Lynval Golding joins The Pogues on stage at The Town and Country Club, London in 1988 to perform "A Message To You, Rudy
Sunday, September 20, 2026
FLAGGING DOWN THE DOUBLE Es : Bob Dylan Concert Posters in the 1980s | RAY PADGETT
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Bob Dylan Concert Posters in the 1980s
How he advertised giant tours with Santana, Tom Petty, and the Grateful Dead—plus the first Never Ending Tour shows
Heads up for Blood on the Tracks fans with deep pockets: There’s an auction going on for never-seen handwritten lyric drafts that ends Thursday. Find the auction at RR Auction and read more about the lyrics at Anne Margaret Daniel’s site. Okay, onto today’s newsletter…
I began this entry thinking that there weren’t as many posters for Bob Dylan in the 1980s as there were in the 1970s and the 1960s. Turns out, that’s only partly true. He did a number of big tours in the 1980s. While some of those tours didn’t have many posters, others had a ton.
As usual, I’ll start with the standard poster formats—the ones that Dylan used for many shows—then share some favorite one-offs at the end. (Credit as always to DylanStubs, where most of these come from.)
Disclaimer: I’m using the term “poster” a little loosely. “Printed concert advertising material” is more accurate, but makes for a cumbersome headline. Working off digital images of these decades later, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether these were posters hung up on walls, flyers handed out, or even ads in magazines or newspapers. Where I do know, I’ll say.
The gospel tours of 1979, 1980, and 1981 seemed to be mostly sold via newspaper advertisement, but I found a couple standardized posters used sporadically. The one on the left was used a few times in November 1980 on the West Coast, then the one on the right was used fairly often in Summer 1981 in Europe. Love that Annie Leibovitz photo, taken in 1977 during his Rolling Stone cover shoot. If it looks familiar, it’s because he also used that photo for a bunch of 1978 posters.
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Here’s a photo of that second poster in action that was printed in the Bob Dylan Songbook (thanks Ian Woodward for sharing):
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Then, in Fall 1981, they switched to this template. Which I like in terms of design (it has a Never Ending Tour flavor, especially that “SEE LIVE!!!” tagline—like a precursor to “Don’t You Dare Miss It”), but that’s kind of a ghoulish drawing of Bob, no?
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His next tour, 1984, proved a rich one for posters. No surprise, maybe: Dylan was playing giant stadiums with Santana, and they had a lot of tickets to sell. Joan Baez was on the first batch of dates too, and they used this design, which looks great.
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Both of the alternate poster designs below got used a few times too. I like them slapping on the tiny “BOB” in the one on the left, in the little box above “DYLAN.” Like it might not otherwise be clear which Dylan they were referring to. Was Dylan McDermott touring with Santana?
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When the 1984 tour came to the UK—promoted by superpromoter Harvey Goldsmith, who I interviewed here—they switched to this design. No Baez anymore, but a variety of openers. As you’ll see, those openers are the primary difference between these two examples:
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Note the red-white-and-blue theme around the Fourth of July, and the American and British flags too.
Now for a personal favorite tour, the first Dylan/Petty run—“True Confessions” 1986. I wrote a whole series on it earlier this year. A couple standard poster templates across Australia, Japan, and the U.S.:
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There was also this horizontal variant, which included their photoshoot together:
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A few of those summer shows featured the Grateful Dead on the bill too (Dead scholar Jesse Jarnow recently wrote about them here). The Dead people came up with this excellent Dylan+Dead graphic for the occasion:
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Strangely, the next summer, when Dylan was (in)famously using The Dead as his backing band, they didn’t bring back that logo. Then again, they did have a great new photo to use. Posters looked like this. You’ll notice they repurpose the phrase “Alone + Together” from the Petty tours.
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In the fall, Dylan was back with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers for one more round. The tour name changed for this final run from “True Confessions” to “Temple in Flames.” The poster designs mostly changed too, though a few places used variations on the 1986 version. Here are some designs that popped up a lot in Europe:
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Which brings us to…drumroll…the Never Ending Tour!
The 1980s only have two Never Ending Tour years, but three primary poster designs. The first two, which seemed to get used interchangeably for 1988 and the first part of 1989, were these. There are many design variations on them for different shows, but these are the two photos that come up over and over again:
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I do love on these early Never Ending Tour posters that they list the band members. G.E. Smith might well be known to Saturday Night Live viewers. You can find early newspaper ads that list Marshall Crenshaw too, who was hired and fired as Bob’s bassist before playing a single show.
Then, in fall 1989, all of a sudden the posters and promo materials switched to this blown-out live photo where you can’t really see his face.
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CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND - My Head Is My Only House Unless it Rains [Clear Spot]
I was sat drinking coffee look at the birds in my garden and thought every bird that goes by gets me high . . . . . . . . where is that from!? As if I didn’t know . . . from perhaps my favourite Captain Beefheart Album ‘Clear Spot’ largely because this was the work performed the last time I saw them . . . . . . 1973? Oxford Polytechnic . . . life changing!
"Mr Zoot Horn Rollo play that long lunar note , . . . . . and let it float"
My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
My head is my only house unless it rains
I'll let a train be my feet if it's too far to walk to you
If a train don't go there I'll get a jet or a bus
'Cause I'm going to find you
You're going to see my shadow soon around you
And my head is my only house unless it rains
I walk the meadow plains
Water deserts are my eyes until I find you
I won't sleep until I find you
I won't eat until I find you
My heart won't beat until I wrap my arms around you
My arms are just two things in the way
Til' I can wrap them around you
You can make my sad song happy
And a bad world good
I can feel you out there moving
You're mine, I know I'll find you
And my head is my only house until I've found you
I hate to have other people hear me sing this song
But if it reaches you before I do
Follow this song to "I love you"
That's where I'll find you
And my head is my only house unless it rains
Songwriter: Don Van Vliet
Stephen Stills & Manassas - Winterland, San Francisco, CA, 10-7-1973 | Albums That Should Exist
Stephen Stills & Manassas - Winterland, San Francisco, CA, 10-7-1973
Manassas was a band led by Stephen Stills of CSNY. But included many other great musicians, especially Chris Hillman, formerly of the Byrds, who wrote and sang lead vocals on some songs. The idea was this would be Stills' main band for many years. They released the cleverly titled "Manassas" in 1972 and "Down the Road" in 1973. CSNY had been apart since late 1970. But around the time of this concert, they began getting back together.
A concert taking place on October 4, 1973 was billed as a Manassas concert. But CSNY basically crashed the band's first set and played a bunch of songs acoustically, which meant they didn't need Manassas to back them up. That reunion a very big deal in the music world. CSNY had been called the "American Beatles" and had sold zillions of albums, way more than Manassas. Chris Hillman later commented that this was the night he realized the future of Manassas was done, due to Stills naturally wanting to rejoin the much more popular CSNY. It would turn out Hillman was right. Manassas would break up not long after this, after they played a few more concerts to finish their tour.
Here's the link to the CSNY set (mostly) from that concert:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/05/crosby-stills-nash-young-winterland.html
However, "the show must go on." Despite being upstaged by the CSNY reunion, Stills and the rest of Manassas still had their second set to perform. But it must have been frustrating and bittersweet for them (except for Stills). Their encore, "Daylight Again - Find the Cost of Freedom," was performed by Manassas and CSNY together. That may have been awkward. By the way, I've included that song on both album, since it was both a CSNY performance and a Manassas one.
Then, three days later, on this date, October 7, 1973, the whole process repeated itself. CSNY performed another set in the middle of another Manassas concert at this same venue. For whatever reason, I believe only the Manassas set from this date is available, so that's what I'm posting here. This apparently includes everything that was performed except for the songs with just CSNY. As for CSNY, the album I've posted from them consists mostly from their October 4, 1973 concert, with a few different songs from October 7th added in.
At least some of two concerts were professionally filmed for some reason, and I think this one was broadcast live on the radio as well. That's why we have a recording with soundboard-level sound quality. I don't believe the film footage has been officially released in any way, but you can find it on YouTube.
This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.
01 Song of Love
02 Rock and Roll Crazies
03 Jet Set [Sigh]
04 Anyway
05 So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star
06 talk
07 Johnny's Garden
08 talk
09 Go Back Home
10 talk
11 Six Days on the Road
12 talk
13 Safe at Home
14 Fallen Eagle
15 Hide It So Deep
16 You're Still on My Mind
17 talk
18 Pensamiento
19 talk
20 49 Bye-Byes - Drum Solo
21 For What It's Worth
22 talk
23 Lies
24 talk
25 The Treasure - Carry On
26 talk
27 Daylight Again - Find the Cost of Freedom (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young & Manassas)
(all tracks Stephen Stills and Manassas except where noted)
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Derby - If Ever There Was A Reason
Found again via TV [Netflix - The Good Doctor] . . . .and might sign off the day with this beautiful song
Derby - If Ever There Was A Reason
Birthdays : Jarvis Cocker (63)
Happy birthday to Jarvis Cocker, born in Sheffield on this day in 1963
PULP - Do You Remember The First Time
Pulp - Do You Remember The First Time?
Butt Naked Show TV - UK, 1994
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