15 NOVEMBER 1979

15 NOVEMBER 1979

WARFIELD THEATER - SAN FRANCISCO, CA

SETLIST:

MONOLOGUE (Regina Havis)/IF I'VE GOT MY TICKET, LORD/IT'S GONNA RAIN/DO LORD, REMEMBER ME/LOOK UP AND LIVE BY FAITH/OH FREEDOM/THIS TRAIN/SERVE SOMEBODY/I BELIEVE IN YOU/WHEN YOU GONNA WAKE UP?/WHEN HE RETURNS/MAN GAVE NAMES TO ALL THE ANIMALS/PRECIOUS ANGEL/SLOW TRAIN COMING/COVENANT WOMAN/PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HAND (Regina Havis, vocals)/GONNA CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING/DO RIGHT TO ME BABY/SOLID ROCK/SAVING GRACE/SAVED/WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU/IN THE GARDEN/BLESSED IS THE NAME/PRESSING ON

COMMENTARY:

This is a very fine concert throughout. Together with the 14 and 16 November shows, these three concerts capture Dylan's 1979 tour at its apex. This show appears to have been attended by a particularly sympathetic crowd which joins in clapping through the faster songs and giving rousing applause to all the performances.

ANNOTATIONS:

MONOLOGUE

"Conductor, you told me that if I didn't have no money, I couldn't ride this train. You even told me that if I didn't have no ticket, I couldn't ride this train."

IF I'VE GOT MY TICKET, LORD

IT'S GONNA RAIN

DO LORD, REMEMBER ME

LOOK UP AND LIVE BY FAITH

OH FREEDOM

THIS TRAIN

SERVE SOMEBODY

1,2,4,guitar,5/3,piano,6

(2) "drugs in your pocket"

(4) "you maybe own guns"

energetic performance by Dylan and nice guitar work by Fred Tackett -- a better recording would be well worth finding

I BELIEVE IN YOU

Dylan comes in midway through a measure with first verse

Brief drop-out on first "oh!" of first chorus (on CBM tape)

Another energetic performance

Strangely foreshortened last guitar figure

Dylan: "Good evening. We're still here. (indecipherable) been here about a month. (laughter) Anyway, we're still here and we know the devil don't like it."

WHEN YOU GONNA WAKE UP?

1,2,4,3,organ/guitar,5,8,7,organ/guitar,9,organ/guitar,outro

another very fine performance and enthusiastic crowd response

WHEN HE RETURNS

preludes with three note arpeggio figure

hits a nice note with "wilderness" beginning an octave lower and building upwards

crowd applause for "take off your mask" and "set up his throne"

audience shouts, some hostile-sounding at times.

MAN GAVE NAMES TO ALL THE ANIMALS

crowd immediately falls in to 4/4 clapping and keeps it up through third stanza then reemerges towards end

audience member near taper mimics Dylan's "ahhhh, think I'll call it . . ." with his own "ahhhh!" (CBM tape)

PRECIOUS ANGEL

cheering for "bone-filled graves"

Dylan: "Well, you read in the newspapers everyday how bad the world is getting. The situation in Iran. The students are rebelling, you know, even over here their rebelling. They won't let the Iranian students into the whorehouses in the valley anymore. Anyway, but that don't bother us because we know this world will be destroyed. Christ will set his kingdom up for a thousand years; we know that it's true. So it's a slow train coming, but it's picking up speed. "

SLOW TRAIN COMING

more stacatto sound to Dylan's singing, very energetic

notations regarding quality of recording, unique attributes to identify performance

COVENANT WOMAN

another nice vocal performance

Dylan: "I'm gonna ask Regina to come out ehre and sing a song called "Put Your Hand In The Hand Of The Man From Galilee"."

PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HAND

1,2,3,guitar solo,

notations regarding quality of recording, unique attributes to identify performance

#EDIT - tape side switch on both source copies

GONNA CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING

very sharp performance, nice strong transitions, especially into guitar solo following "authority on high"

nice chugging organ solo before last stanza

DO RIGHT TO ME BABY

(2) "recommended/defended/buried/married"

(3) "confused/used/be stayed with/be played with"

(4) "?/be betrayed/be missed/not even a doctor or a lawyer or a scientist"

CROWD: "Play an old one!"

SOLID ROCK

"(indecipherable) a false peace to come" - not copyrighted lyrics

Dylan presses tempo again, but band stays with him, last chorus, Dylan strings out pace between "solid rock" and "made . . . before"

Very powerful performance

#EDIT

SAVING GRACE

Short burst of applause after first stanza

SAVED

Dylan begins a cappella

Crowd immediately falls into fast clapping along with music

Ecstatic response from crowd

WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU

Dylan leads with "you . . . have . . . given everything…" instead of a first riff refrain

"well, you done it all and there's no more anyone or anybody can do"

crowd member yells "thank you!" after Dylan's second harp solo

"I don't deserve it but I have, I sure have made it through"

IN THE GARDEN

Dylan again starts right in, fast pace, letting the band fill in behind him

"when they heard him speak in the city" (twice) then "when he spoke to them in the city"

#EDIT - during applause

Dylan: "Thank you. On keyboards tonight, on keyboards tonight, Spooner Oldham, give him a hand. On lead guitar, Fred Tackett. On the other set of keyboards, Terry Young. Playing drums tonight, (Jim Keltner?). On bass guitar, Tim Drummond. And singing on the bottom tonight, Helena Springs. In the middle, Regina Havis. And on top, Mona Lisa Young. Remember now, (?) is flesh and blood."

BLESSED IS THE NAME

fast and crowd claps along throughout again

Keltner does a surfer backbeat after second chorus

#EDIT - during applause, clips first piano notes

PRESSING ON

nice vocal performance

backing singers come in on second "pressing on" of second stanza

backing singers are much more prominent in mix and band stays restrained throughout -- very nice effect

SOURCES:

Two known reference tapes circulating:

The first (151179CBMC) is a mono audience recording which lacks the seven opening songs by the band and lacks the eighth song, "Put Your Hand In The Hand Of The Man From Galilee" by the band and sung by Regina Havis following "Covenant Woman."

This recording is marred by a fast recording speed, low levels, heavy bass, and some highly obtrusive audience chatter throughout, especially on the quieter songs. There are brief drop-outs during "I Believe In You," "When He Returns" and "Do Right To Me Baby". The audience chatter at times becomes completely distracting and detracts from an otherwise excellent performance.

The second (151179JFMC) is a mono, single channel, audience recording which includes all eight songs performed by the band, but lacks both encores, "Blessed Is The Name" and "Pressing On".

This recording is marred by a brief drop out during "I Believe In You" and tape speed fluctuations during "Change My Way Of Thinking."

ANNOTATION KEY:

BLACK TEXT = Confirmed Performance/Comments/Observations

RED TEXT = Flaw or Missing/Unconfirmed Portion of Recording

BLUE TEXT = Dylan's Comments or Statements Transcribed

GREEN TEXT = Notable Performance in my opinion

The purpose of these annotations is to assist listeners in identifying recordings. All annotations reflect any cross-referencing between source recordings, thus edits and omissions which occur on one source tape, but not another, are not reported. The "Sources" section is modeled after Simon's notes in the Unofficial Bob Dylan Free Tape Library.