Description:

"A rocking mid-80s Dylan show backed by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, made possible by "Farm Aid"!" When I think of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, the first thing that comes to mind is the Traveling Wilburys. Two years earlier, the two toured together on the "True Confessions Tour" in 1986, which took them to North America, Oceania, and Japan for 60 dates. The tour was not a double-headliner joint, but rather, the Heartbreakers backed Dylan. The tour was apparently inspired by their performance together on "Farm Aid" in 1985, the year before, and it was that experience that made this special arrangement possible. This recording was made at the end of the Down Under leg, on February 24, 1986, at the Entertainment Center in Sydney, Australia. In contrast, Tom Petty was on a roll, with three consecutive albums in the single digits on Billboard.There were some teasing remarks by Dylan in response, but it was quite an impressive performance. Dylan played five new songs from "Empire Burlesque" (1985), which was released before this tour, and some of the songs have never been played on later tours, so they are quite rare. There were also many covers, including Don & Dewey's "Justine," Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On," Ray Charles' famous "That Lucky Old Sun," and Ry Cooder's "Across The Borderline. Dylan was in his darkest days in terms of the charts, but his live show was still amazing, and 80s rock Dylan is good.