"Born-Again Bob Gets Booed"

1979-11-01, Warfield, San Francisco, CA

“First shows of tours are always interesting,” subscriber Greg K. wrote when he requested this show (thanks Greg!), and in this particular case that’s underselling it. This is not the first show of any random tour; this is the first show of the first gospel tour. It would turn out to be one of the most surprising “first shows” of all time.

That Dylan had gone Christian wouldn’t have been news to everyone in the San Francisco audience that night. Slow Train Coming had come out a few months before, and Dylan’s conversion had gotten a ton of press attention. He and this band had already performed a few of these songs on Saturday Night Live. Surely most people showing up knew the drill. Or, at least, part of the drill. They expected he’d perform his new Christian songs; they didn’t expect he’d perform only his new Christian songs.

I was curious how controversial this first show really was. Here are some headlines I found in subsequent newspaper reviews:

Bob Dylan’s God-Awful Gospel

Born-Again Bob Gets Booed

Dylan Tour Off to a Shaky Start

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Sward interviewed some fans who walked out early. In this admittedly small sample, it’s mostly just people complaining he didn’t play the '60s hits, not complaining about the religious content of the songs he did play. “I wanted Dylan,” one gripes. “It just wasn’t there. I guess everything has changed since Dylan and the Kingston Trio.” Another says, “People in the balcony kept screaming ‘do the oldies.’”