BOB DYLAN
Brendan Byrne Arena
Meadowlands Sports Complex
East Rutherford, New Jersey
October 27th 1981
DISC 1:
01. Gotta Serve Somebody
02. I Believe In You
03. Like A Rolling Stone
04. I Want You
05. Man Gave Names To All The Animals
06. Maggie’s Farm
07. Girl From The North Country
08. Ballad Of A Thin Man
09. Simple Twist Of Fate
10. All Along The Watchtower
11. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
12. Let’s Begin
13. Forever Young
14. Gamblin’ Man
15. The Times They Are A-Changin’
16. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
DISC 2:
01. Masters Of War
02. Mr. Tambourine Man
03. Solid Rock
04. Dead Man, Dead Man
05. Just Like A Woman
06. Heart Of Mine
07. When You Gonna Wake Up?
08. In The Garden
09. Blowin’ In The Wind
10. It’s All Right, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
11. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
themidnightcafe.org 
looking forward to checking this one out – rarer show from a very underrated tour IMHO – Lot of good performances and famous boots from the following month so i’m fairly optimistic
Hey DylanDave,
I love this time period for Dylan, do you know of other recordings from his “Jesus period”? I’m only looking for SDB quality.
Thanks,
Well I’m not DylanDave but even so I’m gonna offer a few thoughts 🙂
It is a great period, Dylan is just singing so passionately – and of course
all the “controversy” adds to the interest… and let’s not forget, subject matter
aside many of the new songs from this period are superb
A big favourite of mine is Wear The Fox Hat, Nov 16, Warfield 1980.
This is mostly sbd with some ok aud patches.
The sound is quite “funky” but it’s still some of the best in quality from
this period. Think – the board was routed direct to a hi quality cassette and
that gives some idea… a bit rough and ready round the edges, but on a good
system it has great presence… the kick drum on Serve Somebody sounds
like it might bring the plaster off the ceiling. Great performance, gives me
goosebumps. Real live !!
The two dates from Toronto, April 19 and 20 in theory are good sound quality.
From memory, the 19th isn’t such a good show, and the sound quality seems
to me to be not as good as billed (the “unreleased album”, etc).
The 20th is great though, good set, and good sound. I have some blank CDR’s
of unknown lineage and the SQ is warm and detailed, with plenty presence for
a good listen. (I have a memory of hearing the Gospeller release of same and
finding the sound a bit of a let down, like Godfather had mastered all the guts
out of it).
Stadiums of the Damned is very well known…. 10th Nov, 81. New Orleans. Heart of
Mine from this features on Biograph (if I remember correctly).
I actually much prefer the 12th in Houston, released way back when by Wanted Man
as “You Can’t Kill An Idea”. At least last time I heard these shows I much preferred
it, but I’m coming to the conclusion that a lot of factors mean sometimes we enjoy
this show more, sometimes that, and it can change all the time.
Errr, what else?
Well there has to be a show from the original Warfield run, of course!
My money would be on 16th November, just for the question of truly
listenable sound quality. “Better Contract”, improved version of the original
Contract With The Lord.
If memory serves me well, however, Solid Rock has already dropped it’s
original rhythm riff which some found much superior.
What a shame the whole run wasn’t properly recorded for a Dead style box
set !!
Thinman has released a lot of dates from this period…. ie 79 through to
autumn 81. Blood of the Lamb (5th Dec 79) is not a bad listen, but I seem to
remember it’s a bit disappointing how little friction is audible 😉
Other dates around this one were a bit more lively.
Summer 81 – the Earl’s Court dates are all listenable, though not exceptional SQ.
Along with Avignon, 25th July, probably the best of the bunch. Some — like eg
Drammen — I find over-rated generally in terms of sound quality.
All in all I think it wd be fair to say that in terms of good quality recordings
no other period is so poorly served…. but of course we should be very
grateful for what we do have.
Just my ha’penny worth.
Be interesting to hear what others think.
Thanks for all the info Tony.
Found the Toronto 4-19-80 show on soundcloud (at least 8 songs of the show), sounds quality is A+++. Says it’s the rumored live gospel LP that was never released. Here’s the link for anybody:
I’m still searching for the Warfield 1980 show.
Not sure what the history is, but I think that there’s
only the 8 songs circulating from the 19th, so you’ve
probably got em all