30 January 1978
Rundown Studios
Santa Monica, California
(tour rehearsals)
| 1. | I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (0:00/3:57/0:37) |
| 2. | The Times They Are A-Changin' (0:00/4:39/0:07) |
| 3. | If You See Her Say Hello (0:00/4:01/0:07) |
| 4. | The Man In Me (0:00/4:18/0:01) |
| 5. | I Don't Believe You (0:00/4:33/0:02) |
| 6. | Tomorrow Is A Long Time (0:00/4:20/0:03) |
| 7. | You're A Big Girl Now (0:00/5:59/0:14) |
| 8. | Knockin' On Heaven's Door (0:00/5:26/0:00) |
| 9. | It's Alright, Ma (0:10/6:40/0:08) |
| 10. | Forever Young (0:00/1:18/0:00) (incomplete recording) |
1 February 1978
Rundown Studios
Santa Monica, California
(tour rehearsals)
| 11. | Repossession Blues (0:04/4:07/0:00) |
| 12. | One Of Us Must Know (0:00/5:27/0:00) |
| 13. | Girl From The North Country (0:00/5:07/0:00) |
April 1978
Rundown Studios
Santa Monica, California
(tour rehearsals)
| 14. | We Better Talk This Over (0:00/2:18/0:00) (incomplete recording) |
| Coming From The Heart (0:00/1:00/0:00) (incomplete recording of an incomplete performance) | |
| 15. | Simple Twist Of Fate (0:00/4:21/0:00) (incomplete skipping recording) |
| 16. | If You See Her Say Hello (0:00/3:28/0:00) |
| 17. | I Don't Believe You (0:00/2:49/0:00) (incomplete recording) |
Something like (a:aa/b:bb/c:cc) in the track list means that b:bb is the duration of the actual song. a:aa and c:cc indicate how much time of the track is due to introductions, tunings etc.
Review by Lonesome Sparrow
In 1978 Bob Dylan did a world tour. Rehearsals started in December 1977 and continued through January and the first of February. Early April, in between the first and second leg, there were more rehearsals, and most likely also in May and September. Tapes are circulating from December, 1 January, 27 January, 30 January, 1 February and April.
This CD contains the rehearsals of 30 January and 1 February and a selection from the rehearsals of April.
The recording of the 30 January rehearsals is continuous, so we get to hear all the going-ons between the songs as well. The musicians don't take much time going from one song to another. Between "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "It's Alright, Ma" they keep fumbling their instruments, actually making quite a nice transition from the one song to the other. The sound quality is excellent. All songs have different arrangement from their original album appearances. And since they're very well played, this makes this session quite a treat to listen to. Unfortunately, the recording breaks off abruptly in the middle of "Forever Young".
The 1 February rehearsals are separate recordings. The sound quality is good, but clearly less than that of the 30 January rehearsals. They have a lot of hiss. Only 3 songs, 2 Dylan compositions in a different arrangement, and a cover of "Repossession Blues", a song written by Billy Lee Riley. This cover was performed only 5 times during the tour. I don't know whether there are recordings of good sound quality of any of these 5 performances and whether Dylan has performed in on any other occasion, but I assume the answer to both questions is no, which would make this rehearsal recording quite important.
The CD ends with a selection from the April rehearsals. The sound quality is bad and 4 of the 5 songs are incomplete, because they're performed or recorded incompletely or both. The recording of "We Better Talk This Over" starts in the middle of it. So does the recording of "Coming From The Heart", the performance of which is ended before the song is finished. The recording of "Simple Twist Of Fate" starts in what must be the intro of the song and then skips then to the middle of the first verse. "I Don't Believe You" is faded out.
The index mark of track 11 is placed at the beginning of "Repossession Blues" proper, not at the fumbling that precedes it. As a result of this, the February rehearsals start at the end of track 10.
"We Better Talk This Over" and "Coming From The Heart" have together been assigned one track, though they're seperate recordings.
The index mark of track 17 comes a little too early, so that this track starts with the last bit of sound of "If You See Her, Say Hello".
I don't know of any CDs containing any of the December, 1 January or 27 January rehearsals. The CD "Moving Violation" wholly consists of 1978 tour rehearsals and contains 2 songs from the April rehearsals that are not on "Darkness At The Break Of Noon". But 3 of the songs that are on "Darkness" are not on "Violation" and "Violation" is reported to be of less sound quality then "Darkness". The CD "Rundown To Maggie" has the same track list as "Moving Violation". "Rundown" has been reported to be of better quality than "Violation", but to have edited out the material between songs.