after the “Hard Rain” concert and 30 years ago on April 22, 1976 (Mike Hobo’s 4th birthday), they performed at the Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Clearwater, Florida. This indoor show had also been recorded for TV, but has never been officially released.
Fanmade DVDs of both TV recordings are circulating among traders. Now on the 30th anniversary of “Hard Rain” one can only wonder why there still is no official product available.

Fanmade DVD of Belleview Biltmore Hotel concert, Clearwater April 22, 1976

Unreleased Dylan performances to be included on new DVD

Mike Hobo — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 12:44:17 +0000

In August 1971 George Harrison gathered his friends for what has probably become the world’s first benefit concert, “The Concert for Bangladesh”. A new DVD version of the concert movie including never before seen footage will soon be released.

Bob Dylan had his own acoustic set at the end of the concert, where he played “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”, “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Just Like A Woman”. The new DVD version will also include “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” which was not included in the original movie, as well as George and Bob rehearsing “If Not For You”. Proceeds will go to UNICEF.

Dylan on Live Aid DVD

Mike Hobo — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:18:30 +0000

On November 8, 2004 –about 20 years after the legendary original benefit concert which took place on July 13, 1985– an official 4 DVD set was finally released. The DVDs have been produced by Bob Geldof’s company, Woodcharm Ltd., and feature ten hours of concert footage, a documentary, as well as the music videos to the benefit singles “We Are The World” (with Bob Dylan) and “Do They Know It’s Christmas”.

The song “Blowin’ In The Wind” with Keith Richards and Ron Wood has been included on disc 4. Their original set at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia consisted of two more songs, “Ballad Of Hollis Brown”, and “When The Ship Comes In” which both remain unreleased on DVD. Recordings from the original TV broadcast can be found on YouTube though.

To Bob Dylan enthusiasts, the acoustic performance will not remain in their memory as a highlight of Dylan’s live history: It was rather weak, probably due to technical sound problems. As Dylan later stated, he could hardly hear anything from the monitor speakers, which made it difficult to play properly on the huge stage.

Apart from live performance, Dylan had been criticized for a statement he had made in front of a worldwide audience of more than one billion people:

“I hope that some of the money (..) maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe (..) one or two million (…) and use it to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and the farmers here, owe to the banks.” [from: Sounes, "Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan", p. 367]

However, the inappropriate statement did inspire Willie Nelson to organize the Farm Aid charity concert series, to benefit American farmers plunged in debt.