Bob Dylan/Tom Petty/Roger McGuinn
11 October 1987
National Exhibition Centre,
Birmingham, England
soundcheck

01. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
02. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)?, Roger McGuinn (vocal & guitar) with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
Tom Petty (guitar), Mike Campbell (guitar), Benmont Tench (keyboards), Howie Epstein (bass), Stan Lynch (drums) and with The Queens Of Rhythm: Carolyn Dennis, Queen Esther Marrow, Madelyn Quebec (backing vocals).

Another installment of Dylan arcana -- or maybe this one is apocrypha. Two takes of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," with McGuinn the dominant vocalist, and somebody with a vaguely Dylanesque vocal style seemingly audible from time to time, not so prominently. Might be Dylan. Could be Petty. Could be somebody in the band goofing around; members of Dylan's NET bands have been said to do their own faux-Bob vocals at soundchecks. This is a fully realized arrangement, not just a let's-try-this-out moment. I'm not aware of McGuinn playing this at any dates on the "Temples In Flames" tour (and maybe somebody has better info than I do) ; so this could have been a possible alternate for the Petty/McGuinn "RocknRoll Star" duet, or even the Dylan/McGuinn "Chimes Of Freedom". Several folks whose opinions I respect don't include this in their Dylan discographies, and they certainly had access to it -- so that's a few strikes against Bob performing here. On the other hand, the taper, or somebody near him, comments "That's Dylan" as the song begins, so maybe they saw him onstage. Or just got the ID wrong. You make the call. The Queens of Rhythm provide some surprisingly convincing country harmonies.

Sound quality isn't great, a bit distant, but certainly listenable.