Mr. Tambourine Men

Three requested shows from 1978, 1991, and 1999

UK single cover via 45cat

Another three-in-one request roundup today, three July shows requested by three different paid subscribers. (Reminder: Annual subscribers can assign me a show to cover!)

The requested shows come from totally different eras, with totally different bands and totally different sounds. But they have one thing in common. Just one single song was played at all three. There’s no suspense, you saw the subject line. It’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

“Mr. Tambourine Man,” surprisingly, is not one of Bob Dylan’s ten most-played songs (he gave it a long break from 2010 until this year, which hurt its numbers). However, even the true staples like “Watchtower” and “Rolling Stone” don’t get played at all three of these requested shows. Just “Mr. Tambourine Man.” And all three versions sound extremely different. So, as a way to compare the three shows, I thought I’d put them under the “Tambourine Man” microscope to see what that particular song reveals about these gigs and this era.

Version 1: July 15, 1978: Blackbushe, England

A famous show—Dylan’s largest ever at the time. I interviewed the promoter Harvey Goldsmith about last year. You hear the opening notes of this “Tambourine Man” ring out, that chiming guitar intro Billy Cross wrote, and think, “Ah yes, the At Budokan version.”

Not quite.