A very good audience recording of an outstanding performance. I'm a little uneasy about the acuracy of the venue, though. The audience sounds receptive and enthusiastic as one might expect from one of the four World Vision International benifits at Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica that started a couple of days later. Additionally, The set order doesn't quite agree with Bjorner's Chronicles. However, Olof attributes No Man Righteous to the 15th in his table so one has to question the accuracy of other entries. Unfortunately, the tape is compromised by an abrupt clipping of the end of In The Garden. Still well worth having, if only for the very rare (the only other performance I'm aware of being on May 7th the following year) No Man Righteous. Dubbed 08/09/96 110 min.
Regarding my suspicions as to the attributed venue, on 10/07/97 John D. Baldwin
wrote: "I think I have solved the mystery of the venue for the gospel tape you
provided for me through the library, dated by you 11/16/79. It is indeed the
last Warfield show, rather than one of the Santa Monica shows. The clue is in
Dylan's rap prior to his performance of Solid Rock:
"They hold my records so long, you might hear [the song Solid Rock] a month
from now, maybe a year from now, but remember, whenever you do, remember you
heard it first right here.
"Now [illegible] San Francisco is a great town and you know there are a lot of
things wrong with it, but there are a lot of people here that we love. And
we're gonna miss it, too!"
The beginning of the second comment is obscured by audience applause generated
by the first comment, but he clearly utters the words "San Francisco." Even if
those words were inaudible, the remainder of his comment indicates that this is
the final date of the Warfield residency. It would not be appropriate for
Dylan to refer to "a lot of things wrong" with a city like Santa Monica, and
because he played in Santa Monica for only four days, it seems to me unlikely
that he would make a big deal about missing the place at the end of such a
short stay. (I'm assuming that the whole tape represents a single concert,
which I have no reason to doubt, rather than performances from two or more
dates edited together.)
As far as the enthusiasm of the crowd is concerned, Paul Williams in his book
"Dylan - What Happened?" clearly states that the audiences at the Fox Warfield
grew more and more enthusiastic as the residency went on (though Williams
apparently did not catch this particular show). It is also very possible that
many San Francisco-based "born-again people" found out about the Dylan show,
went on the last night to see what the fuss was about, and liked what they
heard, although these people clearly do not represent the entire audience."