1 November 1979

1 NOVEMBER 1979

WARFIELD THEATER - SAN FRANCISCO, CA

SETLIST:

MONOLOGUE (Regina Havis)/IF I'VE GOT MY TICKET, LORD/IT'S GONNA RAIN/LOOK UP AND LIVE BY FAITH/HOLD MY HAND, OH LORD/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/WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU/SAVED/IN THE GARDEN/BLESSED IS THE NAME/PRESSING ON

COMMENTARY:

1 November was the first concert of this tour and it shows. Regina Havis' introductory monologue, repeated throughout the tour, is here recounted in a faltering, tentative manner. Her plight is deepened by a coordinated shout of "Rock-N-Roll!" from several audience members clearly impatient for Dylan to appear. Despite this and other grumblings by the audience throughout the opening set, the singers sound increasingly confident with each song and the overall audience response is enthusiastic.

Dylan appears on stage and quickly initiates "Serve Somebody" to loud applause. Throughout the tour, Dylan will extensively alter the lyrics of this song, but this night and 2 November are the most straightforward renditions, repeating all of the verses of the copyrighted album version, save for the last ("You may call me Zimmy").

If anything, this concert lacks the power Dylan seems to derive from a familiar band playing familiar songs. There is little question the band is well rehearsed, nevertheless, there are a number of false starts and awkward endings suggesting first night nerves. Aside from isolated crowd grumbling and occasional shouted requests for older songs, the audience greets this new Bob Dylan enthusiatically. 11179JFMD contains several minutes of sustained applause following the last notes of "Pressing On" as the audience attempts to coax Dylan out for one more encore. The recording itself ends with a security guard telling the taper he has to leave because they're closing up.

ANNOTATIONS:

MONOLOGUE

Clearly nervous

CROWD: "Rock-n-roll!" midway through monologue and Regina begins speaking more quickly as crowd becomes more restless

Repeats "Jesus got your ticket" twice

IF I GOT MY TICKET LORD

Crowd attempts to clap along after first chorus but quickly abandons

IT'S GONNA RAIN

LOOK UP AND LIVE BY FAITH

CROWD: "Dylan!"

HOLD MY HAND, OH LORD

Audience member near taper groans at first notes and mutters, "oh shit."

CROWD: "Dylan!" "Dylan!" "Get 'em off!" "That's enough!" "Choir!"

OH FREEDOM

Another completely off-kilter attempt by audience to clap along, quickly abandoned once they realize they don't know the rhythm

CROWD: "Come On!"

THIS TRAIN

Singers encourage audience to clap along this time and they oblige

SERVE SOMEBODY

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

(2) "drugs at your command"

I BELIEVE IN YOU

drum has slightly tentative beginning

WHEN YOU GONNA WAKE UP?

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

Dylan stumbles into second stanza, hurrying through "polluted all your thoughts"

WHEN HE RETURNS

Almost speaks "that no one knew"

Nice guitar arpeggio after "wilderness"

Dylan doesn't really bring song to an end, no chord digression, just some jumbled notes

MAN GAVE NAMES TO ALL THE ANIMALS

Band again has a very tentative beginning

Dylan miscue on first stanza "furry hair" twice

CROWD: "Long time." "Do an old song!"

PRECIOUS ANGEL

Complete misfire to begin song, Fred Tackett plays first riff, but rhythm section not on board, try to muddle through, then simply begins riff again.

SLOW TRAIN COMING

Backing singers muffed the staggered "coming/coming /coming"

Dylan: "You're about to hear one that we'll be recording."

COVENANT WOMAN

Dylan strums chords through twice

Much looser phrasing, especially in chorus, than later recorded version

(1) "always so grateful I will be"

(2) "always so grateful I will always be

(3) "sees the invisible things of Him that are hidden from the world"

(3) "always so grateful I will always be"

Dylan: "Regina's gonna sing "Put Your Hand . . . In The Hand . . . Of The Man."

PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HAND

CROWD: "Stairway to heaven!"

GONNA CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING

CROWD: "Hey Bobby, Jesus loves your old songs too!"

DO RIGHT TO ME BABY

feedback during first stanza

(2) "be confused/be used/already married/be buried"

(3) "be recommended/be defended/be amused/be used (you?)"

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

CROWD: "Maggie's Farm!" "Where's Bob Dylan?"

Dylan: "Alright. We're gonna do a song right here that's called "Hanging On To A Solid Rock, Made Before The Foundation Of The World."

SOLID ROCK

tentative and slow

SAVING GRACE

CROWD: "We want Dylan" "All night long!" "Anything Old!" "Lay Lady Lay!" "We love you!"

WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU

CROWD: "Lay Lady lay!" "Dylan!"

SAVED

"born dead as I stepped forth from the womb"

muffs second to last verse of first stanza too -- indecipherable

CROWD: "Play an old one!" "Where's Bob Dylan!" "Highway 61!" "Maggie's Farm!" "This is bullshit!"

IN THE GARDEN

very abrupt ending

Dylan: "Alright. That's all for tonight. (indecipherable: "We'll be back here again tomorrow." ?)."

CROWD: "Oh come on Bobby!" Cheering and booing

TWO MINUTES OF SUSTAINED APPLAUSE

BLESSED IS THE NAME

backing singers miss cue to end song

FOUR MINUTES OF SUSTAINED APPLAUSE

CROWD: "Boring!" "Boring!"

PRESSING ON

Dylan says "You can sing this too" to someone in the audience after the first chorus.

Dylan and backing singers begin singing together, but are completely unsyncopated in last repetition of chorus.

"how can you explain an experience within."

Crowd begins clapping along as Dylan beats piano pedal and cheers as he moves to front of the stage

Drums leads into last chorus before full band on kick drum, like a march

Completely different second stanza including only: "Adam (?); he's given the devil reign; because he sinned I got no choice it runs in my vein; but by he who will come the word, (?) seen; he earned the victory of the cross and I have been freed."

Crowd erupts when Dylan says goodnight -- cheers and boos.

NINE MINUTES OF SUSTAINED APPLAUSE

SOURCES:

Two known source recordings circulating:

The first (11179NFFD) is a mono audience recording which circulates as the commercial boot "New Found Faith" but lacks the non-Dylan tracks.

This recording is marred by a drop-out during "Solid Rock," omits Dylan's introduction for "Covenant Woman," and a clipped beginning on "Pressing On." Otherwise, a decent if distant-sounding recording.

The second (11179JFMD) is a mono audience recording which includes the seven opening songs by the band and Regina Havis performing "Put Your Hand In The Hand" following "Covenant Woman."

This recording, is marred by drop-outs during "When He Returns," "Do Right To Me Baby," and "Blessed Is The Name." Fortunately, it includes a complete recordings of "Solid Rock" and a more complete, but still clipped "Pressing On." This is a decent, rougher, but more up-front recording than "New Found Faith."

Together, these two recordings offer a fascinating glimpse of both this audience and audience recordings in general. The two source recordings are clearly from two different parts of the audience. Each contains shouted comments from the audience which are mere background noise or entirely inaudible on the other. Surprisingly, the audience comments on each recording are quite different. The comments yelled on "New Found Faith" are largely negative, with one woman's voice, in particular, yelling for older songs and shouting "boring!" after the slower songs. In contrast, the audience near the taper of the second recording seems much more supportive of the music, applauds more enthusiatically, and gives the impression of a more positive reaction overall.

These two recordings have been combined to create a more complete, stereo, document of this concert in a fan project named "Take Off Your Mask" which should be circulating in early 2002.

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.