BOB DYLAN : TRAINLOAD OF FOOLS

 

Disc One

  1. She's Love Crazy
  2. Baby Stop Crying
  3. Mr. Tambourine Man 
  4. Shelter From The Storm 
  5. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue 
  6. Tangled Up In Blue 
  7. Ballad Of A Thin Man 
  8. Maggie's Farm 
  9. I Don't Believe You (She acts like we never have met)
  10. Like A Rolling Stone 
  11. I Shall Be Released 
  12. Going, Going, Gone 
  13. A Change Is Gonna Come (Carolyn Dennis)
  14. Love Minus Zero/No Limit (Helena Springs)
  15. Laissez-Faire (Steve Soles)

Disc Two

  1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
  2. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
  3. You're A Big Girl Now 
  4. One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)
  5. Blowin' In The Wind 
  6. I Want You 
  7. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
  8. Masters Of War 
  9. Just Like A Woman
  10. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right 
  11. All Along The Watchtower 
  12. All I Really Want To Do
  13. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
  14. Forever Young 
  15. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
  16. The Times They Are A-Changin'

Label : Rattle Snake
Venue : Zeppelinfeld, Nürnberg, Germany

Date : July 1st, 1978

Quality : Audience recording (A-)

Review (Bob's Boots) : This is an incredible package, aesthetically. The photos of a 37 year old rocker in heavy mascara are powerful. The cover photo looks even better silk screened onto the CDs. The title comes from a line of Señor. A booklet with more photos and tour information is enclosed. The digitally remastered stereo audience tape is as clear as any of the 1978 tapes. The soundboard tapes were well protected in anticipation of a live album release. Some of the audience tapes that float around are noisy and buried. In this one, the audience is rude, and talking constantly. This is partly the reason for a lower star rating. Suffering the worst is the two quiet, acoustic songs: Laissez-Faire and Hard Rain. However, the vocals are well above the music throughout the recording, and full of power. They are never compromised. Perhaps lost on the audience is the irony of this Jewish war-baby singing in the city of the trials. It's not lost on Bob, however. He introduces Masters Of War with: "It gives me a great pleasure to sing it in this place.", and spits out the final line with a vengeance. Another rare song intro comes at All Along The Watchtower. Bob says "I want to dedicate it to the late, great, Jimi Hendrix." This tour was heavily produced, and changed little from city to city. If you like the new, funky arrangements of Bob Dylan At Budokan (recorded four months earlier), then you'll enjoy hearing how the songs were actually presented to the audience. Just don't expect the untouchable quality of that official release. The songs that work best are the two from the newly recorded Street Legal. As an added bonus, Eric Clapton joins Bob on stage, and plays on the show's final two song encore.

Review (Collectors Music Reviews) : In his first tour of Europe in twelve years Bob Dylan played Nürnberg on July 1st. Organized by the new "Rock im Park" festival which was established in 1976 with Santana and Chicago, 1978 featured both Eric Clapton and Dylan in front of 80,000 spectators. The show is imbued with additional meaning since the Zeppelinfeld was constructed in the thirties and was the site for the Nazi Party rallies between 1933 to 1938 and can be seen in the film Triumph Of The Will. That a Jewish artist such as Bob Dylan preformed there forty years later provides a special irony for the setting. Rattle Snake utilize the compete, excellent sounding audience recording. Part of it first appeared on the LP Featuring Eric Clapton. According to the label in their liner notes, "We have found the original master tapes in outstanding sound quality and remixed those analog masters through a HDCD processing to a digital perfect result." Nürnberg is a beautifully recorded document from this tour which ranks with the London and Paris recordings also in circulation. The show opens with Tampa Red's "She's Love Crazy." It was introduced into the set several shows before in Dortmund, but this is the first time it begins the show. "Thank you! All right, this is a new song, played for you now right at the start" Dylan says in introducing "Baby Stop Crying," his big hit in Europe from Street Legal and is followed by "Shelter From The Storm" which Dylan describes as "the story of my life." The rest of the first half contains standard numbers for the tour, but the performances are outstanding and energetic. "Going Going Gone" is the final Dylan number of the first half. Others in the band have their spotlight over the next fifteen minutes. Carolyn Dennis sings Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." Helena Springs sings a cover of Dylan's own "Love Minus Zero / No Limit" in an arrangement similar to that employed on the tour. Springs drops the final verse of the song. Finally, Steven Soles sings "Laissez-faire" which is dedicated to "the crumbling of all monuments. It's a quiet song. We'll dedicate it to Edith Piaf, she's out there tonight." (The French singer Édith Piaf of course died fifteen years before this show). The second half begins with the only vocal performance of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" which Dylan performs solo on guitar. There is a loud cheer from the audience in the middle of the piece. When the band comes back out they play "One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)," the second new song of the set. One of the more extraordinary performances in the show is "Masters Of War." The song about the military-industrial complex had particular meaning in this venue which isn't lost on Dylan. As they start he tells the audience that "it gives me great pleasure to sing it in this place!" Dylan is loquacious for the rest of the show. He explains how "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" inspires people to say "this is reggae, but it still seems to work pretty well this way. It's an old song still says the same thing. Actually it's more Southern Mountain Reggae," and "All Along The Watchtower" is dedicated to Jimi Hendrix. David Mansfield's violin is particularly inspired, and afterwards Dylan jokes "I taught him every single note." He introduces the band before "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," and before the final song of the set "Forever Young" he explains that "I wish we could stay and play all night, I really I do. But just can't. This is a tune I recorded on an album with The Band called Planet Waves. I'm gonna leave you with this tune. It means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to you." Eric Clapton, who also played a set that day, joins the band onstage for the two song encore "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'." He adds his particular slide blues guitar to the former and a delicate melody to the latter, which is also punctuated by loud pyrotechnics. It's a great end to a legendary concert. Trainload Of Fools is a tremendous, essential release on Rattle Snake. It's a wonderful concert, but also a tremendous effort by the label to produce a collectible artifact.