Bob Dylan
Gammage Center
Tempe, Arizona
25 November 1979

Regina McCreary Havis:
Monologue

Havis-Springs-Young:
If I’ve Got My Ticket, Lord (McCoy/Dennis)
It’s Gonna Rain (C Johnson)
Do Lord, Remember Me (trad.)
Look Up And Live By Faith (?)
Oh Freedom (?)
This Train Is Bound For Glory (This Train) (Big Bill Broonzy)

01 – Gotta Serve Somebody
02 – I Believe In You
03 – When You Gonna Wake Up
04 – When He Returns
05 – Man Gave Names To All The Animals
06 – Precious Angel
07 – Slow Train
08 – Covenant Woman

Regina McCreary Havis:
09 – Put Your Hand In The Hand Of The Man From Galilee (Gene MacLellan)

10 – Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
11 – Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)
12 – Solid Rock
13 – Saving Grace
14 – Saved (Bob Dylan/Tim Drummond)
15 – What Can I Do For You?
16 – In The Garden

    (encore)

17 – Blessed Be The Name

Concert # 19 of the First Gospel Tour.
Concert # 19 with the First Gospel Band:
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar),
Fred Tackett (guitar),
Spooner Oldham (keyboards),
Tim Drummond (bass),
Terry Young (keyboards),
Jim Keltner (drums),
Regina Havis , Helena Springs , Mona Lisa Young (background vocals).

4 Bob Dylan solo (vocal & guitar) with Spooner Oldham (piano).
14 Bob Dylan (harmonica).
17 Bob Dylan (piano).

BobTalk

[audience: “Subterranean Blues!” -Rock-n-roll!-] Turn the light on out
there. You know when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming up the road, he
said, Behold! The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.-
Did you know that? Thatís right, thatís what he said.
Now donít be affected by, by the, uh, in San Francisco, we opened there,
Iíd say about a month ago, about three or four people walked out because
they, they didnít like the message, you know. But . . . weíre still here
now. Donít you walk out before you hear the message, you know? Anyway,
he said, -The Lamb of God ‘which taketh away the sin of the world.-
I wonder how many of you know what itís like? Itís like the Shah of Iran.
Heís been out of the hospital now. Who knows what heís doing there out of
the hospital. Heís walking around, looking out the window.
Meantime 50 people, 50 or 60 American hostages are being held somewhere
out in the desert. This man plundered the country, murdered a lot of people
and escaped. Now they want him to come back. Now, hereís what Jesus would
have done. Jesus would have gone back. See, thatís what Jesus did.
He went back and took all the hostages back. Now, of course, weíre not
expecting the Shah of Iran to do anything like that. Of course, heís just
human. Thatís right, he is! Anyway, weíre gonna start off this song here.
Itís called -Slow Train Coming.- Itís been coming a long time – yeah it is.

All right. Now donít be dismayed by what you read in the newspapers about
whatís happening to the world. Because, now, the world as we know it now
is being destroyed. Iím sorry to say it, but itís . . . itís the truth.
In the matter of a short time — I donít know, maybe in three years, maybe
five years, could be ten years, I donít know – thereís gonna be a war.
Itís gonna be called the war of Armageddon. Itís gonna happen in the Middle
East. Russiaís gonna come down and attack first and you watch for that sign.
Anyway, weíre not worried about that. We know thereís gonna be a new
kingdom set up in Jerusalem for a thousand years. And thatís where Jesus
will set up his kingdom, as sure as youíre standing there, itís gonna
happen. So this is called, “Hanging On To A Solid Rock Made Before The
Foundation Of The World.”

References
Clinton Heylin: Saved! The Gospel Speeches of Bob Dylan. Hanuman Books 1990, pages 33-37.
Watt Alexander: The Gospel Project.

Mono audience recording, 105 minutes.

LB-00338 ; 56min +45min ; 2CDR ; Rating: –

11/25/79 Gammage Center, Tempe
from master,

good to very good sound, sound gets worse midway in d1t3;
has hevay tv band on d1t5 (a bittorrent from 8/06 was a close eac match described as
CDA>WAVELAB>FLAC”);

(a bittorrent from 08/09 with matching md5 is part of the lk 79 series)

Bob Dylan
11/26/79
Gammage Center
Tempe, AZ

1. Gotta Serve Somebody
2. I Believe In You
3. When You Gonna Wake Up
4. When He Returns
5. Man Gave Names To All The Animals
6. Precious Angel
7. Slow Train
8. Covenant Woman
9. Regina McCreary Havis:
Put Your Hand In The Hand Of The Man From Galilee (Gene MacLellan)
10. Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
11. Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)
12. Solid Rock
12. Saving Grace
13. Saved (Bob Dylan/Tim Drummond)
14. What Can I Do For You?
15. In The Garden

Concert # 20 of the First Gospel Tour.
Concert # 20 with the First Gospel Band: Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar), Fred Tackett (guitar), Spooner Oldham (keyboards), Tim Drummond (bass), Terry Young (keyboards), Jim Keltner (drums), Regina Havis , Helena Springs , Mona Lisa Young (background vocals).

4 Bob Dylan solo (vocal & guitar) with Spooner Oldham (piano).
13 Bob Dylan (harmonica).
17 Bob Dylan (piano).

Note. There was no encores this evening, probably due to the exceptionally hostile audience response.

Source 1:

LB-7210

Lineage: CDR – XLD – FLAC 8
Number of Discs: 2

Source 2:
LB-9313

Notes from Source 1:

This concert likely constitutes the low-point of the entire tour, if not of all Dylan tours. The circulating recordings of this concert all lack the monologue and introductory gospel songs by the backing singers. However, from the crowd noise leading into “Serve Somebody” and Dylan’s clear anger following “I Believe In You,” the crowds’ treatment of the backing singers must have been quite nasty. The crowd comments decipherable through Dylan’s harangue suggest that this concert was marred by a few individual hecklers rather than a broad negative response of the audience. As may be heard, the hecklers yell their comments and are quickly shouted down by a number of other members of the audience.

Dylan’s response is interesting. He begins by simply telling the crowd they’re being rude. He then launches into a story meant to illustrate the pervasiveness of what he calls the “anti-Christ,” particularly as represented by a famous guru Dylan says claims to be god, but also, by implication, the band “Kiss” and their like. Dylan persists in this story despite very aggressive heckling which finally prompts him to raise the lights in the hall, calling out, “Turn the lights on! Give them some light! Let them in the light!”

Dylan leaves the lights on for the remainder of the concert, another fourteen songs. In response to numerous shouts to turn the lights down, following “When He Returns,” Dylan says, “Why? Too bright for you?” This poisoned atmosphere doesn’t improve. Dylan performes the next few songs at a quicker pace, with flatter phrasing, in marked contrast to the confessional tone he takes at nearly every other concert of this tour. The combination of Dylan’s tone and pacing, the lights, and the clear unease of the audience with both Dylan’s anger and the lights, appear to rattle the band as well. They struggle through “Change My Way Of Thinking,” “Saved” and a thoroughly dispirited “In The Garden,” sounding downright relieved to be done by the final notes of the latter.

On the other hand, both “Covenant Woman” and “Solid Rock” stand out this evening. Both capture Dylan’s apaprent mood of the evening, Dylan delivers the former, a difficult song on the best of nights, with a lovely wearied rephrasing. Dylan and the band crank out an angry, defiant, “Solid Rock” with a wonderful guitar solo by Fred Tackett and great vocal licks from the backing singers.

Dylan’s first address to the audience, concerning the gurus and “Kiss,” focuses on false deceivers and the bright line between those who are saved and those who are lost, essentially a cautionary tale that you either have faith or you do not. Dylan’s second address takes a more plaintive tone, directly acknowledging his own role as a spokesperson for the faith. When fans call out old songs, Dylan acknowledges these calls, but treats them as accusations rather than requests. Dylan defends his earlier songs as not having intentionally misled anyone. In response to someone shouting “Everybody Must Get Stoned!” Dylan recounts the story of Jesus confronting a group about to stone an adulterer. Dylan then relates his view that current events mirror biblical prophecy and portend Armageddon within the next few years. Dylan then reminds the audience that they need to prepare for this final battle and, referring to Jesus’ use of parables, suggesting that the truth is before them, but some simply cannot grasp it.

I find Dylan’s defensiveness about his earlier songs and his persistence in trying to preach the gospel to his audience remarkable. While many may bristle at being told they are “lost” because they do not believe in Dylan’s god, Dylan’s intentions, and the urgent care he shows for his audience, are moving. Not unlike Pascal’s “Wager”, Dylan seems animated by his own fame to utilize it for the service of what he is clearly convinced is the good of his audience. This is not a man condemning the world and holding himself above it. This is someone who has clearly condemned himself for his own past, now laboring to help his followers avoid a similar fall. Dylan’s reference to parables towards the end strikes me as evidence that Dylan is beginning to grasp the obstacles which lie before him in spreading his message.