Bob Dylan 980620 in Newcastle, England
Newcastle Arena
Capacity: 10,200
Double bill with Van Morrison
Showtime: 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: Setlist (complete) 20 June 1998, Newcastle, England
From: Ben Taylor (bptaylor@laguna.demon.co.uk)
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 02:40:04 +0100
Morris Z wrote:
>1. Gotta Serve Somebody
>2. If Not For You
>3. Cold Irons Bound
>4. Simple Twist of Fate
>5. Silvio
>6. To Ramona@
>7. Masters of War@
>8. Love Minus Zero/No Limit@
>9. Tangled Up In Blue@
>10. Forever Young@
>11. Hard Rain@
>12. Highway 61 Revisited
>13. Love Sick
>14. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Thanks Morris, you were very quick off the mark, I'm impressed.
The arena in Newcastle was awash with folks who had spent all day
drinking, one supposes in preparation for the show but I can't quite
see how. Beer swilled this way and that, including over the front of
my shirt, as people moved through the crowd during the show. This
had its predictable effect on audience behaviour - Van's set was
ruined by someone yelling out the lines whenever Van paused to take
a breath. Pretty obnoxious all round and some tempers flared.
However, when Bob came on stage, speaker volume drowned out any
distracting noises and the irritating people had either settled further
away from me, or I had moved out of their way.
Very happy to have heard the Gotta Serve Somebody opener. Nigh on
a privilege. The words were sung clearly and confidently, this was no
unrehearsed try-out. We even got some new lyric variations (have
these been sung before?). Here they are:
Might be the devil, might be the Lord
But you all got to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Might be the devil, might be the Lord
But we all got to serve somebody (serve somebody)
(bracketed words sung by the band)
The tag line is usually sung, "But you're gonna have to serve
somebody". The main verses were as previously performed, live and/or
in the studio.
This show should perhaps be subtitled, "Unplugged Take Two". Six
acoustic songs in a row. I was beginning to think they had completely
dicarded their electric instruments. All the songs one might choose
for a best-of compilation from past acoustic sets and all superb.
Tangled Up In Blue was excellent, and had the new lyrics referred to
here by Carsten as having been aired in Germany.
So he drifted on down to New Orleans
Working for the night and day
Working for a while on a fishing boat
While his mind was slipping away
(This verse was pretty much always sung, "So I drifted down to New
Orleans/ Where I was lucky to be employed/ Working for a while on a
fishin' boat/ Right outside of Delacroix")
Bob Dylan is back! He never went away of course but these days he's
always starting anew. New songs in the setlist (Gotta Serve
Somebody), rewritten lyrics (Tangled Up In Blue) and setlist
innovations (6 acoustic songs).
Great sound, great setlist, great performance.
Yours gratefully,
Ben Taylor
--
bptaylor@laguna.demon.co.uk
Subject: UK Tour The Home-Baked Granary Loaves Fresh From The Oven...
From: Ed Ricardo (edu@edlis.org)
Reply-To:
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 21:01:58 GMT
Organization: EDLIS
The technology these days leaves one breathless.
I don't know what other rec.music.dylan readers think of the UK 1998
tour tapes, but the people at this house are dancing on the ceilings.
Six acoustics in a row. Roving Blade. Tangled Up In Blue acoustic
with harmonica. And we are only entering day three of the tour!
Gotta Serve Somebody
[audience cheers and clapping and hooting, Newcastle accents]
[Driving rhythmic bass, alive band]
May be ambassador to England or France, [high pitch] [clapping dies
down slowly]
You may like to gambllle, you might like to daannce, [ski slope
pronunciation of daannce]
You may be the heavyweight champion of the whirrll,
May be a socialite with a [breath] long string of pearl
But you gotta serve somebodyyy, [Ooooh ooh ooh audience shouts]
You got to serve somebodyyy, [crackly voice] [Oooooh shouts]
Might be the devill, might be the Lorrd
But we allll got to serve somebbodddy.
Might be a city council bill taking bribes on the side,
Might be someone's baby, might be somebody's briiide [up down voice]
You may be rich or pooor, may be blind or lame, [boom voice like a
kid]
Livin' in another country, under another naamme.
You got to serve somebodyyy, [Background Boys: Serve somebody!]
You've got to serve somebodyyy, [Background Boys: Serve somebody!]
Might be the devilll, might be the Lorrd
But we all got to serve somebbodddddy. [Background Boys: Serve
somebody!]
[Musical interlude, driving on]
Might be the Labour leader, if you own a home, [Tony Blair?!?]
Might be living in a mansion, might be livin' in somebody else's
home,
You might be at home in and you might even own tanks,
Might even be somebody's brother, maybe even own banks
You got to serve somebodyyy, [Background Boys: Seve somebody!]
You got to serve somebodyyy, [Background Boys: Serve somebody!]
Might be the devilll, might be the Lorrd
But we all got to serve somebboddy. [Voice shakin' like a Yoruba
sugaree!]
[Long musical wandering towards the rest of the show, drums forward,
light traces of Hawaiin flavour leading into clapping, cheering and
some barking (human not dog). Newcastle is underway on a Saturday
night!]
Those mountain boys in the background, you are gonna love 'em if you
haven't heard 'em yet.
And Tangled Up In Blue!?!
[band alive, tinklin']
He had a job in the Great North Woods
Workin' as a cook for a spell [/up high emphasis]
He never liked it all that much
And one day the axe just fell [/up high emphasis]
So he drifted on down to New Orleans
Workin' both a-night and day [/up high emphasis]
Workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
While his mind was slippin' away [/up high emphasis]
All the while that he was alone
You know the past was close behind [/up high emphasis]
He'd seen a lot of women
But you know she never did escape his mind, an' he just grew
Tangled up in blue.
She was workin' in a topless place
I stopped in for a beer...
Ummm, better stop, some of those New York City women don't like
anything too, welll, Dylanesque. ;-)
Wellll, as we have been saying on the net for over a decade now, all
circulating tapes circulate. That is what it means. As always just
ask.
It doesn't happen overnight, well ok it does some of the time or I
wouldn't be writing about Newcastle minutes before Glasgow, but use
your regular sources and be patient. If you need contacts as always
tapes@edlis.org
stands by ready to advise the hungry and forlorn.
And thanks to Bob and all at Sony dedicated to stealth taping
equipment and live music. Field recordings indeed! Sing I Wish I Was
A Mole In The Ground, Bob, with your mountain boys on chorus, and I
will personally pass a hat amongst the bootleggers and illegal tapers
to help your pension plan. We won't let you starve.
I am impressed what these wee cigarette packet size machines do with
fine microphones. Bear in mind in my day, speaking as a wrinkly, we
used to put a rather large tape recorder into a venue, finding a
socket for mains electricity, we knew no one locally with a
professional battery tape recorder. And we used huge microphones,
finding places to hide them. I still walk into a venue and find my
eye wanderin', no not to the pretty young girls, but to the mains
outlets wondering how the cleaners plug in their vacuum cleaners...
These young whippersnappers will sit beside you with no apparent sign
of technology, and then back at the rec.music.dylan party what comes
out of a pocket and seeping from the speakers behind the bar...
Discretion is the better part of valour. Wellll, if the sixties ever
come back I'll show you how to take parts out of a bleacher and fit in
a Revox reel to reel, but for now I'll settle back with these
home-baked DATs and not complain that it is all too easy. Bob still
has to work for a living. ;-)
Ed
Havana Upon Tyne
edu@edlis.org
--
Well the fat's in the fire, and the water's in the tank
Well the whiskey's in the jar and the money's in the bank
I tried to love and protect you because I cared
I'm going to remember forever the joy we've shared
Looking at you, and I'm on my bended knee
You've no idea what you did to me
I'm twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound.
