4 Songs That Bob Dylan Has Only Performed Once

Setlist.fm is a pretty handy website. Not only is it a great way to get a feel for which songs your favorite musician will play at an upcoming concert, but it can also be a point of interest for amateur music historians. Through the platform, I found some interesting information about longstanding performers, including Bob Dylan.

Dylan is known for not performing his biggest early-career hits anymore. And, likewise, there are a ton of songs from his past setlists that he has only performed once, and never again. Let’s look at just a couple of examples!

“Bonnie, Why’d You Cut My Hair?”

According to the above-mentioned resource, Bob Dylan performed this early deep cut only once at an unknown venue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May of 1961. Finding any additional information about this song has been nearly impossible. This one’s a true deep cut, it seems. It’s one of Dylan’s earliest recorded works, preceded by only a handful of tracks recorded in the late 1950s and the year 1960. It comes from the elusive bootleg called the Minnesota Party Tape.

“Thief Of The Cross”

Here’s another rare treat. “Thief Of The Cross” is a song featured on Bob Dylan’s bootleg series titled The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981. Good luck finding any other version of it. This song was only performed once on November 10, 1981, at the Saenger Performing Arts Theater in New Orleans, Louisiana. Clearly, this song came from Dylan’s Christian era.

“Talking Hypocrite”

Remember “Talking Hypocrite”? No? Well, you’re not alone there. Bob Dylan only performed this song once on August 11, 1962, at the home of Dave Whittaker in Minneapolis. Though, some sources say the performance took place on November 8. So, unless you were a fly on the wall in Whittaker’s living room, you haven’t heard it. 

No evidence, recording, bootleg, or even lyrics remain of this song. Maybe someone can bring it up to Dylan soon and he can give us something, if he even remembers this lost song at all.

“Caribbean Wind”

According to several sources, “Caribbean Wind” was only performed one time on November 12, 1980, at The Warfield in San Francisco, California. This tune’s another one to make an appearance on The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981, and it appears to be a lone recorded rehearsal that never got any further than this one-off performance.

Photo by John Sunderland/The Denver Post via Getty Images