Setlists as literature?

[Welsh Rich]

This was quite an interesting read. I'm not really much into setlists, but there's a new book out collecting some of the most famous concerts:

 

When The Grateful Dead used to perform, the unforgettable sight at their concerts was rows of earnest fans listening to the first bars of a number then manically scribbling in notebooks the name of the song. What they performed assumed as much importance as how they performed it. Even now, internet sites see fans swapping information about what Bob Dylan and a host of others played, which songs were added or changed from venue to venue.

 

The setlist is of crucial importance to fans; but until now, setlists have not featured much in literature about rock and pop music. A new pocketbook puts that right, with a collection of setlists from seminal gigs.

 

Legendary gigs come in all shapes and sizes. It's diverting to see the setlist of Spinal Tap's gig at New York's Carnegie Hall on 4 June 2005. The list can't convey the midgets in druid costumes dancing round a miniature Stonehenge suspended from a coat rack. But songs such as "Break Like the Wind" and "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" give a flavour of the event.

 

What is interesting in looking at the lists is the odd choices made at gigs that have passed into history. The Beatles' concert at Candlestick Park, San Francisco on 29 August 1966 was their last public performance. One might have thought they would both open and close with a Lennon/McCartney number; instead, they opened with "Rock'*'Roll Music" and closed with " Long Tall Sally". But then, at his 1969 gig in Toronto John Lennon, having fallen out with his band mates, only did one Beatles number.

 

One thing the collection of setlists brings home is the variable "work ethic" of concerts and artists. Woody Guthrie performed at the US Department of the Interior, Washington, on 22 March 1940. Following that, he was commissioned by the department to write songs for the opening of a dam. He wrote 26 songs in 30 days. At her Carnegie Hall comeback concert on 23 April 1961, Judy Garland sang 33 songs. Arctic Monkeys in Sheffield last year performed a respectable 14, Joy Division's last-ever gig at Birmingham in 1980 had 11 songs, and Led Zeppelin's debut gig (15 October 1968 at the University of Surrey) a measly five numbers.

 

The Rolling Stones' first gig, at the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962, must, by contrast, have exhausted their entire repertoire

[Marijn]

Interesting. Here's my collection:

 

http://www.marijnakerboom.nl/foto/overig/setlists

[froggie]

i dont actually own this one, but i've held it and scanned it. its bob dylan's personal copy (in his handwriting) from the brisbane 92 show

 

[bobfrombob]

Bruce now posts his handwritten setlists on his website

http://brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html (scroll down to near bottom of page).

 

Here's the show I was at the other night: