Song Debuts and Stevie Nicks
1986-02-11, Entertainment Center, Sydney, Australia
The second night in Sydney, Dylan would add five new songs to the tour. In a tour with relatively static setlists, this was the most change in a single night. Two of those songs were live debuts. One of those songs was the only time he played it ever.
The first new addition came in between “Clean Cut Kid” and “Trust Yourself,” creating a three-pack of Empire Burlesque material. The meat in this Empire sandwich: “Emotionally Yours.”
Let’s be honest, if you’re going to play “Emotionally Yours” live, you want to do it with Benmont Tench on piano. I sort of wish he’d done it only with Tench on piano. Well, Tench and the backing singers, who add a lot. I love this schmaltzy song, and Dylan sings it beautifully here—not belting at top volume, as he does sometimes on these shows, but softly and with subtlety. A wonderful debut outing that should (but won’t) silence the Empire Burlesque haters.
Two songs got added to the solo-acoustic set. These are the least exciting of the five newcomers, being golden-oldies he’s played in this format a million times before. Honestly, I was expecting to write something like: “The acoustic sets are generally not the highlights of these shows, as Bob loses all that aforementioned subtlety and shouts to the rafters.” And sometimes that’s true! But I was surprised how delicate “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” sounded here, not shouted at all.
“You know what that song’s about don’t you?” Bob says when he finishes. “It’s about the Philippines. I wrote that over 20 years ago. You’re seeing that’s all happening right now. Maybe it was written way before its time. A lot of songs you’re going to be hearing tonight too, they were written way before their time. Except for this one. This one’s right on time.”
What song’s right on time? “Girl From the North Country.” Huge crowd response to this one, the biggest of the show, perhaps because he gave it that setup. Another beautiful performance, again better than some of the other solo-acoustic sets. A later performance was included in the Hard to Handle video, so it should sound familiar. I think I like this performance better though.
Back in the full-band set a few songs later, out of nowhere, Bob busts out a song from his debut album he had not performed in concert since 1961! An amazing stat. That song is…“House of the Rising Sun,” given a robust rocking arrangement. The band sounds so great playing it I wondered if it was already in the Heartbreakers repertoire, but it doesn’t seem like they’d played it before. A highlight of this show, and a highlight of the entire tour. Bob sings the hell out of it.
Listening to the tour’s first shows, which got poor reviews and the band members themselves still disparage, I wondered what the big problem was. I love this Dylan-Petty sound, so they sounded okay to me. But getting to this show, where clearly everyone is inspired and taking it to the next level, you hear the difference. This is the first great show of the tour to me. And there’s still one newly-added song to go!
One I’m going to hold ’til tomorrow’s entry, I’m afraid. Because this tour had four different songs where it’s not entirely clear what the hell they even are. Lost original songs? Tomorrow we’ll dive in.
But, before we go, one more new addition to the tour. No, not a new song, but a new singer: Stevie Nicks makes her tour debut!
As noted earlier, she’s been tagging along throughout with her best buddy Tom, but had not appeared onstage. But tonight, she joins the group for the “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” finale. She told the Sydney Morning Herald it was “one of the greatest experiences of my life.” She would sing the next night too, before she had to fly back to the States to work on Tango in the Night, an album which Fleetwood Mac was already recording in her absence. That same Morning Herald interview notes:
Stevie is still in Fleetwood Mac but sends the band her songs by post and lets former lover Lindsey Buckingham do the rest.
She refuses to accept that being absent while Fleetwood Mac make their album means she is not a bona fide member: “I could never be a guest with Fleetwood Mac… I’m their baby, they love me and we have trouble together, but being mad at Fleetwood Mac is like being mad at your father. They are very possessive, but I’m happy with that because that is the way it is I can’t change that.”
Wow, Fleetwood Mac sounding like a dysfunctional relationship—who would have guessed? No wonder she wanted to be on the other side of the planet singing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Here’s a grainy video from her second appearance:
1986-02-11, Entertainment Center, Sydney, Australia
PS. Not exactly the crime of the century attempted at this show:
