6 NOVEMBER 1979

6 NOVEMBER 1979

WARFIELD THEATER - SAN FRANCISCO, CA

SETLIST:

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/WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR HEART (Helena Springs, vocals)/GONNA CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING/DO RIGHT TO ME BABY/SOLID ROCK/SAVING GRACE/WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU/SAVED/IN THE GARDEN/BLESSED IS THE NAME/PRESSING ON

COMMENTARY:

By 6 November the band has the material and any nerves firmly in hand. This night they exhibit well-balanced tight performances of all of the Slow Train material, especially Man Gave Names, Change My Way Of Thinking, and Slow Train. However, the real gems occur with the Saved material, including superlative performances of Covenant Woman, Saving Grace, and What Can I Do For You. The rest of this concert is quite good, a judgment perhaps exaggerated by the nice sound quality of the recording, but nevertheless one of the best shows from the Fox Warfield stand.

Curiously, the end of the concert seems to drop off in quality. In fact, as unlikely as it may be, the concert shows significantly less fire fron the point where an audience member near the taper yells "Boring!" towards the latter half of What Can I Do For You. The performances thence forward feel more tentative, less powerful. Simialrly, the audience behavior during this performance of Pressing On captures the broad range of responses Dylan faced most evenings on this tour. There are scattered boos and shouts of "Boring!" from those who were disappointed by this new Dylan before them, while scattered others shouted encouragement, sometimes explicitly Christian encouragement. The larger audience clapped along, enjoyed the music and applauded enthusiatically throughout.

ANNOTATIONS:

Audience Chatter: "Have you seen this? (Inaudible) I think it's great."

SERVE SOMEBODY

1,2/3,4,guitar,5/new,keyboards,6 inverted

(2) "drugs at your command"

(5/new): "you may be broken down by the devil's hand; living in a mansion where the devil be"

(6 inverted): "whiskey/milk/cotton/silk"

I BELIEVE IN YOU

drum roll on ending

Dylan: "God don't make promises that he don't keep."

Crowd: "Amen! Hallelujah!"

WHEN YOU GONNA WAKE UP?

Dylan begins off-time with first words, forcing hiccup in drums

1,2,3,6,organ/guitar,5,8,7,organ/guitar,9,organ/outro refrain

WHEN HE RETURNS

audience chatter: "amen," etc., then complete silence.

"wildernnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeessssssssssss" ; "conceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaal"

MAN GAVE NAMES TO ALL THE ANIMALS

audible ice in drink glass at outset

very tight performance and nice sound

PRECIOUS ANGEL

crowd applause at first notes

again very tight and nice sound

obtrusive audience chatter during latter half mars recording

#EDIT - during applause

Dylan: "From a hard rain to a slow train"

SLOW TRAIN COMING

Very tight performance and very good recording

"Groovy thing goin" riff in last solo

three-part syncopation on "coming" w/ Dylan interfering on first

#EDIT - during applause (end of tape said A)

COVENANT WOMAN

"to you always so grateful I will always be" on first refrain

very solid version, more relaxed, but with band on board.

Dylan: "You're gonna hear some songs that we're gonna be recording in February or March. There's one song here that Helena is going to sing for you called "What Are You Doing With Your Heart."

#EDIT - Clips "What Are You Doing with Your Heart"

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR HEART (Helena Springs, vocals)

GONNA CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING

again a very solid performance, tight band

good solos, esp. organ in middle

DO RIGHT TO ME BABY -

Crowd: "Do what you want, Bobby!"

Quicker tempo than usual, Jim Keltner pushing tempo during Spooner Oldham solo almost into a skiffle beat

Becomes a bit scattered with the acoustic guitar at the end and the crowd cheering

Dylan: "You know we're living in the last days of the end of times. In the last days of the end of times, you're going to need something strong to hang on to, so this song is called "Hanging On To A Solid Rock Made Before The Foundation Of The World." You're gonna need something that strong."

Crowd: "Preach It Bob!"

SOLID ROCK

again a quicker tempo than usual, pressing the tempo of the chords with the singing,

bit of confusion at the end of last chorus with beat playing, but no one filling space.

Crowd loves it

#EDIT - during applause and clips first notes of next song

SAVING GRACE

Excellent performance marred by clipped beginning

"If you find it in your heart, can I be forgiven? (Crowd: "No!")

Feedback on second refrain of "saving grace that's over me."

Very, very strong vocal performance - lower tone to guitar solos

WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU

Another very strong vocal performance and gorgeous harp

Crowd responsive, but also some obtrusive chatter

"I don't care how hard or rough the road is, show me where it starts."

Crowd: "Boring!" immediately preceding second harp solo.

Muffed ending without drawn out harp solo

SAVED

Dylan: "Thank you" and begins singing without band, which builds in on first chorus,

Piano misses first solo opening, then overextends on second piano solo with Dylan coming in late, but nice tight ending.

IN THE GARDEN

"Did they hear when he told Peter "put up your sword.""

"When they heard him speak in the city, did they hear?" (repeated)

#EDIT - during applause (end Tape Side B)

Dylan: "On keyboards tonight, let's hear it for keyboards, Spooner Oldham. On the other set of keyboards, Terry Young. Bass guitar: Tim Drummond. And on lead guitar tonight is Fred Tackett. On the right, the right girl is Mona Lisa Young. The center girl is Regina Havis. And on the end is Helena Springs."

BLESSED IS THE NAME

Dylan doesn't really start this song as much as band comes in on his introductory chords

Obtrusive clapping near taper throughout

Very extended first guitar solo by Fred Tackett, waiting for Dylan to come in

Extended a cappella chorus to end song -- not one of the better performances of this song

#EDIT - during applause

PRESSING ON

Crowd noise as people shush others - some obtrusive chatter

Dylan begins second chorus much higher

"Many try to stop me, try to shake up my mind; they say prove to me that he's lord, show me a sign (Crowd: "Boring!") but how can he give a sign for experience within, when what's lost has been found and what's to come has already been."

(Crowd: "Preach it Brother!" "Hallelujah!" "Bless you brother!")

Dylan completely stops playing piano and crowd begins to clap -

(Crowd: "See you in heaven Bobby!")

Band builds in on second stanza, but it never really builds to crescendo of other nights. Dylan simply states, "Good night" during the chorus and the band completes the outro refrain.

SOURCES:

One known reference tapes circulating:

The first (61179JMMC) is a dual mono audience recording which lacks the seven opening songs by the band and the eighth song, "What Are You Doing With Your Heart" by the band and sung by Helena Springs following "Covenant Woman."

This is a good audience recording, marred by destructive edits eliminating "What Are You Doing With Your Heart" and clipping the first notes of "Saving Grace." Otherwise, a very good listen and some very fine performances.

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.