1990 Days Of ‘49

1 A SHORT SUBJECTIVE RETROSPECTIVE

92 shows on three continents, two albums, two videos and a couple of guest appearances says it all! The busiest man in show business. Unfortunately it seemed that quality was sacrificed for quantity. The new record was for many people not only surprisingly different, both musically and lyrically, but also very disappointing artistically. The promotional video made for Unbelievable is virtually impossible to distinguish from the usual worthless MTV output. The shows, finally, were very uneven,

from the wonderful run in Paris and London in January-February and the magnificent set of shows, mostly in Canada, in May-June to the rather bleak late summer tour with "live auditioning" with a number of different guitarists. The year ended with Dylan on the road with a band where G. E. Smith had been replaced by two guitarists, none of which could or would play lead guitar!

2 The Year at a glance

[TOP]

3 CALENDAR

Early January	Under The Red Sky recording sessions in Los Angeles with Stevie Ray Vaughan results in four songs.
12 January	Toad's Place, New Haven, Connecticut. 4 hours. Many covers, first time songs, requests taken with a smile. This is really a long public rehearsal and no acoustic set is included.
14 January	Another semi rehearsal show, this time at the Recreation Hall, Penn State, State College in Pennsylvania. Again all electric. Before performing Wiggle Wiggle Dylan says "this is from the new album", which was very hard to believe at the time.
15 January	McCarter Theater, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. The acoustic set was played right after the opening number, an interesting variation of the old format. This was not to be repeated however, the rest of the shows were played electric - acoustic - electric as before. A pity.
18 January	First show ever in South America takes places at the Estadio Cicero Pompeu de Toledo (Morumbi Stadium), Sao Paolo, Brazil. Dylan and others play to 90,000 people.
25 January	Sambodromo, Rio de Janero, Brazil. Five songs from this show are broadcast on Brazilian TV.
29 January	Release of single Political World/Ring Them Bells.
29 January	A four night residence starts at the Rex Theater, Paris, France.
30 January	Flashback, the soundtrack album to the movie Flashback, is released on CD, vinyl and cassette. It contains a new version of People Get Ready, evidently done with John Cougar Mellencamp during the fall Political World video sessions.
30 January	Dylan is given the French award Commander of Arts and Letters. He reads from a piece of paper "a thousand thanks" in French and then translates.
1 February	Dylan and Leonard Cohen meet in a café in the 14^th Arrondissment. When talking about songwriting, Dylan claims to have written I And I in 15 minutes!
3-8 February	Six nights at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, England concludes this part of the Never-Ending Tour, appropriately called "The Fastbreak Tour".
24 February	At a Roy Orbison tribute at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles a rumored appearance by the Traveling Wilburys turns out to be Bob Dylan joining the re-united Byrds for three songs.
February	Two four track CD singles are released in the UK. The first is a picture disk and contains Political World, Carribean Wind, You're A Big Girl Now and It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. The last three songs are all taken from Biograph. The second CD single has in addition to Political World, Ring Them Bells, Silvio (from Down In The Groove) and All Along The Watchtower (from Dylan & The Dead).
	[TOP]
1 March	Bob Dylan makes another surprise appearance at a Tom Petty concert at The Forum in Los Angeles.
2 March	According to Edna Gundersen in USA Today, Oh Mercy now nears 1 million sold copies worldwide.
8 March	Rolling Stone Magazine devotes a full page to give a positive review of Dylan's club date at Toad's.
16 March	Backed by David Lindley, Stevie Ray Vaughan and members from Was (Not Was) a new "live in the studio" version of Most Of The Time is recorded and filmed, resulting in a promotional video. The soundtrack is released on a promo CD only.
March – April	Under The Red Sky recording sessions in Los Angeles.
Early April	George Harrison gets a phone call from Bob Dylan:
	Bob: When are we doing another Wilburys record? George: Why? Do you want to? Bob: Yeah, don't you? George: Yeah, I do. Nothing to do Bob?
April	Recording sessions with The Traveling Wilburys, now consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty. The sessions, that take place at "the Wilbury Mountain Studio". in Beverly Hills, result in fifteen tracks. One of them, Nobody's Child, is released as a single and is also included on the Romanian Angel Appeal album. Another eleven tracks are later included in the Wilbury album released in October.
27 May	The Never-Ending Tour continues with a 16-date tour of North USA and Canada. Backing band is the same but the acoustic set is augmented with Garnier on acoustic stand-up bass and Parker on "soft" drums. This means that the entire band is on stage for the whole show. The set contains an acoustic version of Desolation Row. Last but not least, Dylan starts talking between songs again, first time since 1986 really!
11 June	Release of Nobody's Child single.
19 June	Shot Of Love is at last released on compact disc. The disc contains Groom Still Waiting At The Altar, thus being a release of the "new version" of Shot Of Love from 1986.
24 June	Shooting of the Unbelievable promo video in the Mojave desert with Molly Ringwald and Sally Kirkland.
27 June	Dylan's shortest ever tour of Europe starts with a show in Reykjavik, Iceland. The rest of the tour consists of shows that are part of summer rock and jazz festivals. Other acts include Mano Negra, Jeff Healy Band, Lenny Kravitz, Ry Cooder, Sinead O'Connor, Midnight Oil and The Cure.
26 July	Release of the Romanian Angel Appeal album including Traveling Wilbury's Nobody's Child.
	[TOP]
Summer	Michael Bolton and Dylan write Steel Bars in Malibu.
August	Saved is released on compact disc. This is the only CD that does not have the original cover. Instead of the "fingers" cover the later "harmonica blowing" cover is used. Both Shot Of Love and Saved are remastered to very good result!
August	Together with his cousin Beth Zimmerman Dylan starts a clothing shop for children up to 10 in Beverly Hills. Name? Forever Young of course!
12 August	Yet another leg of the Never-Ending Tour is kicked off with a show in Edmonton, Canada. The big news this time is that G.E. Smith prepares to leave the band after more than two years and 200 concerts. During the remainder of this "late summer tour" a number of new guitarist are auditioned live on stage, as it were. John Stahaeley, Steve Bruton, Miles Joseph and even the old cohort from 1981, Steve Ripley, are tried out together with G.E. Smith.
23 August	The Zimmerman house in Hibbing, Minnesota is sold to anonymous party for an undisclosed amount.
27 August	Stevie Ray Vaughan is killed in a helicopter crash near East Troy, Wisconsin, after having appeared as a guest at an Eric Clapton concert in Alpine Valley. In an article in USA Today, Dylan is quoted as saying: "He was a sweet guy. Something else was coming through him besides his guitar playing and singing" Preparing to play a show near Chicago, Dylan said: "It's almost like having to play the night that Kennedy died. He'll probably be revered as much as and in the same way as Hank Williams". At the show the next evening in Merrillville, Dylan dedicates Moon River to Stevie!
11 September	Release of Under The Red Sky.
12 September	Late Summer Tour ends with a show in Mesa, Arizona. At this time Dylan's guitar technician Cesar Diaz is playing guitar with G.E. Smith! With the exception of the early version of Wiggle Wiggle in January, no songs from the new record had been played live at the end of this tour.
14 September	Edna Gunderson (who else?) interviews Dylan in Lincoln, Nebraska. on August 31st. The cover story printed in USA Today is entitled "Rock icon is happy with his place", and quotes Dylan describing the title track of the new album as "intentionally broad and short, so you can draw all kinds of conclusions". We sure did.
	[TOP]
September	Release of Unbelievable promo video and compact disc. Release of Unbelievable/10,000 Men single. Release of CD-single with Unbelievable, 10,000 Men, with In The Summertime and Jokerman, the last two in album versions.
October	Bob Dylan launches his own record label. It is called "Strikin' It Rich" and the first release is apparently Christmas Party With Eddie G! The label is supposed to release rare and interesting R&B material.
8-10 October	Rehearsals take place at the Montana Studios, in New York City. Songs tried included: Shelter From The Storm, Wiggle Wiggle (a slow version), 10,000 Men, Under The Red Sky, 2 x 2, Masters Of War, Man In The Long Black Coat, In The Garden, The Water Is Wide, I Shall Be Released, Unbelievable (four tries), Shooting Star, Just Like A Woman, Maggie's Farm.
11 October	This year's last, and fifth tour starts with a show at the C.W. Post College at the Long Island University. The greatest surprise time is that there are no surprises! G.E. Smith is still with the band, Steve Bruton is now second guitarist together with Cesar Diaz. As expected the audience is treated with a couple of songs from the new album: Under The Red Sky and T.V. Talkin' Song.
12 October	At the next show at Springfield, Mass. we get to hear Wiggle Wiggle. It turns out that no other songs from Under The Red Sky are played during this tour, not even his single Unbelievable.
13 October	West Point, New York. The fact that Dylan gives a concert at this military university and also plays Masters Of War creates headlines on papers all over the world, even in remote places like Carlisle and Stockholm.
15-19 October	For the third year in row Dylan returns to New York City for a series of shows, again at the Beacon Theatre. Now it's G.E. Smith, John Stahealey and Cesar Diaz who are playing guitar alternately. These shows turned out to be G.E. Smiths last with the band. The rest of the tour is done with Stahealey and Diaz.
25 October	At the show in Oxford, Mississippi, Dylan starts with My Head's In Mississippi, the current ZZ Top single! Even more astonishing, as a result from a request, we get a live debut: Oxford Town!
30 October	Release of Traveling Wilburys Vol. III.
7 November	Edna Gundersen from USA Today again manages to interview Dylan, this time about the Wilbury's new album.
18 November	Another year of intense, almost constant, touring ends with a show at The Fox Theater in Detroit. The show opens with another live debut, Buckets Of Rain.
November	Dylan endorses Rabbi Mani Friedman's book "Doesn't Anyone Blush Anymore? Reclaiming Intimacy, Modesty and Sexuality" and is quoted on the jacket: "Anyone who'd either married or thinking of getting married would do well to read this book".

[TOP]

4 RECORDINGS

Here’s a list of recordings from 1990 other than concerts. For details please refer to the corresponding session pages in Still On The Road.

Early January	First Under The Red Sky Sessions
24 February	Roy Orbison Tribute
1 March	Guest appearance at a Tom Petty concert
16 March	Shooting of Most Of The Time promo video
March–April	Second Under The Red Sky Sessions
April	The Traveling Wilburys Sessions

5 New TAPES

Below is a list of new "old" tapes that surfaced during 1990:

20 January 1973 Mexico City	60 minute session tape featuring the long rumoured song Goodbye Holly, and two new versions of Billy.
30 January 1974 New York City	A new 90 minute PA tape from the show at the Madison Square Garden. This is the first 90 minutes including The Band's first set.
17 September 1978 New Haven	A new more complete soundcheck tape containing Thisaway, Thataway and an unidentified song.
10 November 1981 New Orleans	“The Lanois PA-tape” contains the show at the Saenger Performing Arts Center with 23 out of 28 songs. Lanois did this mix when they selected Dead Man Dead Man for single release with Everything Is Broken. A must!
1 July 1984 Paris	A new PA version including a complete version of Every Grain Of Sand.
July 1984 Paris, London	The so called "Real Live Outtakes", mixed at Slane. PA tracks from the last part of the 1984 tour.
24 July 1984	One track, 'Honey Wait', from an unidentified session with Al Green.
10 or 11 July 1985 New York City	The so called "Live Aid Rehearsal Tape". Twenty minutes of guitar strumming, chatting and occasional playing of Ballad Of Hollis Brown, Girl From The North Country and Blowin' In The Wind by Bob, Ron & Keith. At one time Dylan even starts playing Trouble!
19 October 1988 New York City	First 90 minutes of the last of the four glorious Radio City Music Hall concerts in great PA-quality.

6 UNDER THE RED SKY

Please refer to the Still On The Road session pages above for session details and participating musicians.

Att but one of the songs on Under The Red Sky have been performed live:

Song	Debut
Wiggle Wiggle	New Haven 12 January 1990
Under The Red Sky	Brookville 11 October 1990
Unbelievable	Ottawa 22 August 1992
Born In Time	Belfast 25 February 1993
T.V. Talkin' Song	Brookville 11 October 1990
10,000 Men	South Kingston 12 November 2000
2 x 2	Correggio 5 July 1992
God Knows	Zurich 28 January 1991
Handy Dandy	—
Cat's In The Well	Perth 18 March 1992

[TOP]