WARFIELD THEATER - SAN FRANCISCO, CA

This second night of the tour, the seven introductory songs are met with much more graciousness by the audience. The singers respond with a more confident, tighter performance.

Serve Somebody begins with sonic problems, apparently with Dylan's guitar amp, rectified by the second stanza, but it gets the song off to a rough start. Dylan stumbles over the lyrics in the final two stanzas and the song comes to a less than convincing end.

Dylan seems to recapture the thread on I Believe In You, with one awkward modulation towards the end of the song. The band seems more at home When You Gonna Wake Up, delivering a tight, rollicking performance with a tight interplay among the band members, particularly Jim Keltner's drums and Tim Drummond's bass. The keyboards and Fred Tackett's guitar weave neatly in and out of the rhythmic heart of the songs.

As in many of these shows, Solid Rock forms an axis, a passage, between the Slow Train songs and the newer, unreleased songs which would make up Saved. It is one of the unique pleasures of studying this tour in depth to revisit the special character of these performances. The band's performances highlight the fundamental structural differences between the songs making up these two albums. Where the band is capable or rolling out any of the Slow Train songs in workmanlike and convincing fashion, every song from Saved, with the possible exception of In The Garden, receives a more tentative, more exploratory treatment live.

 ANNOTATIONS:

MONOLOGUE - (Regina Havis)

• Still working on structure -- she says "oh lord I don't have no money. And he said, don't worry I'll take care of it."
• CROWD: "Hey, rock-n-roll!"

• Poor audio at outset of song - venue PA problems? - improves in second stanza
• 1,2,3,guitar,4inverted/5,5/mix,keyboards,6
• (2) "drugs at your command"
• (3) "some great big tv network"
• (4 inverted/5) "parking lot(?)/dome/construction worker/home//barbershop/hair/mistress/heir"
• (5 mix) "preacher/pride/conductor taking bribes on the side//poor/bad?/teacher/dad?"
• (6) "eat, drink whiskey"
• (6) "sleeping on a king-sized mattress . . . sleeping in a king-sized bed"

• very strong voice
• (2) "they say don't not come back no more"

• 1,2,3,6,organ/guitar,5,8,7,organ/guitar,9,outro
• (6) dylan pauses as for solo, skipping "spiritual advisors" and beginning verse with "gurus"

• Dylan builds on "wilderneeeeessssssssss", beginning in phrase, then suddenly building

• bear/cow/pig/bull/sssss
• enthusiastic applause following

• quicker arrangement, easy-going sound, almost carefree -- very nice performance
• (1) "ain't nooo neu-traaal ground"
• 1^st chorus - "shine your light, on me/ (skips entirely) / shine your light, on me"
• (2) "they look me squarely in the eye and they-say all iiisss weeeellll."
• 2^nd chorus- Dylan (backing singer join) "shine your light / shine your light / (skips entirely)"
• (3) guitar feedback at "believe me when I say"
• 3^rd chorus- "shine your light, shine your light on me/ shine your light, shine your light on me/ shine your light, shine your light on me"

• begins with guitar figure, slower arrangement, very deliberate pace
• (1) slow train coming, up around the beeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnd."
• Syncopated "coming at the end"

• Brisker arrangement, Dylan clearly enjoys this song
• (1) "to stay the way you are"
• 1^st chorus - "And I just want to tell you that I intend // I just want to thank you once again // and to you, always, so grateful, I will forever be."
• 2^nd chorus - "And I just want to say that I intend // IIIIIIIII just want to thank you once again // and to you, always, so grateful, I wiiiilllllll be."
• (3) "precious little girl, who sees the invisible things of him that are hidden from the world"
• 3^rd chorus - " I just, I got to tell you, that I intend // I just want to thank you once again // and to you, always, so grateful, I will forever be."
• Enthusiastic applause

• Slightly plodding performance, organ seems tentative, until solo towards the end

• 1,2,3,key,4
• (1) "judge/be judged, touch/be touched // bury/be buried, treat nobody like they was dirt"
• (2) "keep/be clung to, mend/be _____ to // bury/be buried, marry/if they already married"
• (3) "recommend/be recommended, defend/be defended// use/be used, amuse/be amused"
• (4) "betray /bprayeed with (?), play/be played with// miss/be missed, faith in nobody, not even a scientist"

Dylan: "Thank you. Playing bass guitar tonight, give him a hand, Tim Drummond. On the drums, Jim keltner. On electric lead guitar, Fred Tackett. On the keyboards over here Spooner Oldham. On the other keyboards --Terry Young. On the left is Helena Springs. In the middle -- Regina Havis. And on the other side is Mona Lisa Young. Now we're gonna do a song, this title of this song, is called "I'm Hanging on to a Solid Rock, Made Before the Foundation of the World. . .

CROWD : Come on! Rock-n-roll!"

. . One, Two, Three, Four"

• rough start to performance - guitar/bass unsynchronized -- very drum heavy and searching for groove, which turns out pretty nice
• (1) "Tossed in the flames (in the face?) by a world that he created"
• (1) "Everybody's waiting on a false peace to come"
• (2) "Faith (?) from birth, not everyone can hear it/ It's the ways of the flesh, the war against the spirit// 24 hours a day, and it's never been done, always waiting till the battles lost or won."
• Confusion after last chorus with drum and organ filling measures until Dylan begins refrain
• Strong applause again

• "guess I owe you an apology"
• nice phrasing, more front heavy

• (1) backing singers come in half measure too early on first conclusory chorus
• (2) "you have gicven me - laid down your life for me"
• "don't want to take no poison, don't want to feel no fiery dart; don't care how rough the road is, show me where it starts"
• band misses cue to end on harp, so tries to wrap up within instrumental outro

• Dylan phrasing very quick
• starts with only Tackett guitar, then rhythm slowly builds with chorus, but doesn't ever really hit stride of later shows - piano barely audible until solo - perhaps more a matter of recording than performance - backing vocals also difficult to sort out from bass heavy sound
• (1) "word/healed, power/sealed, (?),revealed"
• (2) "truth/upright, peace/secure, love/lifted, power/endure"
• pretty tight ending, with a bit of tambourine and guitar drizzle

• Very strong vocal performance and tight build up by band, still not completely polished
• (2) "When they heard him speak in the city, did they hear?" (all four time)
• Audience cheers as Dylan leaves the stage, briefly boos as they raise the lights? backing singers leave the stage?

 #EDIT - during applause

• "til Lot was safely out of town" - nice emphasis
• still drum/bass heavy and lead guitar a bit lost
• cheering towards the end as chorus begins refrain masks edit? Or Dylan again leaves stage
• backing miss end of song, repeating chorus once too often
• audience cheering with scattered boos - more booing end of concert than performance itself?

 #EDIT - during applause (same female voice near taper)

• audience calling for "Lay Lady Lay" and pounding on chairs, clapping - sudden booing (lights?) - then more clapping and shouts of "Dylan!" - cheers rise (band returning)
• Dylan piano leads -- audience: "We love you Bob!" after second "pressing on"
• tempo overall a bit faster, especially noticeable at chorus
• "how can you explain an experience within, when what's lost has been found, and what's to come has already been."
• Cheering as Dylan comes out from behind piano to stage front. Audience joins with claps.
• Backing band joins during third repetition of chorus before second stanza
• (2) "Well you know . . the devil is an evil beast and he always come at you at the times that you expect it least. And we know that he's responsible for death and pain and loss, but we know we had victory by the glory on the cross."
• (3) "Shake the dust off of your feet . . ."
• Extended audience applause after end of song

 SOURCES:

Two confirmed source tape circulating:

The first (021179WPMC) is a stereo audience recording which includes the seven opening songs by the band, but lacks "Put Your Hand In The Hand" by Regina McCreary which follows "Covenant Woman."

The second (021179PBMD) is a stereo audience recording which lacks all non-Dylan tracks.

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