Bob Dylan – Bass Player’s Wearing a Bow Tie, 1978

Bob Dylan
1978 BASS PLAYER’S WEARING A TIE
NORTH AMERICA NOVEMBER & DECEMBER
Pink Panther Records

Thanks to Nellie as always for the compilation.

The final piece of Pink Panther’s five part 1978 world tour, which consisted of 114 concerts (not the 115 often quoted by writers).
This has only been bettered by the 120 concerts in 1999 & 116 in 1995.
The year would take Bob to 10 countries – USA, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden & Canada.

This final North American leg seems like it is light years away from the Japanese “greatest hits” shows.
It was not a happy time for Bob (as had been the American concerts in September & October), but Bob did make some radical decisions on how he would move forward & out of his situation.

The journalists were unrelenting in their criticism, Street Legal did not sell well, Renaldo & Clara was a commercial disaster,
the single Baby Stop Crying flopped & was all but dropped from the setlist.

I have no idea what was going on in his head, but the rants about geeks, gypsy kings, & an old man on a train in Mexico with glowing eyes (God?, devil?) give some insight.

Whether the stories about crosses thrown on stage or hotel room visits from God are reliable is debatable, but he did play Slow Train at soundchecks & Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others) on the final tour night in Hollywood, Florida.

However, when you listen objectively to the best examples of the circulating tapes, you get some wonderful music.
The setlist is fairly static but the night by night variation is amazing.
Despite everything, the standard of performance is very high – he does not give up.
Improvisation is the order of the day & the band & backup singers give their all.
It is far looser than September & October – to the point of being feral & unpredictable.

The music soars all the way to heaven – literally.

Sound quality is mostly excellent, but there are some lo-fi tracks of the rarely played songs
(Baby Stop Crying was only played twice before being abandoned in mid-November).

A note on sound quality – Jokerman usually does a great job with sound ratings, but not here.
imo, Vancouver & LA are under-rated, Charlotte is over-rated, & Madison is incredible (although I concede that there are cuts & dropouts on some songs – most of which do not appear here).
I have never liked (& still don’t like) Charlotte – I know everyone raves about it but all the versions I have heard are harsh, processed & clipped.
There are 11 Charlotte tracks here – the performances are great, but imo there are better examples of most of the songs.

Generally, there are two examples of each song (one each from November & December) but not always.

The title comes from bootlegger comments at 11-15 LA just before Shelter From The Storm (but I had to clean it up a bit).

Statistics for this compilation (yes, lies, damn lies & statistics masquerading as facts)

75 ball-tearing, sensational tracks
37 different songs
14 concerts are represented here (from the total of 32 concerts)
5 hours & 44 minutes of music
1 bob

All songs played on the tour leg are represented here.

Dane County Memorial Coliseum
Madison, Wisconsin
1 November 1978

1.My Back Pages
2.It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
3.Tangled Up In Blue
4.Ballad Of A Thin Man
5.Like A Rolling Stone
6.I Shall Be Released
7.SeÒor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
8.It Ain’t Me, Babe
9.Am I Your Stepchild?
10.One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)
11.Blowin’ In The Wind
12.Girl Of The North Country
13.Masters Of War
14.Just Like A Woman
15.All I Really Want To Do
16.Forever Young

My Back Pages instrumental without Bob Dylan.

LB-7674;
Compiler Les Kokay (LK);
from LK 78 series;
Equipment: Audience Master Cassette > PCM >
Betamax > PCM > HHBCDR-800 (pass thru) >
Panasonic SV3700 DAT Recorded >DAT;
Transfer: DAT > TCD-D10 proII > S/PDIF >
Audiomedia III PCI card > Powermac7200/80 >
Protools 3.4 > copied to Power Mac G3 >
Protools 4.1.1 > .WAV files > Flac

Hec Edmondson Pavilion
University Of Washington
Seattle, Washington
10 November 1978

17.Mr Tambourine Man
18.Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)

LB-9353;
Taper: JEMS;
Equipment: Tandberg Model 11 R2R deck with Sony ECM-22P mic;
Transfer: Master Reels @ full track mono > Tandberg Model 11 >
Wavelab 96/24 1ch mono > wav 44.1/16 2ch mono > flac

Pacific National Exhibition Hall
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
11 November 1978

19.She’s Love Crazy (Tampa Red)
20.Maggie’s Farm
21.I Donít Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
22.Like A Rolling Stone
23.Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
24.One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)
25.All Along The Watchtower
26.It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
27.Changing Of The Guards

LB-4116

Alameda County Coliseum
Oakland, California
14 November 1978

28.Baby Stop Crying

LB-3574

The Forum
Inglewood
Los Angeles, California
15 November 1978

29.My Back Pages
30.Mr Tambourine Man
31.Bootlegger Banter
32.Shelter From The Storm
33.Ballad Of A Thin Man Intro
34.Ballad Of A Thin Man
35.I Shall Be Released
36.The Times They Are A-Changin’
37.Am I Your Stepchild?
38.Girl Of The North Country
39.We Better Talk This Over
40.Masters Of War
41.Bootlegger Banter
42.To Ramona
43.All I Really Want To Do
44.It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

LB-3738;
At The Forum (dylantree);
Equipment: Uher 240 Stereo Porta Deck with 2 Sennheiser MKH 404 Mics

A.S.U. Activities Center
Tempe, Arizona
18 November 1978

45.True Love Tends To Forget

LB-7736;
Compiler: Les Kokay (LK);
from lk 78 series

LLoyd Noble Center
Norman, Oklahoma
23 November 1978

46.Watching The River Flow

LB-7741;
Compiler: Les Kokay (LK)

Mid-South Coliseum
Memphis, Tennessee
1 December 1978

47.Sheís Love Crazy (Tampa Red)
48.Tangled Up In Blue

LB-0263;
Taper: BS;

Municipal Auditorium
Nashville, Tennessee
2 December 1978

49.It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
50.I Donít Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
51.I Shall Be Released
52.One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below) Intro
53.One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)
54.To Ramona
55.All I Really Want To Do

LB-4407;
Taper: BS

Municipal Auditorium
Mobile, Alabama
5 December 1978

56.One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)

LB-7766;
Compiler Les Kokay (LK);
from LK 78 series

Greensboro Coliseum
Greensboro, North Carolina
7 December 1978

57.Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)

LB-8724

Civic Center Arena
Savannah, Georgia
8 December 1978

58.Is Your Love In Vain?

LB-4823

Charlotte Coliseum
Charlotte, North Carolina
10 December 1978

59.My Back Pages
60.Sheís Love Crazy (Tampa Red)
61.Shelter From The Storm
62.Ballad Of A Thin Man Intro
63.Ballad Of A Thin Man
64.SeÒor (Tales Of Yankee Power) Intro
65.SeÒor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
66.The Times They Are A-Changin’
67.Am I Your Stepchild?
68.We Better Talk This Over
69.Masters Of War
70.All Along The Watchtower
71.Changing Of The Guards

LB-4625;
Equipment: Taped using a 3-head portable cassette recorder and electret condenser mic
which was possibly above-average equipment for the typical audience stealth taper in those days;
Stereo master cassette tapes for Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte LB-7099

Hollywood Sportatorium
Hollywood, Florida
16 December 1978

72.Love Minus Zero/No Limit
73.It Ain’t Me, Babe
74.Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)
75.I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight

LB-0212