This year started with three months in Bible class at The School of Discipleship in Southern California, and ended with the first part of the famous Gospel Tour. Once again Bob Dylan did the completely unexpected. Not only did he became a newborn Christian, he recorded a gospel record with only original songs and hit the road with a show that did not contain one single song from his previous records!

2 1979 At A Glance

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3 The 1979 Calendar

January	Playboy publishes the Ron Rosenbaum interview.
30 April	1^st Slow Train Coming session in Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, Alabama.
1 May	2^nd Slow Train Coming session.
2 May	3^rd Slow Train Coming session.
3 May	4^th Slow Train Coming session.
4 May	5^th Slow Train Coming session.
17 August	The 1966 film Eat The Document is broadcast on New York TV station Channel 13.
18 August	Release of Slow Train Coming.
September	Release of the Gotta Serve Somebody/Trouble In Mind single.
20 October	Dylan & his Gospel Band appear at Saturday Night Live with three songs from Slow Train Coming.
November	Release of Man Gave Names To All The Animals/When You Gonna Wake Up? single.
1 November	The Gospel Tour starts with no less than 14 shows at the Fox Warfield Theater in San Francisco.
8 December	The Bruce Heiman telephone interview is broadcast by KMEX Radio in Tucson.

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4 Slow Train Coming

Slow Train Coming was recording in five sessions in a week’s time in early May. They were produced by Jerry Wexler & Barry Beckett. Here's a summary of these sessions:

				take released on
Date	Song	takes	STC[1]		BIOG[2]	BS[3]	single
31 April	Trouble In Mind	8	7
1 May	Precious Angel	1	1
	Ain't No Man Righteous, No Not One	10
2 May	When You Gonna Wake Up?	3	3
	Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking	1	1
	Ye Shall Be Changed	1				1
3 May	Ain't No Man Righteous, No Not One	1
	I Believe In You	2	1		1
	Slow Train	1	1				1
4 May	Gotta Serve Somebody	4	3		1
	Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)	4	4				4
	When He Returns	9	9
	Man Gave Names To All The Animals	6	6				6

For more details about some of these sessions please refer to the corresponding session pages.

4.1 Live history

Song	Debut
Ain't No Man Righteous, No Not One	San Francisco, California, 16 November 1979
Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)	Hollywood, Florida, 16 December 1978
Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking	San Francisco, California, 1 November 1979
Gotta Serve Somebody	New York City, New York, 20 October 1979
I Believe In You	New York City, New York, 20 October 1979
Man Gave Names To All The Animals	San Francisco, California, 1 November 1979
Precious Angel	San Francisco, California, 1 November 1979
Slow Train	San Francisco, California, 1 November 1979
When He Returns	San Francisco, California, 1 November 1979
When You Gonna Wake Up?	New York City, New York, 20 October 1979

4.2 Officially released live versions

Dylan And The Dead	Gotta Serve Somebody	Anaheim, California, 26 July 1987
	Slow Train	Foxboro, Massachusetts, 4 July 1987

4.3 Performances during The Never-Ending Tour

Gotta Serve Somebody	1988-1991, 1998-2002
I Believe In You	1989-1996, 1998, 2002
Man Gave Names To All The Animals	1989-1991
When You Gonna Wake Up?	1989 (once)

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5 The First Gospel Tour

5.1 Introduction

The Gospel Tour that started in 1979 and continued in the spring of 1980, featured only gospel songs, either performed by the backup singers, or by Bob Dylan backed by the band. No songs from his other records were played. The setlist was almost constant from night to night. The audience responses were confused, angry and sometimes outright hostile. Many came to see a rock and roll show and were given a gospel concert. Dylan responded with long sermons between songs about the end of the world, the battle of Armageddon and the second coming. These lengthy raps are included in the session pages.

5.2 The show

A gospel concert consisted of:

Set 1	6 songs by the backing singers plus Terry Young on piano
	8 or 9 songs by Bob Dylan and the band
	1 song by one of the backing singers and the band
Set 2	7 songs by Bob Dylan and the band
Encore	2 songs by Bob Dylan and the band

5.3 The musicians

Fred Tackett guitar

Spooner Oldham keyboards

Terry Young keyboards

Tim Drummond bass

Jim Keltner drums

Helena Springs vocal

Regina Havis vocal

Mona Lisa Young vocal

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5.4 The dates

November

1	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
2	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
3	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
4	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
6	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
7	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
8	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
9	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
10	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
11	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
13	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	MA
14	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	MA
15	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	MA
16	San Francisco, California	Fox Warfield Theatre	SA
18	Santa Monica, California	Civic Auditorium	SA
19	Santa Monica, California	Civic Auditorium	SA
20	Santa Monica, California	Civic Auditorium	SA
21	Santa Monica, California	Civic Auditorium	SA
25	Tempe, Arizona	Gammage Center	MA
26	Tempe, Arizona	Gammage Center	MA
27	San Diego, California	Golden Hall	MA
28	San Diego, California	Golden Hall	MA, I

December

4	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Kiva Auditorium, Convention Center	MA
5	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Kiva Auditorium, Convention Center	MA
8	Tucson, Arizona	Music Hall, Community Center	MA
9	Tucson, Arizona	Music Hall, Community Center	MA

I	incomplete recording
MA	mono audience recording
SA	stereo audience recording

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5.5 The songs

set-										Nov															Dec
list	1	2	3	4	6	7	8	9	10		11	13	14	15	16	18	19	20	21	25	26	27	28	4		5	7	9
A	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ
B								Ÿ
C									Ÿ		Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ
D															Ÿ
E																Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ			Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ		Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ
F																				Ÿ
G																					Ÿ

Songs In order played

Setlist	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	S
Gotta Serve Somebody	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	26
I Believe In You	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	26
When You Gonna Wake Up	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	26
When He Returns	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	26
Man Gave Names To All The Animals	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	26
Precious Angel	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	26
Slow Train	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	26
Covenant Woman	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	26
Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking	9	9	9	10	9	9	9	26
Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)	10	10	10	11	10	10	10	26
Solid Rock	11	11	11	12	11	11	11	26
Saving Grace	12	12	12	14	12	12	12	26
What Can I Do For You?	13	13	14	13	14	14	14	26
Saved (Bob Dylan/Tim Drummond)	14	14	13	15	13	13	13	26
In The Garden	15	15	15	16	15	15	15	26
Blessed Be The Name	16	16	16	17	16	16		25
Pressing On	17	17	17	18	17			24
Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One				9				1

5.6 Statistics

5.6.1 Show statistics

Number of shows:	26
Number of circulating shows:	26
Number of circulating & complete shows:	25
Number of different songs [4]:	18
Number of unique songs [5]:	18
Number of performed songs:	440
Mean number of performed songs:	16
Variation [6]:	1,1

5.6.2 Song statistics

	# of		# of
	songs	%	perf.	%
Electric	18	100.0	440	100.0
Acoustic	0	0.0	0	0.0

Albums	16	88.9	414	94.1
Singles	0	0.0	0	0.0
Outtakes	2	11.1	26	5.9
Covers	0	0.0	0	0.0

5.6.3 Album statistics

	# of		# of
Album	songs	%	perf	%
Slow Train Coming	9	56.2%	234	56.5%
Saved	7	43.8%	180	43.5%

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5.7 Comments

5.7.1 Recommended shows

All the Santa Monica shows are excellent and here Dylan performs in front of an enthusiastic audience, not all that common during this tour. The reason is that these were four benefit shows to aid World Vision International, a non-denominational Christian charity organization. In complete contrast the audiences at the two shows in Tempe are probably the most hostile Dylan has ever played to, before and since. The second show in particular features some lengthy angry raps by Dylan and is unique in that Dylan refused to play any encores.

5.7.2 Songs

The Slow Train Coming outtake Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One is performed 16 November. This is one of three known versions of this great song.

6 Songs 1979

May	Baby Give It Up	1, 5
	Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
	Gotta Serve Somebody
	I Believe In You
	Man Gave Names To All The Animals
	Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One	4
	Precious Angel
	Slow Train
	Trouble In Mind
	When He Returns
	When You Gonna Wake Up?
	Ye Shall Be Changed	2
September	Responsibility	1, 6
	Saving Grace
	Someone Else's Arms	1, 5
	Tell Me The Truth One Time	1, 6
	The Wandering Kind	1, 6, 7
	What's The Matter	1, 5
	Without You	1, 5
October	Covenant Woman
	In The garden
	Pressing On
	Saved
	Solid Rock
	Stand By Faith	3
	What Can I Do For You

1. Co-written with Helena Springs.

2. Out-take from the Slow Train Coming sessions, released on Bootleg Series.

3. Rehearsed before the start of the tour but never performed, no circulating version exists. Copyrighted in November.

4. Out-take from the Slow Train Coming sessions. No studio take is in circulation. There are two live performances. Recorded by Jah Mallah and released on the album Jah Mallah on Modern.

5. There is no circulating version with or without Bob Dylan.

6. There is a circulating demo tape with Helena Springs but without Bob Dylan.

7. Covered by Paul Butterfield on The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again.

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7 Suggested Readings

7.1 Books

Bert Cartwright	The Bible In The Lyrics Of Bob Dylan. Wanted Man Study Series 1985.
Clinton Heylin	Saved! The Gospel Speeches of Bob Dylan. Hanuman Books 1990.
Gerhard Jansen	Slow Train Coming. Self published 1980.
Scott M. Marshall with Marcia Ford	Restless Pilgrim. The Spiritual journey of Bob Dylan. Relevant Books 2002.
Paul Williams	Dylan - What Happened? Enthwistle Books 1979.

7.2 Selected articles

Ain't No Man Righteous, No Not One – lyrics in The Telegraph #14

Bob Dylan’s Church. The Vineyard Christian Fellowship – by Mac Linscott Ricketts, On The Tracks #4 (Fall 1994)

Fred Tackett interview

1 Introduction

2 1979 At A Glance

3 The 1979 Calendar

4 Slow Train Coming

Debut

4.2 Officially released live versions

5 The First Gospel Tour

6 Songs 1979

7 Suggested Readings