Come On In This House (Thinman-022/023)
Brondby-Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark – July 12, 1981
Disc 1: Come On In This House, It’s Gonna Rain Again, Show Me The Way Lord, Saved By The Grace Of Your Love (Willie Smith/David Palmer), Blowin’ In The Wind, Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe In You, Like A Rolling Stone, Till I Get It Right (R Lane/L Henley), Man Gave Names To All The Animals (slight blip at edit), Maggie’s Farm, Simple Twist Of Fate, Girl Of The North Country, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Dead Man Dead Man, Walk Around Heaven All Day (Rev J Cleveland/C George), Let’s Begin (J Webb), Lenny Bruce
Disc 2: Mr. Tambourine Man, Solid Rock, Just Like A Woman, Watered-Down Love, Forever Young, All Along The Watchtower, Jesus Is The One, In The Garden, band intro / Garden outro / audience to encore, Blowin’ In The Wind, It Ain’t Me Babe, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Come On In This House is a very nice document of a strong show on Dylan’s Shot Of Love European tour. This is the debut of the Copenhagen show on silver disc. A tape has circulated before containing only the Dylan songs, but this is either a more complete version of that source or a brand new tape source all together. Except for several insignificant cuts between tracks it is musically complete. The distance plus the acoustics of the venue produce a boomy sound with a large echo but it is never distorted or distracting. It could have been better if the taper were closer to the stage but once the ears adjust it has a very dynamic live sound and is one of the more enjoyable tapes to listen to despite its limitations. Dylan’s crew also professionally recorded this show but that tape has never surfaced.
The show opens with four gospel tracks by the band. The audience’s reaction is very positive proof that in the two years of the gospel show people came to accept the change. Dylan opens with a solo version of “Blowin’ In The Wind” (the first of two versions in the set list) which is followed by a rock version of “Gotta Serve Somebody” with an aggressive staccato rhythm. “Man Gave Names To All The Animals” is played as it was on the Slow Train Coming tour and “Maggie’s Farm” is given a very hard rock arrangement with an “Old McDonald Had A Farm” introduction on the guitar. There is a very tender version of “Lenny Bruce”. “Mr. Tambourine Man” has perhaps its most effective electric interpretation on this tour and has a similarity in style with “All Along The Watchtower” where Dylan rushes the lyrics off of the beat at the end of each verse.
He speaks less on this tour than the previous and doesn’t sermonize. “Thank youfor coming ladies and gentlemen” he says during “In The Garden” before introducing the band. “I hope we played something that you came to hear tonight. We left a few things out that we would have liked to play. More than a few actually.” The packaging is simple with Thiman utilizing black and white photos on the artwork from the period. This is the second of four consecutive releases from the gospel years and joins Hanging In The Balance to be the largest collection of these tapes issued by any one label. Come On In This House is really nice also because it includes the complete performance including the non-Dylan songs. Blackbushe 1978 suffered from this kind of editing but all four of their current releases are as complete as possible which is always a plus. (GS)
