Dylan Concerts the Day After Elections

1975-11-04, Civic Center, Providence, RI (two shows)

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I wrote this about a week and a half ago, and I currently have no idea what state people will be in reading it the morning after the presidential election (or if anyone will even want to read it at all). But the occasion got me wondering how many times Dylan performed the day after an election, and if he ever acknowledged what had transpired.

To my surprise, he never played the day after a U.S. presidential election until 1996 - but then he’s played every single post-election day since. Until this year, that is.

Here's the rundown:

1996 - Clinton beats Dole

In '96, Bob's first election show took place in Charleston, WV (incidentally, every one of these shows is in America). He added two new songs to the setlist that night: "Tombstone Blues" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece."

I was going to make a crack about needing to read the tea leaves to make a connection there, but then I double-checked the lyrics and remembered that the Commander-in-Chief is actually a character in "Tombstone"! Interesting.

That being said, if he really wanted to make it explicit, he could have dusted off the song he played at Clinton's first inauguration: "Chimes of Freedom." But maybe he had a soft spot for the loser, a man with a very similar name to his own: Bob Dole.

2000 - ??? beats ???

Three new songs introduced at this Bethlehem, PA concert during the start of weeks of confusion about who actually won: "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Fourth Time Around," "Shelter From The Storm." Ordinarily, "The Times" would be the obvious connection, but a little harder to say what’s a-changin’ when you don’t know who a-won. But "Shelter from the Storm"? Perfect.

To get a sense of what seeing Bob on this strange night was like, here's part of a contemporary review by Peter Stone Brown: