On the first night of his new tour, in Stockholm, Sweden, Bob Dylan performed I Believe In You. In a kind of set-list-joke (intentional or not) it came right after I Don’t Believe You. The funny thing about that latter song, of-course, is that the phrase “I don’t believe you” never appears in the song (hence the subtitle: She Acts Like We Never Have Met). Anyway, I Believe In You was sung with a lot of feeling and nuance by Bob in Stockholm (clip here). He is by all accounts in very good voice on this tour.

Just a little trivia on this song: Taking the numbers from His Bobness Info, Bob Dylan has now sung I Believe In You 259 times. Obviously he sang it a whole lot between 1979 and 1981. He picked it up again in 1989, and has sung it with varying frequency during most of the years since then, including nine times last year.

Actually, the number of public performances must be at least 260, because His Bobness Info doesn’t include the first time Dylan sang it live, which was on October 20th, 1979, on the NBC television show “Saturday Night Live.” That performance would be on YouTube, except that NBC has vigorously asserted its copyright and doesn’t allow it to be posted.

Don’t let me change my heart,
Keep me set apart
From all the plans they do pursue.
And I, I don’t mind the pain
Don’t mind the driving rain
I know I will sustain
‘Cause I believe in you.

…

Addendum: And in Copenhagen, Denmark, on this very night of March 29th, Bob Dylan sang I Believe In You for what is apparently the 261st time. And that was after kicking off the show with Gotta Serve Somebody. (Via Bob Pagel’s site.)

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