Collectors Music Reviews

End Of Summer (Mainstream MSBR-62A/B)

Gurton Festival, Bern, Switzerland – July 17th, 1993
Disc 1: Hard Times, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, All Along The Watchtower, Just Like A Woman, Tangled Up In Blue, Little Moses, Boots Of Spanish Leather

Disc 2: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, Cat’s In The Well, I And I, Maggie’s Farm, Ballad Of A Thin Man, It Ain’t Me Babe

End Of Summer is misnamed (since July is the middle of the summer), but this new release on the Mainstream Soundboard Masters series releases, for the first time, a soundboard recording for Dylan’s final show on the summer tour in Europe. The tape contains the complete show and is in very quality. It probably comes from the same cache as the other soundboard recordings from the 1993 European tour as it has the same dull and compressed quality. My comments for the Memory & Fate title apply here too.

Unlike the concert at Hammersmith this one in Bern, Switzerland is very good and enjoyable. One of the comments made about this tour is that Dylan’s band sometimes outshined Dylan, but that isn’t the case here. The show begins with the acoustic “Hard Times” and then into full band versions of “Stuck Inside Of Mobile” with the band giving a funky jam behind Dylan, “Watchtower” (sounding very sloppy), “Just Like A Woman”, and “Tangled Up In Blue”. It is in the acoustic “Little Moses” where some sort of dominance is achieved and this is a superior version.

The second half of the show improves dramatically when the band return. “I And I” contains some amazing jams and “Maggie’s Farm” sounds epic. “Ballad Of A Thin Man” is good and “It Ain’t Me Babe” is performed acoustically. This is another soundboard released by the Mainstream people who have devoted a series for their documentation. It seems that Dylan’s entire European tour has surfaced on soundboards and the labels seem intent upon releasing them. The End Of Summer is a good recording of an excellent show and is worth having. (GS)

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