Bob Dylan performed 37 songs on this day in 1975 – including Tangled Up in Blue for the first time

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No stranger to a busy tour schedule, Bob Dylan once performed 37 songs in one day as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

The legendary tour would see Dylan, backed by the likes of T. Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, and Joan Baez, perform some of his all-time greatest songs alongside at-the-time contemporary material from Blood on the Tracks and Desire. Shows from the Rolling Thunder Revue have since been released as part of a wider boxset from Dylan’s camp, but bootleg performances of many of these gigs are already available. What is no doubt worth a listen are the two shows Dylan put on at New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum on this day in 1975, where slight setlist variations between the two shows were made. Dylan would perform a 2:30pm show, and then a 9:00pm show in the same day at the same venue.

In total, Dylan would perform 37 songs and featured Tangled Up in Blue in his setlist for the first time. His first of two shows that day would feature A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, a cover of The Water is Wide, and Blowin’ in the Wind. A full setlist for the 2:30pm show can be found below.

• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• It Ain’t Me, Babe
• A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
• Romance in Durango
• Isis
• Blowin’ in the Wind
• The Water is Wide (traditional cover)
• I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
• Never Let Me Go (Johnny Ace cover)
• I Shall Be Released
• I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
• Simple Twist of Fate
• Oh, Sister
• Hurricane
• One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
• Sara
• Just Like a Woman
• Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
• This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie cover)

While the two shows would feature, more or less, the same setlist, there were slight changes made that would prove to be historic for Dylan. A first-time performance of Tangled Up in Blue would feature as part of the 9:00pm showing, which also concluded with a performance of This Land is Your Land.

Dylan’s second show of the day would feature one less song but some small changes to the first half of his set. The full 9:00pm setlist can be found below.

• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• It Ain’t Me, Babe
• The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
• Romance in Durango
• Isis
• The Times They Are A-Changin’
• Dark as a Dungeon (Merle Travis cover)
• Never Let Me Go (Johnny Ace cover)
• I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
• I Shall Be Released
• Tangled Up in Blue
• Oh, Sister
• Hurricane
• One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
• Sara
• Just Like a Woman
• Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
• This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie cover)

Luckily, a recording of the second performance of the day, which featured the live debut of Tangled Up in Blue, exists. It can be found below.