TheBob Dylan World Tour 1978 was a concert tour by American singer-songwriterBob Dylan. In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe, to a total audience of two million people.[1]
For the tour, Dylan assembled an eight-piece band, and was also accompanied by three backing singers. Highlights of the European leg of the tour were Dylan's first concerts in West Germany where he had never wanted to play because of the Jews' persecution by the Nazis. However, after concerts at Dortmund and West Berlin, he performed on July 1 on the Zeppelinfeld at Nuremberg for 80,000 people. Promoter Fritz Rau had convinced him to perform in West Germany. It was the spot whereAdolf Hitler had appeared prominently on his "Reichsparteitage", the party convention of the NSDAP. Dylan's stage was placed opposite to the rostrum where Hitler had given his speeches. After the concert, Bob Dylan said that it was a very special event for him, which he had marked by appearing in normal street clothes instead of the usual stage clothes.Eric Clapton, who also appeared at Nuremberg, joined him for two songs at the end of the concert. As a live album had been recorded at Budokan Hall, Tokyo, the Nuremberg concert recording was never officially released but only appeared onBootleg recordings. Two weeks later, both artists performed again at a mass festival at the Blackbushe Aerodrome in England.[2][3]
Rotterdam, Netherlands, June 23, 1978
When Dylan brought the tour to the United States in September 1978, he was dismayed the press described the look and sound of the show as a 'Las Vegas Tour', as the European concerts had been a great success. His performances at Madison Square Garden were given a good review byRolling Stone.[4] The 1978 tour grossed more than $20 million, and Dylan acknowledged to theLos Angeles Times that he had some debts to pay off because "I had a couple of bad years. I put a lot of money into the movie, built a big house ... and it costs a lot to get divorced in California."[5] It was during the later stages of this tour that Dylan experienced a "born-again" conversion to Christianity, which would become the overriding thematic preoccupation in his music for the next couple of years, such as on the albumsSlow Train Coming (1979) andSaved (1980).[6]
Concerts in Tokyo in February and March were recorded and released as the live double album,Bob Dylan at Budokan. Reviews were mixed.Robert Christgau awarded the album a C+ rating, giving the album a derisory review, whileJanet Maslin defended it inRolling Stone, writing: "These latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals."[7][8]
This set list is representative of the performance on November 15, 1978 in Inglewood, California. It does not represent the set list at all concerts for the duration of the tour.[9]
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