Just a week before the release of the whole shebang, Bob Dylan’s “The Live Recordings 2026”, at least I was surprised by the digital pre-release on of the complete last show from the tour, what is disc 38 & 39 in the beautiful box set that will be released November 6th.
It´s not only the last show of the tour, this is the show filmed for the TV Special “Hard Rain”, after Dylan’s dismissing of the first attempt, filmed at the Bellevue Biltmore Hotel a month before, 22nd of April, a month before the show at Fort Collins, and miles away from the cinematic techniques used in the film. At Fort Collins the raw intensity in the performances and the close-ups and in-your-face choices of the filming makes a perfect integration of the musical performance and the visual expression.
If you are familiar with both the “Hard Rain” live album and the TV Special, you will recognize five of the performances from the album, and of course all 11 songs from the TV Special. The table that follows will show which songs are included in both.
| Number | Songs from discs 38–39 | On Hard Rain album | In Hard Rain TV special |
| Disc 38 | |||
| 1 | Mr. Tambourine Man | ||
| 2 | It Ain’t Me, Babe | ||
| 3 | Vincent van Gogh | ||
| 4 | Maggie’s Farm | ✓ | ✓ |
| 5 | One Too Many Mornings | ✓ | ✓ |
| 6 | Mozambique | ✓ | |
| 7 | Isis | ||
| 8 | Blowin’ in the Wind | ✓ | |
| 9 | Railroad Boy | ✓ | |
| 10 | Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) | ✓ | |
| 11 | I Pity the Poor Immigrant | ✓ | |
| Disc 39 | |||
| 12 | Shelter from the Storm | ✓ | ✓ |
| 13 | Oh, Sister | ||
| 14 | I Want You | ||
| 15 | Tangled Up in Blue | ||
| 16 | You’re a Big Girl Now | ✓ | |
| 17 | You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go | ||
| 18 | Lay, Lady, Lay | ||
| 19 | Going, Going, Gone | ||
| 20 | Idiot Wind | ✓ | ✓ |
| 21 | Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door | ✓ | |
| 22 | Gotta Travel On | ||
| 23 | A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall | ✓ | |
A fabulous show from start to finish, great performances from both Dylan, Joan Baez and the band, and the full show will of course display a more complete picture of the Dylan part of the shows this tour, as you will find so many more examples of in the box set. Of the songs not included on “Hard Rain” I can recommend “Mr Tambourine Man” and “It Ain’t Me, Babe” that makes a great prologue for the show, but especially worth mentioning is the extraordinary versions of “Tangled Up In Blue” and “Going, Going, Gone”, but also the very intense versions of both “Oh, Sister” and “Isis”. Still, the real tour de force of the show is of course the near ten minutes long “Idiot Wind”, an extreme demonstration of both emotional and powerful vocals.
I will post an extensive review of the full box set in the week to come, but I can already promise you that this first aperitif, together with the “singles” of “I Pity The Poor Immigrant” and “Going, Going, Gone”, from “Fort Worth”, is just the tip of the iceberg, in so many ways, of what is yet to come next friday.
If interested, I have in the blogpost “Just Waitin'” summarized what, almost fifty, songs are included and how many versions of each song you’ll find in this goldmine of a box set.
Johnny Borgan
