The Best Song Bob Dylan Never Played Live

It's not "Murder Most Foul"

Photo by Steen Møller Rasmussen via Sydsvenskan

A while ago, I had a question: What’s the best song Bob Dylan has never played live?

Attempting to answer that question quickly steers you into a semantic roadblock though: How you define “best”? While I’ve been known to throw the word around in various lists, we all understand “best” is being used loosely. To paraphrase Tom Friend, that’s just, like, my opinion, man.

But I wanted an answer a little more definitive than just my personal favorite he’s never played live (though I’ll get to that too). What would be the consensus pick for his best song he’s never played live?

To figure that out, I looked at Rate Your Music. This long-running site lets users do just that: rate music. Thousands of people have rated every single Bob Dylan, and all those thousands of ratings have been averaged on a five star scale. This was as good a place as I could find to get a consensus read on what the world at large considers the “best’ Bob Dylan songs. Reassuringly, the top few songs look like you’d expect among the general populace: “Like a Rolling Stone” #1, “Hurricane” #2, “Tangled Up in Blue” #3, etc.

Those top ones have all been played live though. I had to dig deeper. So I went through all the top 100 Dylan songs there. Amazingly, Dylan has played the overwhelming majority of them live. 96 out of 100, to be exact. For all the grief he gets for not playing the hits…he’s played almost all of the hits!

Only four songs on this top-100 list have never played live. Here they are, in reverse order, leading up to the best “official” designation I can think of for The Best Song Bob Dylan Never Played Live (as determined by these thousands of Rate Your Music voters, at least).

#4. Black Diamond Bay

As noted in the recent Rolling Thunder 1976 series, there was one report he did play this at the lost Salt Lake City Show. But, for various reasons you can read about here if you’re curious, that intel is highly suspect. So, at #4, the one Desire song he never played live. Probably.

#3. John Wesley Harding

You can see why many Desire songs either never got played live or, if they did, never outlived their era. The sound was very specific to that album and that band. But John Wesley Harding’s title track is an odd choice to never play. That album’s spare folk-rock seems more adaptable to different eras. Indeed, many songs from that album he’s played for decades. But never this, or “I Am a Lonesome Hobo” (#194 on the Rate Your Music list) either. Understandably, but unfortunately, a lot of the songs he’s never played live come from that post-motorcycle crash period when he wasn’t touring.

#2. Murder Most Foul

No secret why he’s never played this live—it’s long as hell! Also I imagine the vibe would be near-impossible to maintain in concert. (He’s struggled at times with “Key West,” and that’s half the length.) Every time the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour played Dallas, people wondered, was tonight the night? It never was.

And The Best Song Bob Dylan Never Played Live is…

#1. Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Again: A long song! Then again, he did play “Highlands” a few times, not to mention he’s played “Desolation Row” (which is two seconds longer on the record) a ton. Kinda surprising he never at least gave “Sad-Eyed Lady” a shot in the past 60 years. It was rehearsed for Rolling Thunder at least, so he apparently considered it. Renaldo and Clara include a short snippet of that rehearsal, which you can hear here (the talking over part of it is because this audio comes from the movie):

So there you have it, the best song Bob Dylan has never played live is officially “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.” It lands at #16 on that Rate Your Music list, but he’s played all the Top 15, so it’s #1 for us.

But “Sad-Eyed Lady” is not my Best Song Bob Dylan Has Never Played Live. (Though, to be clear, I would hardly object to hearing any of those this summer!). So that’s the second half, after the jump. What’s the song am I personally most upset he’s never played live?

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