The Bob Dylan "Real Live"/1984 European Tour Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by stewedandkeefed, Mar 5, 2017.

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  1. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    '88 was better
     
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  2. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night Thread Starter

    It is interesting you bring up that year. Just as RayS made an apt comparison between 1974 and 1984, I can see similarities between 1984 and 1988 particularly in Bob's approach. While The Rolling Stones were an obvious influence on the 1984 tour, I submit that in 1988, the four piece electric combo played with more than a passing reference to The Clash. Bob mentioned wanting to tour with Mick Jones in Chronicles and a few commentators over the years have seen similarities between the 1988 electric Bob and The Clash. Better? Maybe and 1988 was certainly more adventurous in set list selection but Paul Williams noted a similar complaint about 1988 and 1984 and that was that as enjoyable as the shows were, it was still not top drawer Bob Dylan.
     
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  3. Minstrel Boy

    Minstrel Boy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    I have a number of '84 boots but I've never warmed to the tour, or Real Live. I think the comparison to '74 is apt. There's something about it that sounds like he's trying to hard, and his heart isn't really in it.
     
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  4. Mark87

    Mark87 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, England
    I really like this tour, I agree though the official Real Live isn't a great example. I'm another person hoping one day they release a DVD/CD boxset with a few complete shows... I believe they filmed London Wembley? I could be wrong..
     
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  5. richierichie

    richierichie My glass is always full.

    I was at the London & Newcastle shows which I never expected to attend as I was a striking miner and broke but I had/have good friends. There was agreat atmosphere at both shows, the sun was out, it was hot and the crowd at both shows were great. Bob loved it. Great memories.

    `Real Live` what a let down but years later I can now enjoy it.
     
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  6. Joey_Corleone

    Joey_Corleone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rockford, MI
    LOL! The beat up old car...classic.
     
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  7. Wayfaring Stranger

    Wayfaring Stranger Forum Resident

    Location:
    York uk
    There's an old saying - you can't do a great gig and do a great live album at the same time...
    We were at the Newcastle gig, and it was tremendous. Dylan played for almost four hours, and really tried to please the audience. The acoustic set was great, all those Geordies singing "Ner! Ner! Ner! It aynt me bayb!" and Dylan smiling at them, and the version of the re-written "Tangled Up in Blue" was much better than on the Real Live album, full of spirit, especially the line "All except for you, but you were tangled up in blue!" Mick Taylor was great, but a bit stiff, until the very end, when he was moved to ask the crowd to thank Bob for such a great performance. The bootleg video of the show doesn't capture it all this, but the MTV footage of the Wembley show has more spark to it. And the live album is sadly a bit disappointing too. It was the time of the coal miners strike in the UK, and we heard much later that Dylan had made a secret donation to the strike fund. Who knows if that's true. When Springsteen came to Newcastle a year later, he certainly made a secret donation, because it was immediately reported on the local afternoon TV news that he'd done so. Some secret, but great that he did.
     
  8. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night Thread Starter

    I checked out a few videos on youtube from Newcastle and it would appear to be the best of the three shows used for the album in terms of the energy Bob put out. I really like the MTV footage from London (and the preceding interview with Martha Quinn). The superstar encores were a feature of the Paris (Van Morrison and Hughes Aufray), London (Van, Clapton, Chrissie Hynde) and Slane (Van and Bono) and it is nice to see a lot of this part of the show from London. Given that Taylor and Santana were already on stage, you get some nice side stage footage of a lot of rock n roll royalty together on one stage. Great music? No. But fun.
     
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  9. Thomas Casagranda

    Thomas Casagranda Forum Resident

    I prefer the intensity of the 1981 gospel / back catalogue combination to the 1984 tour.

    I wonder why he didn't tour with the three-piece band that he had with him on the Letterman show from 1983 ?

    I think Bob was looking for a different sound to the Infidels album, albeit retaining Mick Taylor.

    Several other things bother me about that era: why wasn't the 1984 tour band on Empire Burlesque, which has an horrendous 80s sheen, but some pretty good songs ? Why were the backing girls "Queens of Rhythm" dropped after 1981, but bought back into the Bob-fold in 1985 and 1986/87 Temples In Flame tour ?

    My own Dylan gigging began at Wembley Arena in 1987 with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and the set-lists were totally rejigged from the 1984 set-lists, possibly due to The Grateful Dead influences.

    I think Bob did go through phases of wanting to sound like The TCB Band as on the 1978 world tour / Muscle Shoals soul / gospel on the 1979/80 gospel tours, The Rolling Stones / British blues boom bands on the 1984 tour, the Clash on the 1988 tour, the Grateful Dead with drawn out jams on the 1995/96/ NET.
     
  10. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I have to disagree with the illustrious Mr. Williams. October 1988 is top drawer live Bob Dylan. Radio City 10-19-88 takes "Real Live"'s lunch money, throw its eyeglasses on the ground, crushes them underfoot, and sends that album running home crying for its mother.
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2017
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  11. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night Thread Starter

    Yes but that was Radio City Music Hall and those shows were different! I was at 10/16/88 and there was something about those shows (and I've listened to that entire six show run beginning at the Tower) that was above the rest of the year.
     
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  12. Champagne Boot

    Champagne Boot Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

    Location:
    Michigan
    I could listen to the Real Live version of TUIB endlessly. It's perfect, definitely the most interesting and engaging reinterpretation of the story.
     
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  13. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    The first Tower Theater show (10-13) is nearly as great as the last night at Radio City (10-19, which I misdated in my initial post). I do have the bias of having been at 5 of those 6 shows, but I think the tapes document the quality of those performances.

    My apologies for straying from 1984 repeatedly.
     
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  14. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night Thread Starter

    Not at all - comparisons to other tours are part of the process. If I had made it back to England or wherever to see Bob in 1984, I'm sure I would have cherished that memory but I know it wouldn't match my first trip to NYC to see Bob and to hear "Bob Dylan 115th Dream", "God On Our Side" (with the Nevilles verse before their version had been released) and "The Wagoner's Lad" in the flesh. Of course, Fortune was not waiting to be kind to you in having you miss the one show on that run with a seven song encore that ended with "Every Grain Of Sand".
     
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  15. masswriter

    masswriter Minister At Large

    Location:
    New England
    I'll take a dozen Real Live albums over Triplicate and its ilk.
     
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  16. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    I like this album. I'd definitely want to hear an expanded Bootleg Series release that recreated a whole show from this tour. Maybe not his best, but certainly not his worst.
     
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  17. INSW

    INSW Senior Member

    Location:
    Georgia
    84 feels half-a**sed.

    88 was a lit fuse.
     
  18. stewedandkeefed

    stewedandkeefed Came Ashore In The Dead Of The Night Thread Starter

    Nice metaphor. There was certainly a revved-up urgency to '88 that the 1984 version of Bob lacked.
     
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  19. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Tour '84 was designed (and well-designed, IMO) for the "stadiums of the damned". It was a big, showy, rock and roll extravaganza leaning heavily on familiar material, complete with superstar cameos and a big sing-along conclusion. Those elements just don't translate all that well to a live album. One of the Band guys (Robbie?) described Tour '74 as a "victory lap" after winning the real battle back in '66. Tour '84 has the feel of another victory lap after the sometimes antagonistic responses to the Gospel years.
     
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  20. Champagne Boot

    Champagne Boot Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

    Location:
    Michigan
    It would definitely fit really well as a third/fourth disc of an Infidels BS.
     
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  21. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Despite missing the "Every Grain of Sand" show (it would be 5 more years before I'd get to see that song in concert), I consider myself lucky to have had 3 friends (who didn't have the Dylan fever to the degree I did) willing to road trip to the Philly suburbs for one show when we already had tickets for 4 shows at Radio City, much more in our own backyard. Those were the days!
     
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  22. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I just re-read the passage.

    Glyn says that he sent Bob a number of takes of each songs, and that Bob chose all the worst ones ... BUT Bob eventually agreed to Glyn's choices. So according to Glyn, the choices on the released LP are all HIS (with Bob's belated blessing).
     
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  23. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    IIRC, Baez wrote a fairly damning piece somewhere on Bob's on- & offstage behavior during that tour. One example: After his continued refusal to rehearse, she confronts him while he's crashed out on a couch. Our Hero then proceeds to run his hand up her leg beneath her skirt...

    Dylan: "Wow, Where'd you get legs like that?"

    Baez: "I rehearse a lot, Bob."
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2017
  24. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    About 20 years ago I was given a DAT with about an hour of performances from various gigs, all soundboard and all uncirculated. (Something Glyn assembled, I assume.) I was told it came from a member of Dylan's then-current touring band (not sure why HE would have been granted access to it, but that was the story), so I should not circulate it or make mention of the contents anywhere, lest the leak be traced back to the band member. I "retired" from tape collecting in 2000 so I stopped following what was circulating and what was not. I assume in 20 years this tape has seen the light of day (though not from me - I've lived up to my end of the bargain for 20 years now). This ring any bells for those currently active in ... well, is it even CALLED "tape collecting" anymore? :)
     
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  25. Champagne Boot

    Champagne Boot Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

    Location:
    Michigan
    Didn't he do the same thing for Dylan and the Dead?
     
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