Clean Cut Gig (Thinman-002/003)
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY – July 16th, 1986
Disc 1: Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Shake A Hand, All Along The Watchtower, Clean Cut Kid, Emotionally Yours, Shot Of Love, That Lucky Old Sun, Masters Of War. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: She’s My Girl, Think About Me, The Waiting, Breakdown. Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: To Ramona, One Too Many Mornings, A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know, Band Of The Hand, When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky, Lonesome Town
Disc 2: Ballad Of A Thin Man. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Make It Better (Forget About Me), Spike, Bye Bye Johnny, Refugee. Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35, Seeing The Borderline, Across The Borderline, I And I, Like A Rolling Stone, In The Garden, Blowing In The Wind, Uranium Rock, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Throughout his touring career, Bob Dylan has been one of the more generous artists. 1986’s True Confessions tour with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers is an excellent example of this. Not content to have Tom Petty merely be a support act, they alternate on stage between Dylan sets, Petty sets and big ensemble pieces with both bands and many guests along the way.
The most circulated recording from this era is the Westwood One radio broadcast of the February 24th & 25th concerts in Sydney, Australia with no less than seven separate releases. Clean Cut Gig is the very first release of the entire audience recording from the July 16th show.
Covering Them (PSCD 1160) on the Postscript label released in 1992 documents various cover tunes played throughout this tour and contains the Warren Smith tune “Uranium Rock” from this concert. The taper was positioned in 14th row center on the floor at the Garden that night and produced a very good, virtually complete tape.
There are a couple of tape flips (like at the end of “Breakdown”) and pauses during set changes but no music is lost. The tape is bass heavy with some evidence of low-end distortion. It isn’t perfect but is highly enjoyable.
Some people have commented that the performances were all very similar during this period. The taper captured on this evening a very hot show. All of it is very enjoyable, but Petty really steals the show here giving a captivating performance.
“Breakdown” is extended with Petty getting the NY crowd involved, and “Spike” is very effective. Dylan’s performance is also contains a lot of energy and charm. “Masters Of War” is great, and Dylan praises New York for “the prettiest women and the best food” before “Lonesome Town”. Ron Wood joins the proceedings on stage for the final set, beginning with “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35” and adds to the fun.
The finale, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is an emotional way to end a great concert. There have been several releases from this tour the past couple of months but Thinman have released a very enjoyable title with Clean Cut Gig and is highly recommended.
