I’ve just totted up that I have 41 different live versions of Bob Dylan singing Like a Rolling Stone. I wondered how many times he has sung the song live and apparently it was over 2,000 by 2019. So it got me thinking, I wonder which song has been performed the most times live by a single artist or band?
Any ideas?
Here’s one of the Dylan performances, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Mmm, I seem to have put the address in the wrong box, so it’s a link, rather than an embedded video. D’oh!
I checked Born to Run, has been played about 1700 times. The Stones have played Jumpin Jack Flash around 1200 times (setlist.fm).
As Dylan has done around 80-100 shows a year for the last 32 years. he may well be the one who has played certain songs the most. But actually All Along the Watchtower (2220) and Highway 61 Revisited (2039) are ahead of LARS (again setlist.fm)
https://www.setlist.fm/stats/bob-dylan-1bd6adb8.html
I get Watchtower, but I’m surprised about Highway 61.
I wondered whether someone like Tony Bennett may have done more shows, in which case I Left My Heart In San Francisco might beat any Dylan song.
Bobby Bland did something like 300 shows per year for many years – which means a lot of performances of I Pity The Fool.
On a slight tangent… has Dylan ever performed Rolling Stone better than the original studio version?? I think not?
Has anyone?
Yes, Manchester ’66
True – “I don’t BELIEVE you!” etc
I don’t get the mad love for LARS – I mean, its great but I don’t understand why its considered one of the greatest of all time. Its All Over Now Baby Blue, Visions of Johanna, hell, even Love Minus Zero are all far superior IMHO
Funnily enough, me and a mate gave each other our top 100 Dylan songs list yesterday, although his was done in conjunction with three similarly aged mates (mid 60s) and wasn’t put in any ranking order. I had LARS top though (with IAONBB at 10th, VOJ 16th and LMZ/NL 6th).
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked
I was surprised no one posted this story at the time. I didn’t bother because no Shelter from the Storm, and no Stuck Inside of Mobile rendered it pointless for me.
So 2 (fairly average by his standards) songs missing out of 50 makes it “pointless”? It is still well worth a read even if all 50 are not your choices. And he clearly has more than 50 great songs.
Bloody hell, Dai, assume a winky emoticon or something can’t you?
I did wonder 😉 and I like those songs, Mobile more than Shelter
Have a virtual socially-distanced high five 🖐
Just think, if Jimi had covered Down Along the Cove instead, it’s unlikely Dylan would have gone anywhere near Watchtower, and certainly not 2,220 times.
Apparently he considered I Dreamed I saw St Augustine
… and I can’t imagine that Dylan has played that in concert too many times.
I’d love to have heard Jimi do Dear Landlord…
Down Along The Cove is a belter, isn’t it. That rhythm section – I can’t remember the drummer’s name (Kenny Buttrey?) but those fills he does at the end are sublime.
I love that busy style of 60s country rock drumming – also on Stephen Stills/Mike Bloomfield’s version of It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry or Gram Parsons’ Ooh Las Vegas. All clattering, double-time fills and toms.
John Prine says he wrote ‘Souvenirs’ at the time of his 1st album, even though it appeared on his 2nd. He said he didn’t think he’d ever played a show without including it. That’s a lot of shows.
I don’t think I’ve seen Stiff Little Fingers show without Suspect Device and Alternative Ulster. I’ve not done the maths, but a conservative estimate for the outings for those tunes is somewhere between many and lots.
Costello has played Watching the detectives close to 1800 times.
He has also played What’s so funny about peace love and understanding about 1400 times which is a lot of royalties for his mucker Nick Lowe.
Don’t think you get royalties from live performance.
setlist.fm lists 670 SLF gigs (may well be incomplete)
I wonder if Hugh Cornwell is happy subsidizing the perpetually touring ‘Stranglers’?
He remains a company director, so probably yes.
Sure you do, PRS collects songwriter royalties from the venue.
I stand corrected. You learn something every day. Must be rather difficult to manage, at least in rock music. Classical may be easier.
Don’t venues pay a blanket fee, which is then divvied up between everybody who’s registered as a rights holder? Or is that just with places that play pre-recorded music, like shops, cafés, pubs etc.?
One-off gigs are exempt and the venue annual fee goes into the big pot. Proper venues have a form to fill out.
I’ve definitely done one when I was doing ‘Merch’ in the Cambridge Junction. I could cheat to get the setlist 100% correct, as I’d bootlegged the gig from the desk.
PRS has a pilot project to identify tracks used in DJ sets using Shazam. An occasional colleague has been working on it.
https://www.prsformusic.com/help/how-do-you-use-music-recognition-technology-to-track-dj-performances
Shazam is amazingly good. Most of the time.
Won’t work for live music though.
Shazam can only detect what’s already been put into it’s database of recordings, so no use for live perfomances and no good for a DJ’s own exclusive mixes and dub plates either.
A surprisingly high hit rate for commercially-released recordings, even rather obscure ones. Their database must be vast.
Nick Lowe’s nice little earner on (WSFA)PLAU was from a fragment of a performance of the song that appeared in one of the worst films ever made, The Bodyguard.
According to the Costello Performance Index, Costello’s Top 21 most played songs are those below. “Pump it Up” is Mrs duco01’s least favourite Costello song, and EVERY time we see the Beloved Entertainer, sure enough he sings it. it doesn’t surprise me that the song makes no.3 on the most performed list. By contrast, “Little Savage” off “Imperial Bedroom” has only been played 8 times in EC’s entire career.
And I’m amazed that “Oliver’s Army” is placed as low as no.13 on the list, with a mere 724 performances…
Watching The Detectives 1766
Alison 1652
Pump It Up 1524
Peace, Love & Understanding 1388
Accidents Will Happen 973
Chelsea 945
Red Shoes 913
Everyday I Write The Book 899
Radio, Radio 781
Shipbuilding 760
Mystery Dance 738
Clubland 729
Oliver’s Army 724
Beyond Belief 619
You Belong To Me 583
I Can’t Stand Up 582
Green Shirt 546
I Want You 528
Man Out Of Time 513
High Fidelity 502
Veronica 501
No ‘She’?
Thank goodness, but that came very late in his career relatively
Declan has played the old Charles Aznavour chestnut a total of 271 times.
And yet “Love for Tender”, the opening track on “Get Happy!!” has been performed a total of only 5 times. Bizarre.
And regarding “Oliver’s Army”, I saw him live about 5 or 6 times over a 20 yr period starting in 83, not sure I ever heard him do that one, may be mistaken though.
Hmmm … the Grateful Dead’s 616 performances of “Me and My Uncle” is starting to look pretty small beer now….
Yeah, but to be fair, they did start playing it in 1966 and didn’t stop playing for 50 years.
Oh, you mean those were supposed to be other songs? Couldn’t tell.
(I’m joking)
OK, I think we have a new leader Good Vibrations. If we count Beach Boys (1953) plus Brian Wilson solo (681) it has been played 2634 times by members of the Beach Boys.
I only saw Ralph McTell once in the late seventies – but I bet he hasn’t played a single gig without Streets of London since he wrote it in 1969.
But did he use the book with the pictures showing where you put your fingers….. ?
Re: “I bet he hasn’t played a single gig without Streets of London since he wrote it”
You know why, don’t you?
OK, what about the other end of the transaction – which songs would you say you’ve listened to the most?
In concert? Born to Run, Badlands, Jumpin Jack Flash and Brown Sugar probably.
Ooh, here’s my top 20 (setlist.fm again), LARS makes (joint) 16th place (inc 6 performances from The Stones). I think you may be able to guess which acts I have seen the most 😉
1 Brown Sugar 28
Tumbling Dice 28
3 Jumpin’ Jack Flash 27
4 Born to Run 26
Honky Tonk Women 26
Start Me Up 26
7 The Promised Land 25
8 Badlands 23
It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It) 23
10 (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction 21
The Rising 21
12 I’m the Man Who Loves You 20
Sympathy for the Devil 20
14 Dancing in the Dark 19
You Got Me Rocking 19
16 Jesus, Etc. 18
Like a Rolling Stone 18
18 Hummingbird 15
Impossible Germany 15
She’s the One 15
In concert it would either be Sproston Green or The Only One I Know by The Charlatans or Return To Yesterday by Stephen Duffy/The Lilac Time.
Teenage Kicks. Helped by the fact that the Undertones tend to play it twice these days – once in the middle of the set, and once as the “ain’t you got no homes to go to?” closer.
But I’m not a huge repeat gig go-er. I think the most I’ve seen anyone is Richard Thompson at about 10 times (in 35 years), and the Undertones at 9 (in 40). Some people see artists that many times on one tour.
That would be either Waterloo (I saw Bjorn Again 52 times in a year, and a couple more since) or The Bible’s ‘Honey Be Good’. Great song and all that, but my cue to pop to the gents before it was time to man the merch stall.
@fentonsteve
Honey be Good popped up on the iPod as I had a few minutes in the sun in the garden. Lovely song.
It is, but a kind of ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ trigger for me.
Do I need a slash? Yes, I probably do, now that I’ve thought about it. Where’s the Gents? Oh bugger, where’s the key for the cash box gone? Now where’s the float? What did I do with the merch price signs? Where did I leave the box of merch? It’s not still in my boot is it?
Oh shit, he’s on the last verse already!
Remember the first time I heard Thompson perform Vincent Black Etc. What a great song.
Now I tend to turn off when he plays it.
Noticeable that he didn’t play it at his big Albert Hall birthday bash last year.
Happy days
Did he do “Beeswing” at his big Albert Hall birthday bash last year?
No. I would have posted the set list but can’t copy from my tablet.
Blimey. Reminds me of when Blur played Wembley and only did B-sides.
Yes he did. It started the second half of the show, with Danny Thompson.
And Alistair Anderson.
Sorry didn’t check fully.