BOB'S NEW TOUR: ONE SURPRISE SONG

Last night Bob Dylan opened his new European tour in Stockholm. Most of the setlist, plus the news that the band membership remains unchanged, and that Dylan was still hiding behind the keyboard for all but one number, makes it sound disappointingly like more of exactly the same, and altogether hugely less exciting than would have been conceivable for the first 40-odd years of his performing life.

But there was one surprise: the inclusion of 'Billy', taken from his wonderful Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack album. Maybe he'd been reminded of it from listening to the terrific version by Los Lobos on the I'm Not There soundtrack.

The setlist was:

1. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
2. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
3. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
4. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
5. Tryin' To Get To Heaven
6. Things Have Changed (Bob on guitar centre stage)
7. Watching The River Flow
8. Blind Willie McTell
9. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
10. I Believe In You
11. Honest With Me
12. Billy
13. Summer Days
14. All Along The Watchtower
(encore)
15. Cry A While
16. Like A Rolling Stone
17. Forever Young

You can download/hear 'Billy' either here or here. And while it's fascinating to hear something different, it's a shame that this is, apparently, as good as it gets in concert now. Meanwhile Part 2 of the interview Dylan gave to Bill Flanagan is now up on bobdylan.com (though for some reason I can never get beyond the home page on this horribly-remodelled site: whatever I click after that just produces a little whirling circle somewhere bottom left, as if I'm trying to download a 5-hour film at 56kbps). I miss Dan Levy's version of the site.