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Never Ending Tour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour is a popular term for the legendary musician's seemingly incessant performing schedule since June 7, 1988. Attention is often given to his seasoned (but rotating) backing band, which he finally displayed on record with the 2001 album "Love and Theft". It is also notable for Dylan's advanced age - he turned sixty-five in 2006, a year in which he played ninety-nine shows. By the close of 2006, Dylan had played almost 2000 shows in his so-called Never Ending Tour.[1]
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Although Dylan had toured in every year of the 1980s (except 1983), including his 1987 tour with the Grateful Dead, the Never Ending Tour presented a more focused Dylan touring with a stable but constantly evolving band.[2]
1992's acoustic folk album Good as I Been to You was favorably compared to the acoustic sets Dylan usually performed during each show on the tour. 1997's Time Out of Mind, his first record of originals in seven years, was considered a full-fledged comeback. Finally, 2001's "Love and Theft" was seen by critics as a good representation of what Dylan and his recent bands had become famous for in concert.
The tour's sets are infamous for progressive reworkings of classic Dylan songs such "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Like a Rolling Stone" - in which rhythms, genres and even lyrics are often completely altered. It is a practice the singer-songwriter experimented with since the 1960s, but is now found throughout entire concerts.
The tour's name was cemented when journalist Adrian Deevoy published his interview with Dylan in Q Magazine no.39, December 1989. The critic Michael Gray listened to Deevoy's interview tape, and points out in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia that though Deevoy's article put the phrase into Dylan's mouth, in fact the label came from Deevoy in the following exchange:
- AD: 'Tell me about this live thing. You've gone straight into this tour again - one tour virtually straight into the next one.'
- BD: 'Oh, it's all the same tour.'
- AD: 'It's the Never Ending Tour?'
- BD: (unenthusiastically) 'Yeah, yeah'.[3]
Dylan has been dismissive of the Never Ending Tour tag. In the sleeve notes to his album World Gone Wrong (1993), Dylan wrote: "don't be bewildered by the Never Ending Tour chatter. there was a Never Ending Tour but it ended in '91 with the departure of guitarist G. E. Smith. That one's long gone but there have been many others since then. The Money Never Runs Out Tour (fall of '91) Southern Sympathizer Tour (early '92) Why Do You Look At Me So Strangely Tour (European '92) The One Sad Cry Of Pity Tour (Australia & West Coast American '92) Outburst Of Consciousness Tour ('92) Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Tour ('93) & others too many to mention each with their own character & design." (sic)
In a 2001 Austrian press interview with Thomas Zeidler, Dylan dismissed the term on the grounds that someday he will be unable to hit the road.
The only officially released live document from the period covered by The Never Ending Tour was a solo set for MTV Unplugged in 1995. Fans, especially on the internet, are known to record, catalogue and trade CDs from his concerts at about the rate of other celebrated live artists, such as Phish and The Grateful Dead. As with those groups, a proper explanation for this is Dylan's tendency to rarely perform a song in the same manner twice.
Amazon.com broadcast a 2005 live performance on their homepage, in celebration of the site's tenth anniversary.
Andrew Muir authored the book Razor's Edge: Bob Dylan and the Never Ending Tour in September, 2001. The book attempts to chronicle the first decade and a half, while exploring Dylan's possible motivations.
As of November 2006, Bob Dylan's band consists of the following members:
- Bob Dylan - vocals, guitar, organ, harmonica
- Stu Kimball - guitar
- Donnie Herron - pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, electric mandolin, banjo, fiddle
- Denny Freeman - guitar, slide guitar
- Tony Garnier - bass guitar, standup bass
- George Receli - drums
- ^ "Log of every Dylan performance, 1958 to Today", Bjorner's Still on the Road, 2006-09-16. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
- ^ "Log of every Dylan performance, 1958 to Today", Bjorner's Still on the Road, 2006-09-16. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, 173
- Gray, Michael (2006). The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. Continuum International. ISBN 0-8264-6933-7.
- Muir, Andrew (2001). Razor's Edge: Bob Dylan & the Never Ending Tour. Helter Skelter. ISBN 1-900924-13-7.