On June 10, 1988, Bob Dylan and his band performed at the Greek Theater, University of California, Berkeley, California.
They were joined by Neil Young on wild electric guitar.
The band consisted of: Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar), Neil Young (guitar), G. E. Smith (guitar), Kenny Aaronson (bass), Christopher Parker (drums).
These first songs are without Neil Young.
“Joey”:
“Absolutely Sweet Marie”:
“Tangled Up In Blue”:
Neil Young joins Dylan for these songs except “Rank Strangers To Me”:
“It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”:
“In The Garden”:
“Gates Of Eden”:
“Like A Rolling Stone”:
“Rank Strangers To Me”:
“Everybody’s Moving'”:
“Maggie’s Farm”:
—
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
OK, so I’ve posted this landmark set before, but someone just uploaded most of it again yesterday so why not give it another listen.
This never gets old for me.
This was Bob Dylan’s first public electric performance (OK, of course he played rock ‘n’ roll as a teenager, but after he started making records as a folk singer, this was the first electric show).
This took place on Sunday, July 25, 1965.
Here’s audio for the set opener, “Maggie’s Farm”:
This clip is the audio with the exception of “Maggie’s Farm.”
0:00 – Pre-show/Intro
2:20 – Maggie’s Farm (BLOCKED – Can be seen in “The Other Side of the Mirror”)
8:07 – Like a Rolling Stone
14:39 – Phantom Engineer (It Takes a lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry)
18:00 – Intermission/Intro
22:04 – It’s all Over Now, Baby Blue
29:34 – Mr. Tambourine Man
Here’s some of the video but no audio:
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” I’ve got a Goodreads. book giveaway going right now. Click here and enter.]
OK, so we know this day, 49 years ago, was historic. Bob Dylan going public with his new electric rock ‘n’ roll sound.
We all know the story. We all know the different versions of the story.
What remains amazing is the music.
On Saturday July 24, 1965 Dylan played a workshop and did three acoustic numbers. I’ve got “All I Really Want To Do” and “Love Minus Zero/ No Limit” from that workshop, and then all the songs from his evening performance on July 25, 1965.
Here Dylan rock out through “Maggie’s Farm,” “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Phantom Engineer,” an early version of “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry.”
This music will be as alive as anyone until humans are no more.
“Phantom Engineer” (early version of “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”):
“Mr. Tambourine Man”:
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”:
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Bob Dylan and The Hawks, Hollywood Bowl, September 3, 1965.
Great performance!
Plus:
“She Belongs To Me”:
“To Ramona”:
“Gates Of Eden”:
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”:
“Desolation Row”:
“Love Minus Zero/ No Limit”:
“Mr. Tambourine Man”:
“Tombstone Blues”:
“I Don’t Believe You”:
“From A Buick Six”:
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”:
“Maggie’s Farm”:
“Ballad of a Thin Man”:
“Like a Rolling Stone”:
Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan)
Robbie Robertson (guitar)
Levon Helm (drums)
Al Kooper (organ)
Harvey Brooks (bass)
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Thought it would be a blast to listen to a variety of artists covering Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm.”
Below check out versions by Rage Against the Machine, the Grateful Dead, Uncle Tupelo, The Residents, The Waterboys, Toots Hibbert, The Specials, U2, Richie Havens, Stephen Malkmus, the Charlie Daniels Band and Solomon Burke.
Plus a version by David Grisman, John Hartford and Mike Seeger.
And Bob Dylan with and without The Band.
Hope you have as much fun with these as I did.
Rage Against the Machine, “Maggie’s Farm”:
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]
Grateful Dead, “Maggie’s Farm,” 1987:
Toots Hibbert, “Maggie’s Farm”:
Uncle Tupelo, “Maggie’s Farm”:
Solomon Burke, “Maggie’s Farm”:
The Waterboys, “Maggie’s Farm”:
The Specials, “Maggie’s Farm”:
David Grisman, John Hartford, Mike Seeger, “Maggie’s Farm”:
The Residents, “Maggie’s Farm”:
The Charlie Daniels Band with Earl Scruggs, “Maggie’s Farm:
U2, “Maggie’s Farm,” Live at “R.D.S. Showgrounds”, Dublin, Ireland, May 17, 1986:
Richie Havens, “Maggie’s Farm”:
David Bowie, “Maggie’s Farm”:
Stephen Malkmus, “Maggie’s Farm”:
Bob Dylan and The Band, Oakland Coliseum, 1974, “Maggie’s Farm”:
Bob Dylan, “Maggie’s Farm”:
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Here’s Bob Dylan at the Zeltfestival in Konstanz, Germany, July 3, 1996.
“Maggie’s Farm”:
And more music from Dylan’s performance at the Stadthalle, Magdeburg, Germany July 12, 1996. (If you missed my previous posts from this concert, head here.)
Dylan at Newport, 1965. Is there more to say about it?
Maybe.
But today I’m digging the music. And I’m digging seeing Dylan along and with Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar, Al Kooper on organ, Barry Goldberg on piano, bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay, along with Barry Goldberg on piano, playing an amazing set.
I really love this version of “Maggie’s Farm.” Michael Bloomfield sounds terrific.
There is some confusion as to whether Bob Dylan’s January 15, 1965 session at Columbia Studio A in New York was the last for Bringing It All Back Home.
Two writers who had access to Columbia’s archives — Clinton Heylin and Michael Krogsgaard — have documented three sessions that took place on January 13, 14 and 15.
However the Bootleg Series Vol. 7 album, No Direction Home: the Soundtrack, includes a recording of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” that is dated January 16, 1965.
Of course Columbia’s record keeping regarding the Dylan sessions is, as Dylan might put it, “mixed up confusion,” so perhaps that recording was from one of the other sessions.
However photographer Daniel Kraemer writes in “Bob Dylan: A Portrait of the Artist’s Early Years” that he attended “the next to last session” where he says Dylan recorded “Mr. Tambourine Man,” It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding” and “Gates of Eden,” so that had to be the January 15 session. (If you have info on whether there was a January 16 session, please let me know.)
In any case, the January 15 session was momentous. Dylan recorded killer takes of “Maggie’s Farm,” “On the Road Again,” “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,” “Gates of Eden” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” all of which were used for Bringing It all Back Home.
In his book, “Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads,” Greil Marcus writes about side two of Bringing It All Back Home: There was no laughter on the other side of the album. There, except for ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,’ where single backing instruments were so subtle they seemed more like emanations from the songs than pieces added to them, this was Bob Dylan as he had always been, alone, with his guitar and harmonica. The side comprised four long songs, all of which promised they would never get near Top 40 radio — and they were so self-evidently full of meaning, so strking, so important, so elegant and so beautiful that their quiet drowned out the noise of the songs on the other side. Bob Dlan may haave meant to draw a line, but it was in a furrow already plowed, and flowers grew over it. The faster he moved, the more his trap held.”
Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
January 15, 1965
The 3rd and last Bringing It All Back Home recording session, produced by Tom Wilson.
1. Maggie’s Farm
2. On The Road Again
3. On The Road Again
4. On The Road Again
5. On The Road Again
6. On The Road Again
7. On The Road Again
8. On The Road Again
9. On The Road Again
10. On The Road Again
11. On The Road Again
12. On The Road Again
13. On The Road Again
14. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
15. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
16. Gates Of Eden
17. Mr. Tambourine Man
18. Mr. Tambourine Man
19. Mr. Tambourine Man
20. Mr. Tambourine Man
21. Mr. Tambourine Man
22. Mr. Tambourine Man
23. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
24. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
25. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
26. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
27. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
1-13, 24-27 Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal), Al Gorgoni (guitar), Kenneth Rankin (guitar), Bruce Langhorne (guitar), Joseph
Macho Jr. (bass), William E. Lee (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums), Frank Owens (piano).
14-23 Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal).
Photo of Dylan and the pricey guitar via Rolling Stone.
The sunburst Fender Stratocaster that Bob Dylan played when he went electric at 1965’s Newport Folk Festival and angered fans with a three song rock set that began with a noisy “Maggie’s Farm,” was auctioned at Christie’s on Friday for $965,000, according to the auction house’s website.
The buyer actually had to pay $985,000, which includes what’s called a “buyer’s premium,” in this case $20,000 that goes to the auctioneer — not the seller — to cover administrative expenses.
In total the buyer paid $985,000 to own the guitar once played by Bob Dylan.
