Man And God And Law (Thinman-102/103)
Sunrise Musical Theater, Miami, FL – November 19th, 1981
Disc 1 (71:17): Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe In You, Like A Rolling Stone, Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, Man Gave Names To All The Animals, Maggie’s Farm, Girl From The North Country, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Simple Twist Of Fate, Heart Of Mine, All Along The Watchtower, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, Forever Young, Gamblin’ Man, Times They Are A-Changin’, Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Disc 2 (57:29): Watered-Down Love, Shot Of Love, Just Like A Woman, Solid Rock, Masters of War, When You Gonna Wake Up, In The Garden, Blowin’ In The Wind, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), It Ain’t Me Babe, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Man And God And Lawis the silver pressed debut of the November 19th, 1981 show at the Sunrise Musical Theater in Miami Florida. This is the twenty-fifth show of the fall tour, the first of two in Miami and the third from final of the year. Thinman use the fair to good sounding audience recording. It is distant from the stage with slight degrees of fuzziness surrounding the sound and some of Dylan’s introductions are hard to hear. There are cuts after “Simple Twist Of Fate” cutting off the beginning of “Heart Of Mine,” before “Shot Of Love” eliminating a bit of the introduction to song and a cut before the encore set.
The limitations of the sound quality is a shame because this is an excellent performance and one of the most intense from the tour. The songs are attacked with utmost urgency with the backing band simply on fire. The songlist became quite set by this time and all the shows from the November 12th Houston concert on to the last were, with some variations, pretty much the same. It begins with a rocking arrangement of “Gotta Serve Somebody” followed by “I Believe In You” with Hackett playing some interesting trills. with interesting trills in “I Believe In You.” Dylan begins singing “Like A Rolling Stone” a capella before the band come crashing in.
Many of the song introductions are the same as in previous shows with “Man Gave Names To All The Animals” about “one of my most favorite subjects, animals” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” as “another song I used to sing on street corners. I got my training as a singer of course on the street corners.” Dylan and Clydie King share vocals on “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and King, Regina Havis and Madelyn Quebec sing “Gamblin’ Man.”
The two songs from the new album Shot Of Love, “Watered Down Love” and the title track are played back to back in the middle of the show before returning to the older material. The two barn burner gospel songs, “Solid Rock” and “When You Gonna Wake Up?” both begin with Dylan singing the first verse slowly and alone before the band come crashing in with their accompaniment. It gives the effect of a herald announcing an epiphany, an important event which the audience have to consider and pay attention. “When You Gonna Wake Up?” is given such a crashing arena rock arrangement that it’s hard to miss.
The encore set is four songs long beginning with the gospel “Blowin’ In The Wind.” “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” and “It Ain’t Me Babe” (which he introduces by saying “it’s life and life only, that’s the way it is right? You can kill a man but you can’t kill and idea ain’t that right? I think that’s right) are played by Dylan with acoustic guitar and harmonica alone. This is certainly a unique choice for Thinman to release such an obscure show but it is well worth investigating for the latter day gospel shows. It is packaged in a slimline double jewel case with thick inserts with photos from the era.
