Bob Dylan finished his UK tour on Tuesday in Birmingham, which has prompted Uncut’s resident Bob statistician Nigel Williamson to pore over the set lists of the 16 shows played so far during the latest European leg of the Never Ending Tour.
“Basically,” Nigel writes in an email to me, “ there are five songs he plays every night, four he plays most nights and then 8-9 songs each night that might come from almost anywhere…he played two in Birmigham last night for the first time on the tour – ‘The Ballad Of Hollis Brown’ and ‘Workingman’s Blues No 2.”
According to Nigel, Dylan has played a total of 51 songs in the 16 shows to date, and lists them according to the number of times they have featured in performance, as follows:
All Along The Watchtower (16 performances)
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (16)
Like A Rolling Stone (16)
Summer Days (16)
Thunder On The Mountain (16)
Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (15)
When The Deal Goes Down (15)
Highway 61 Revisited (14)
Spirit On The Water (14)
Nettie Moore (11)
Cat’s In The Well (11)
Watching The River Flow (10)
Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again (7)
It Ain’t Me, Babe (6)
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) (6)
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (5)
Ain’t Talkin’ (5)
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (5)
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (5)
Tangled Up In Blue (5)
The Levee’s Gonna Break (5)
Desolation Row (3)
High Water (for Charley Patton) (3)
Chimes Of Freedom (2)
Country Pie (2)
Girl Of The North Country (2)
Honest With Me (2)
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (2)
John Brown (2)
Masters Of War (2)
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (2)
‘Til I Fell In Love With You (2)
To Ramona (2)
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum (2)
Visions Of Johanna (2)
Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Blind Willie McTell
Boots of Spanish Leather
House Of The Risin’ Sun
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Lay Lady Lay
Man In The Long Black Coat
Not Dark Yet
She Belongs To Me
Simple Twist Of Fate
Tears Of Rage
This Wheel’s On Fire
Things Have Changed
Under The Red Sky
Workingman’s Blues #2
I’m off now to see Mick Jones’ Carbon Silicon rehearsing at Mick’s studio somewhere in Acton. If I make it back, I’ll be reporting tomorrow on what it was like.