When did Bob Dylan’s ‘Never Ending Tour’ actually begin?
At the time of writing, Bob Dylan’s so-called ‘Never Ending Tour’ indeed offers what it says on the tin.
Shoving 30 Seconds to Mars’ two-year tour out the way and quashing Elton John’s 300-date Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour behemoth, Dylan counts a staggering over 3,700 dates on his ‘Never Ending Tour’, his series of shows that typically total about 100 a year and just doesn’t look set to stop any time soon.
It’s a unique touring model, but why not? Rather than having to devise a new marketing angle for some live dates and keep to a certain conceptual sound or rigid setlist promoting an album, Dylan and his backing band can surprise fans and themselves, easily reimagine numbers unique to the night, experiment with arrangements that don’t disappoint the crowd, and ultimately, keep the shows interesting for the old vagabond as he strides well into his 80s. It’s also a testament to his veneration of the live band, largely comprised of key personnel credited on all of Dylan’s 21st-century LPs right from 2001’s Love and Theft.
As it happens, Dylan does count four Guinness World Records under his belt, but strangely not one for ‘the longest ever tour’. The fact is, the ‘Never Ending Tour’ is actually an unofficial title slapped on by fans, routinely dismissed by the songsmith himself, but insisted upon by the press ever since. Still, it’s a soft branding he’s done little to challenge, suiting him to carry on with the novel touring set-up that the live act keeps engaging for himself at least.
So, when did the ‘Never Ending Tour’ actually begin?
The term came from an interview with Q in 1989, when journalist Adrian Deevoy flippantly put the off-the-cuff naming to Dylan, met with a less than thrilled affirmative. From then on, the term snowballed and seemed to become entrenched in the fan and music industry consciousness, despite the artist’s protestations.
The first show took place on June 7th 1988, at California’s Concord Pavilion, and pretty much wouldn’t stop, marking show number 2,000 in Dayton, Ohio, in 2007 and 3,000 in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2019.
Forever loose and somewhat nebulous, the tour still trundles along despite Covid cancellations and the recent Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour titling, which is considered a leg of his eternally being on the road nearly 40 years ago. Going strong to this day, Dylan’s former fatigue at the ‘Never Ending Tour’ tag seems to have subsided in his vintage years.
“Critics should know there is no such thing as forever,” Dylan curtly told Rolling Stone back in 2009, “Does anybody call Henry Ford a ‘Never Ending Car Builder’? Anybody ever say that Duke Ellington was on a ‘Never Ending Bandstand Tour’? These days, people are lucky to have a job. Any job. So critics might be uncomfortable with my working so much. Anybody with a trade can work as long as they want. A carpenter, an electrician. They don’t necessarily need to retire.”
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