THE TRAVELLING WILBURYS LIVE | Flagging Down The Double Es: RAY PADGETT

 The Traveling Wilburys Live

Live Wilburys songs by Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and George Harrison

RAY PADGETT AUG 30 ∙ PREVIEW

Photo via Rolling Stone

A Traveling Wilburys tour could have been one of the greatest tours of all time. You can picture it: They each do a short solo set to start, two or three songs apiece, maybe with a few duets thrown in. Then it builds to the main event, all five of them together onstage doing eight or nine songs from their two albums. The show ends with, inevitably, “End of the Line.”

It almost happened too. “There were plans,” Wilburys drummer Jim Keltner (a “Sidebury”) told me. “Big plans. We were going to go on a train tour. We were going to take a train across the United States.” Everybody thought Bob would nix it, but he didn’t. George did.

not the version Ray used on the blog but I couldn’t get it to play

So, in lieu of any actual Wilburys shows, I wanted to know, what Wilburys songs have been played live by actual Wilburys? Which Wilbury has performed the most Wilburys songs? Let’s count up, starting with…

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Roy Orbison: 0 Wilburys Songs Live

Orbison died a month and a half after Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 came out. He was only 52 years old. Had he lived longer, you can imagine him absolutely crushing “Not Alone Any More” every night in concert. It wasn’t to be. RIP Roy.

Bob Dylan: 1 Wilburys Song Live

Sadly, Bob has never done “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” live (yet!). In the early days of the Never Ending Tour, though, he did “Congratulations” a few times. Toad’s Place is probably the most famous, but I prefer this version, from Birmingham, England. He’d just finished a hits-heavy run of “I Shall Be Released,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “One Too Many Mornings,” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” But when he sings the opening line of “Congratulations,” a huge cheer goes up from the crowd. As if they’re like, finally, a song we know!

George Harrison: 1 Wilburys Song Live

Harrison did one Wilburys song live, in 1997 at his final public performance before his death. He appeared on a VH1 show with sitar master Ravi Shankar to promote Shankar’s new album Chants of India. The vibe is very loose, with George just strumming whatever song he thinks of. “A bit of busking on here,” he jokes. Friend-of-the-newsletter John Fugelsang, who’s hosting the show, asks George, “One of yours?” George answers: “Well, sort of.”

It’s “If You Belonged to Me,” a Dylan song from Volume 3. Despite the casual setup, Harrison sings it beautifully, nailing all the words and even doing a tricky little acoustic run to end it. Either he remembers it perfectly from almost a decade prior or he’s been practicing it at home.

More “Wilburys By Wilburys” after the jump!...

note I have added playable videos so go to see the original post at the Flaggin Down the Double Es here . . . . .

for Roy, Tom and George of course  . . . . . . .. .  and Ray P hisself!

FLAGGING DOWN THE DOUBLE Es : Last Night in Troutdale (by Dave Depper) 2026-06-04, McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale, OR | RAY PADGETT

Last Night in Troutdale (by Dave Depper) 2026-06-04, McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale, OR

RAY PADGETT JUN 5 So of course who should pick up the story about a song not played for 59 years ago but our very own Ray Padgett at Flagging Down the Double Es . . . . !! he adds a first hand account of someone who was there (he frequently does - sic) Dave Depper

Photo via @marchibeth

Last night, Bob Dylan kicked off what is officially called—according to a t-shirt on sale in the merch booth at least—the Long Hot Summer Tour. He played alongside openers Lucinda Williams and John Doe (who I interviewed last year) in an outdoor venue in Troutdale, Oregon, near Portland. The setlist featured a number of songs returning from last summer’s setlist as well as, for the first time, a few Rough and Rowdy Ways songs played at a non-“Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour” show.

The big news though was the debut of an extremely deep Basement Tapes cut: “Baby Won’t You Be My Baby.” I crunched the numbers and this is the longest gap ever between Dylan recording a song and playing it live. 59 years! That easily tops the previous record-holder, “Outlaw Blues” at 42 years (I did a whole list if you wanna see more).

Dave Depper was on hand to report in for us. Depper is a member of the iconic indie-rock band Death Cab for Cutie, who have a new album out today, I Built You a Tower. (I also highly recommend his solo album covering the entirety of Air’s landmark electronic record Moon Safari.) Since he had a million other things on his album release day to-do list, Depper called me on the phone a couple hours ago, and I pulled his remarks together into this piece.

(This will be the first of many show reviews from this summer’s tour, including a few by me when the tour heads east. Most go out only to paid subscribers. Sign up here if you want to get them all.)

read on for Dave’s account here

CROSS POST : Flaggin Down The Double Es & Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | RAY PADGETT :Bob Dylan & Bruce Springsteen's Surprise Rock Hall Duet For Bob Dylan's 85th birthday,

 In the interests of Cross Postings! (it’s what we do here!) here is this interesting article from our Ray [Padgett that is - Flagging Down The Double Es]

Flagging Down the Double E's cross-posted a post from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Ray PadgettJun 2 · Flagging Down the Double E's

In the midst of all the Rolling Thunder 1976 madness, I wrote this Bob's-birthday piece for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's new newsletter. Check it out if you're all caught up on RTR.

Bob Dylan & Bruce Springsteen's Surprise Rock Hall Duet

For Bob Dylan's 85th birthday, looking back on his unannounced performance when the museum first opened its doors

ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME AND RAY PADGETT MAY 24

Written by Ray Padgett, a music journalist based in Burlington, Vermont who writes the Substack newsletter Flagging Down the Double E’s all about Bob Dylan performances throughout history. His books include Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members, Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time, and a book in the 33 1/3 series abouttribute albums and Leonard Cohen.

Bob Dylan turns 85 today. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s third class ever, in 1988, but his greatest Rock Hall performance didn’t come until a few years later.

For the first decade of its existence, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was not an actual place you could visit. But in September 1995, the museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio. Naturally, there was an all-star concert to mark the occasion. The announced lineup included The Allman Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, and most notably, Bruce Springsteen reuniting with the E Street Band for their first public concert in eight years.

Surprise guests were promised too and, given the occasion of today’s newsletter, no prizes for guessing who one of them was.

Rumors about Bob Dylan appearing had circulated for weeks. Robbie Robertson told one newspaper that efforts were being made to reunite Dylan and The Band (minus pianist Richard Manuel, who died in 1986). Little Richard, who’d donned a hard hat and shovel for the museum’s groundbreaking in 1993, told The Hollywood Reporter he might play with Dylan himself. Then again — in other interviews promoting the event Little Richard said he hoped to perform with Springsteen, Prince, James Brown and Bon Jovi.

Dylan did not reunite with The Band, nor did he play dueling pianos with Little Richard. But he did show up, which was hardly a guarantee. His appearance was not only a surprise to the audience — it was a surprise to the organizers! The show’s producer Joel Gallen told me they’d been trying to get Dylan since day one, but he’d remained non-committal until the last minute. He played five songs, and, unusually for someone who has a tendency to throw curveballs at these all-star events, they were mostly greatest hits (the one exception was his 1985 rocker “Seeing the Real You At Last”).

But he saved the biggest surprise for the end of his set. “Now a buddy of mine is gonna come up and play one of my old songs,” Dylan told the crowd. “Let me hear you say, ‘Bruuuuuce.’” Yes, Dylan brought out Bruce Springsteen to share a mic on “Forever Young” — the only time they’ve ever sung it together. They’d reportedly rehearsed it just 30 minutes earlier in Dylan’s trailer backstage. Dylan’s gaudy gold-lamé shirt contrasts with Springsteen’s everyman plaid, but their voices sound great together.

Dylan apparently enjoyed his Rock Hall experience. There are photos of him grinning with Chuck Berry and James Brown backstage and signing autographs for a kid in an R.E.M. T-shirt. My favorite is a picture of him with the loquacious Allman Brother Dickey Betts, who I interviewed about working with Dylan shortly before his passing. Betts is leaning over, hands gesticulating, while Dylan seems to be listening intently. Dylan, however, does not like the photo as much as I do. The photographer who took it, Sidney Smith, wrote that upon taking it, “You’d have thought I had poured muriatic acid onto Dylan. Little did I realize his complete disdain for photographers shooting him without permission.”

Bob Dylan and Dickey Betts at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in Cleveland, Ohio, 1995, photo by Sidney Smith

Dylan and Springsteen have only sung together once since the Rock Hall opening, a shambolic “Highway 61 Revisited” at Shea Stadium in 2003. But the mutual appreciation remains. Dylan reportedly rehearsed a mystery Springsteen cover with his band last year (alas, it remains unplayed…for now). And Springsteen is ending every show on his current tour with Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.” Tonight, he’ll play it in Boston on its writer’s 85th birthday. Three decades on from their Cleveland collab, they’re both still going strong. May they stay forever young.

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Flagging Down The Double Es : Rolling Thunder Revue Reviewed NEW ORLEANS | RAY PADGETT

One of the Most Talked-About Shows of the Rolling Thunder Revue

1976-05-03, The Warehouse, New Orleans, LA

RAY PADGETT MAY 3

Today’s New Orleans tape—one of two that day—is perhaps the best-known concert we’ve hit so far, in large part due to the stellar soundboard. And we’ll get to that in a minute. But first, I want to talk about where Dylan and the entourage went the night before the show.

Answer: A Tom Waits concert! This syndicated news item ran in the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Singer-songwriter Tom Waits had some special company during a recent show at Ballinjax Electric Bistro in New Orleans. After his first set, the Rolling Thunder Revue troupe—82 members and hangers-on-strong—strolled in, fresh from a party aboard the steamboat Natchez. All the principals were there—Bob Dylan (attired in turban, shades, black leather jacket and smoking a pipe). Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn and Kinky Friedman—and the latter three commandeered the stage for a stretch. First up was McGuinn, who did 30 minutes’ worth of tunes. Friedman followed with a four-song set, and then Baez—dressed in a two-piece white suit—stepped up to sing a cappella a new tune that she said would be the title song on her next album. A line in the tune drew the biggest cheer of the night: “Women are not equal to men—but you can never tell it by me.” Dylan didn’t budge from his front-row center seat, and he left shortly after Waits finally was able to see his way clear to the stage.

Waits apparently was not amused. He nicknamed them the “Rolling Blunder Revue” and complained to Rolling Stone a few months later, “They got up there for an hour just before I was supposed to begin my set. Nobody even asked me; before I knew it, fuckin’ Roger McGuinn was up there playing guitar and singing and Joan Baez and Kinky were singing. By the time I got onstage the audience was stoked. They were all lookin’ around the room and shit. I don’t need this crap—it was my show. I was drinkin’ too much on top of everything else.”

I guess Tom wished he wasn’t in New Orleans that night!

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When I interview Rolling Thunder 1976 participants, the New Orleans shows come up a lot. Maybe more than any other 1976 show outside Fort Collins (which became Hard Rain). People mention them for a fairly wide variety of reasons too.

read on here . . . . . . or subscribe for more!

FLAGGING DOWN THE DOUBLE Es: Dylan Bombs in Tallahassee RAY PADGETT

 

Dylan Bombs in Tallahassee

1976-04-27, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

RAY PADGETT APR 27 ∙

one of the things I was ruminating on only the other day was how on earth does Dylan keep playing to sell out audiences? I mean is there EVER an empty seat? DO things ever bomb? How is that even possible? Ihad to save to see him the times I have managed it, borrow money or by fixed a tickets as in the last time at London’s Roundhouse back on 26 April 2009 with my driest old friend D.O.P Stephen Blackman who paid for four of us to go! But do they ever NOT SELL OUT? Or is it like here where . . . .well it’s complicated

Photo via Imgur

One big difference between Rolling Thunder ’75 and ’76 I’ve mentioned before: The size of the venues. In 1975, for the most part, Dylan played small theaters, and tickets were hard to come by. In 1976, Dylan mostly played giant arenas and stadiums. Tickets were easier to get, and in a few cases the shows sold so poorly they had to be canceled.

Today’s show in Tallahassee is the first I’ve seen with that 1975 ticket energy. After the big outdoor show in Gainesville, Dylan wanted to play the university gym. Tickets, for once, went fast:

The show almost got canceled before it even began anyway. Dylan’s people were apparently pissed that word leaked out in the Tallahassee Democrat a few days early, in an article headlined “Dylan Coming to Town?” The tour’s advance man Josh Shorr was also concerned about a rumor he heard that an FSU fraternity had acquired a large block of tickets to resell. “He was very unhappy,” the local promoter told the paper. “They don’t want the university community to have more of a chance to get tickets than the ‘street people.’”

During the show, a large group of people who couldn’t get tickets sat on a hill outside the gym to try to hear what was happening inside. One fan remembers security opening a side door so they could hear better, and Joan Baez coming to the door to wave. Another remembers Baez actually pulling a speaker to the doorway to let them enjoy the music too.

Strangely, I found not one but two bomb threats connected to the concert. The first is, admittedly, a tangential connection:

Consider subscribing and read on here . . .

FLAGGING DOWN THE DOUBLE ES : The Bob Dylan Newsletter (April) Sometimes there’s shows in April . . . .

Sometimes There's Shows in April

Four requests: Asheville 2004, Atlantic City 2005, Atlanta 2015, West Lafayette 2025

RAY PADGETT APR 14 ∙

The newsletter is already coming fast and furious with the current tour, and it’s about to come even faster and furious-er with a big anniversary series coming up. So, since I know your inboxes are already groaning under the digital weight, I’m combining April’s four paid-subscriber requests into one newsletter. Let’s go.

By the way, I’m finally catching the spring tour in a few days! I will report back from Bowling Green, Chattanooga, and Jackson (paid subscribers only). Hope to see some of you there.

PS. If you don’t get the reference in the subject line, as I was laying this entry out I happened to be listening to this Meshell Ndegeocello cover of a Prince song. Kind of a stretch, but I went with it.

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Request #1: Asheville 2004

Requester Josh knocks it out of the park with a killer first show. This spring Asheville date coincidentally came only a few weeks after my own first-ever Dylan show. (This will be a trend with these requests: The first three connect closely, in different ways, with my very first Dylan shows).

This Asheville show was also, unfortunately, one of Freddy Koella’s last. Not that he knew it at the time. I interviewed the wonderfully inventive guitarist for my book, and he explained that he experienced sudden kidney failure during time off between tours:

“I called the manager and I told him,” Koella recounted. “This is when I’m at the hospital in really bad shape. I missed the tour after, and I was still sick for the next one, and the third one I was still sick. So they said, we’re gonna keep the guy who replaced you. I lost the gig because of that, which I will say was very depressing at the time.”

He went out blazing. This Spring 2004 tour was mostly small venues (The Orange Peel’s capacity is 1,050), and Dylan pulls some wild songs. “If Dog Run Free,” “I Believe in You,” “If Not For You,” and, for the first time in almost 10 years, “Unbelievable.”

None of those rarities are the highlights for me though. To me, the Time Out of Mind songs stand out the most. Even though Love & Theft is the newer album, there’s something about Time Out of Mind that inspires him to dig deep. It’s one of the most fiery “Can’t Wait”s I’ve ever heard, growly and menacing. And check out “Cold Irons Bound” with that killer vocal echo:

LISTEN NOW · 5:52

George Receli’s thundering drums shine on that one, as they do everywhere. He’s also the recipient of the dad joke in the band intro.

 “George comes from a broken home,” Bob tells the crowd. “His kids break everything in it.” 😂

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