For anyone not keeping an eye on such things, Bob Dylan started his European tour on Tuesday with a show in a 600-seater club in Stockholm called Debaser Medis – and the big news for Bobcats is that for the first time in a few years, Dylan is playing electric guitar again.

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At Debaser Medis, he was on guitar for the first seven songs. The following night, he played guitar on the opening five numbers of the 16-song set (see complete set lists below).

No one seems to know for sure quite why Dylan gave up playing guitar in the first place – some people putting it down to a back problem, others arthritis and others claiming he needed the top of his piano to place lyric sheets in case, memory faltering, he started forgetting the words to the songs – although from a variety of vantage points at Dylan shows over the last three or four years, I’ve spotted no evidence of that.

If anyone’s got any ideas on why Bob gave up on guitar and why circumstances have now changed, I’d be interested in hearing from you.

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Meanwhile, here’s the set lists for the first two shows of the tour:

Debaser Medis, Stockholm

March 27, 2007

1 Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine

2 Not Dark Yet

3 I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight

4 It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

5 Tears Of Rage

6 Highway 61 Revisited

7 Lay Lady Lay

8 Rollin’ And Tumblin’

9 To Ramona

10 Country Pie

11 tangled Up In Blue

12 a Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

13 Summer Days

14 Like A Rolling Stone

15 Thunder On The Mountain

16 All Along The Watchtower

Globe, Stockholm

March 28, 2007

1 Cat’s In The Well

2 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

3 Watching The River Flow

4 It’s Alright, ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

5 When The Deal Goes Down

6 Honest With Me

7 Girl Of The North Country

8 Tangled Up In Blue

9 Country Pie

10 Nettie Moore

11 Rollin’ And Tumblin’

12 A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

13 Summer Days

14 Like a Rolling Stone

15 Thunder On The Mountain

16 All Along The Watchtower