wiener stadthalle-kiba

Bob Dylan and Mick Taylor (former Rolling Stones guitarist)
06-14-1984
Wiener Stadthalle-Kiba,
Vienna, Austria

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This one starts off huge. First the quality of this audience recording is great. It’s
amazing how good this sounds considering the technology available to the tapers 20
years ago. I feel very fortunate that every one of these great 1984 shows were recorded.
I would love to meet the people responsible and give them my thanks. This show has the
greatest “Highway 61 Revisited” of the entire tour in my opinion. Just fantastic! Taylor
is on fire and just feels exactly the right thing to play. Not that his playing on this is
mind-boggling but it just feels like the right thing that should be played at that moment.
Taylor more then any other guitarist is excellent at knowing the right thing to play and
what not to play. Contrast that with Santana who can’t seem to figure out that what he
plays is part of a song, not a chance for him to just throw out some fast riffs. Really, who
cares if it is NOT in the context of the song. Most of Santana’s playing on this tour fits in
that category unfortunately (“Heart of Mine” on this on stands out as a great song totally
raped of any feeling by this guys horrible and loud obnoxious tone and playing).
Anyway back to “Highway 61 Revisited.” Listen to Taylor just go off. In fact on this
one it sounds like the band is ending the song (at about 5:10 min) but continues on as
Taylor is peeling off fantastic riffs and grooving to the song. Strangely enough Taylor
backs off and becomes almost transparent for the majority of the rest of show.

Dylan as usual is great. Vocally he is continue to change phrasing, sometimes changing
to a harmony part and doing what he does best which is not to follow any preconceived
notion of how the song had been played before but to make it something new each night,
which he does every night on this tour. Listen to Taylor’s lack of slide on “Maggies
Farm” and how he plays very little on “I and I.” Right before “License to Kill” the crowd
is yelling for “Solid Rock” and Dylan replies “I don’t know that anymore” then laughs
then says, “I forgot the words to that.” He seems to be in good spirits this night. On all
of his acoustic stuff the natural reverb of the venue is great. “Shelter from the Storm” is a
nice surprise and one of only three times played this tour. Taylor emerges briefly for a
great solo on “Ballad of a Thin Man.” Then we come to the dreaded Santana portion
where on this night the conga players join in. Do congas fit in on “Blowing in the
Wind?” Well, neither does Santana’s horrible lead work so I guess maybe there is some
continuity in it all . . .NOT!

Right now is the 20th Anniversary of those shows and I thought it would be cool to
release each show to STG on the date of the actual show plus 20 years. So, here is the
thirteenth show; only 14 more!!! We’ll see if I can keep up with the rest of the tour. So
far so good!

Disc 1