COMPLETE NEWCASTLE 1984

Disc One: 1. Highway 61 Revisited, 2. Jokerman, 3. All Along The Watchtower, 4. Just Like A Woman, 5. Maggie s Farm, 6. I And I, 7. License To Kill, 8. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, 9. Tangled Up In Blue, 10. It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding, 11. Simple Twist Of Fate, 12. Masters Of War, 13. Ballad Od A Thin Man.

Disc Two: 1. Enough Is Enough, 2. Every Grain Of Sand, 3. Like A Rolling Stone, 4. Mr. Tambourine Man, 5. Girl From The North Country, 6. It Ain t Me Baby, 7. Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, 8. Tombstone Blues (only on cover), 9. Blowing In The Wind, 10. Knocking On Heaven’s Door, 11. The Times They Are A Changing.

This set presents Bob Dylan Newcastle 84 recording which was the 25^th of the European Tour, in the underground market it came out as Newcastle July 5^th, 1984 (Goldmasters DY 007 2) and Live in Newcastle 2cdr; some tracks from this concert can be found on various compilations like 1984 Soundboard Collection (WLR 2131) that featured License To Kill, Masters Of War, Ballad Of A Thin Man and Enough Is Enough.

On official records 2 songs (License To Kill and Tombstone Blues) were released on Real Live in 1984 and 1985 and remastered in the 2013 Complete Album Collection Box Vol. One. Footage from Newcastle 84 was featured in two different private videos, one lasting 61 minutes and the other 120 minutes, almost complete.

The concert develops with the 1984 standard set list that allows the all hits to mingle with recent tunes, 6 encores follow Like A Rolling Stone and on the electric songs Carlos Santana comes on stage too. This release presents a nice recording of the concert which however starts with Dylan’s voice a bit distant from the taper, all the instruments can be heard clearly; the sound improves soon though and despite someone clapping too close to the taper this turns out to be an excellent source. There is some perplexity on the title though, since the “complete” referred at in the title, ignores the fact that I’ve Got To Use My Imagination is not included here, maybe because it does not feature Dylan himself, but his backing band (including Mick Taylor) played on that song; also missing is Tombstone Blues, although being on the back cover setlist; other recordings of this concert missed Simple Twist Of Fate, that is probably the reason for this title, but we cannot endorse it, as this is not the complete recording. Talking about Mick Taylor, his playing is fluid and inspired as on many other dates of this tour ad he even plays some piano at the beginning of Every Grain Of Sand. So, this is a nice sounding release despite the false claim of being complete.