Trivia

Dylan wanted to go somewhere and sing traditional songs rather than do a big concert. So for the after-party, he and many of the artists went to Tommy Makem's Irish Pavilion club on E 57th Street and sang Irish songs with the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, who had performed at the 30th Anniversary concert by Dylan's request.

Elvis Costello was supposed to appear at the concert to sing a duet of "Positively 4th Street" with Van Morrison; neither artist turned up.

Although christened "Bob-Fest" by Neil Young, in the industry the concert was called 'Bob Aid'. Dylan was out of record contract at the time following years of poor sales, and, as revealed in Howard Sounes' book 'Down The Highway', was in need of a large sum of money for his divorce settlement. His management and Sony arranged this concert to that end.

Bob Dylan's first electric number after his two acoustic songs was supposed to be 'It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry', performed with Eric Clapton, but as artists were added to the bill, the song was cut for timing purposes, leading Clapton to joke later that "the only person to get [their allocated time] cut at Bob's show WAS Bob." Some of the rehearsal footage of the two, with George Harrison and G.E. Smith present as well, is available online.

Neil Young was virtually the only artist not to use a rolling auto-cue to read the lyrics from [he had been performing his two numbers, 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' and 'All Along The Watchtower' in his own shows for many years]. If one watches the performances, the auto-cues are situated stage centre and stage left, and the performers eyes are, despite editing, constantly seen staring at them.