Every song Bob Dylan has never played live
It’s almost impossible to calculate how many songs Bob Dylan has actually written. With 40 studio albums, 17 volumes in his bootleg series, 22 box sets and beyond, that’s a lot of music. A ballpark figure is that Dylan has recorded over 700 tracks, but who knows how many more are in the archive. Either way, it would be impossible for him to play them all live.
Despite that, Dylan is trying his best. Still touring at age 82, his music is still being taken out on the road, with new songs and covers getting their live debut as we speak. While now a very different musician to the spiritual folk artist who once did laps of the world or the infamous country-turned-rock star who gathered up his peers for the Rolling Thunder Revue, getting to see a Bob Dylan show is still a fantastic moment.
Naturally, the hits have always been prioritised. In his live music career, Dylan has played ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ a record 2078 times. Similarly, ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ has been performed 1585 times around the globe. Clearly proud of his tireless performance, on Dylan’s website, you can find a counter of how many performances every one of his songs has had.
The amount of his tracks that have never been performed live, however, is shocking. Over 130 of his songs have never had a live debut, not counting the hundreds of extra demos and versions captured in his bootleg series.
A lot of it makes sense. A fair amount of his 1970 album Self Portrait has never seen a stage, with much of it being solely instrumental. In the same vein, Dylan’s 2009 Christmas album clearly never found a time to be performed, even though a Dylan Christmas concert would surely go down a treat.
However, some of the songs on the never-played list are surprising. Two tracks from his 1966 album Blonde On Blonde stand out. ‘Temporary Like Achilles’ and ‘Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands’ have never been performed live for some reason. For the latter, maybe the song feels too personal to put in front of a crowd as it deals with his relationship with Sara Lownds. Written at a time when the couple was estranged, Dylan wanted to save the relationship.
Another surprise is the number of early cuts that make the list. A few tracks from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan have actually never been played. ‘Bob Dylan’s Blues’ stands out as strange to have never been played, as does ‘Down The Highway’. ‘In My Time Of Dyin’’ from his debut album also makes the list, but back in 1962, maybe it’s simply that no one was archiving what this folk up-and-comer was or wasn’t playing.
The 136 songs Bob Dylan has never played live:
- ‘Legionnaire’s Disease’
- ‘Train A-Travelin’’
- ‘Denise’
- ‘Playboys and Playgirls’
- ‘Wanted Man’
- ‘I’d Have You Anytime’
- ‘Sign Language’
- ‘Narrow Way’
- ‘Tempest’
- ‘Tin Angel’
- ‘Band of the Hand (It’s Hell Time Man!)’
- ‘Love Is Just a Four Letter Word’
- ‘Trouble in Mind’
- ‘Night After Night’
- ‘George Jackson’
- ‘Arthur McBride’
- ‘Sign on the Window ‘
- ‘Three Angels ‘
- ‘Cantina Theme (Workin’ for the Law)’
- ‘Father of Night’
- ‘Main Title Theme (Billy) ‘
- ‘Bunkhouse Theme ‘
- ‘River Theme ‘
- ‘Final Theme’
- ‘Turkey Chase ‘
- ‘Billy 4 ‘
- ‘One More Weekend ‘
- ‘Billy 7’
- ‘Dirge’
- ‘Never Say Goodbye ‘
- ‘New Pony)No Time to Think’
- ‘Property of Jesus’
- ‘Something’s Burning, Baby’
- ‘Maybe Someday’
- ‘Under Your Spell’
- ‘Death Is Not the End ‘
- ‘Ugliest Girl in the World ‘
- ‘On a Night Like This ‘
- ‘Winterlude’
- ‘Time Passes Slowly’
- ‘Freight Train Blues ‘
- ‘Black Crow Blues’
- ‘I Shall Be Free No. 10’
- ‘Ballad in Plain D’
- ‘Motorpsycho Nightmare’
- ‘On the Road Again’
- ‘Temporary Like Achilles’
- ‘Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’
- ‘John Wesley Harding’
- ‘I Am A Lonesome Hobo’
- ‘Went to See the Gypsy’
- ‘Nashville Skyline Rag’
- ‘All the Tired Horses’
- ‘Alberta #1’
- ‘In Search of Little Sadie’
- ‘Woogie Boogie’
- ‘Belle Isle’
- ‘Little Sadie’
- ‘Wigwam’
- ‘Alberta #2’
- ‘Day of the Locusts’
- ‘Peggy Day’
- ‘Dirt Road Blues’
- ‘Someday Baby’
- ‘Neighborhood Bully’
- ‘Sweetheart Like You’
- ‘Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight’
- ‘Down the Highway’
- ‘Bob Dylan’s Blues’
- ‘I Shall Be Free’
- ‘Shake Shake Mama’
- ‘Life Is Hard’
- ‘Mixed-Up Confusion’
- ‘Broke Down Engine’
- ‘Abandoned Love’
- ‘Jet Pilot’
- ‘Baby, I’m in the Mood for You’
- ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’
- ‘Frankie & Albert’
- ‘Canadee-I-O’
- ‘In My Time of Dyin’’
- ‘Sittin’ on Top of the World’
- ‘Diamond Joe’
- ‘Froggie Went a Courtin’’
- ‘Up to Me’
- ‘Stack A Lee’
- ‘Love Henry’
- ‘I’ll Keep It with Mine’
- ‘World Gone Wrong’
- ‘Step it Up and Go’
- ‘Murder Most Foul’
- ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’
- ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’
- ‘Little Drummer Boy’
- ‘The Christmas Blues’
- ‘O’ Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)’
- ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’
- ‘Must Be Santa’
- ‘Silver Bells’
- ‘The First Noel’
- ‘Winter Wonderland’
- ‘The Christmas Song’
- ‘O’ Little Town of Bethlehem’
- ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’
- ‘Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go)’
- ‘You Wanna Ramble’
- ‘They Killed Him’
- ‘The Shape I’m In’
- ‘Up On Cripple Creek’
- ‘When You Awake’
- ‘Endless Highway’
- ‘Let’s Stick Together’
- ‘Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street)’
- ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’
- ‘Lone Pilgrim’
- ‘Take a Message to Mary’
- ‘Polka Dots and Moonbeams’
- ‘All the Way’
- ‘Skylark’
- ‘Nevertheless (I’m in Love with You)’
- ‘On a Little Street in Singapore’
- ‘It Had to be You’
- ‘Young at Heart’
- ‘Some Enchanted Evening’
- ‘It Hurts Me Too’
- ‘Christmas Island’
- ‘The Ballad of Ira Hayes’
- ‘Copper Kettle (The Pale Moonlight)’
- ‘Mr. Bojangles’
- ‘What Will You Do When Jesus Comes?’
- ‘You’re No Good’
- ‘Days of 49’
- ‘Big Yellow Taxi’
- ‘Lily of the West’
- ‘(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such as I’
- ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’
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