Only one year had passed and Bob was in Finland again! By now Finnish press had totally lost their interest in Bob Dylan. The media silence was overwhelming. But because Bob performed this time in Turku Ruisrock, it was different. Ruisrock was and is still one of the oldest rock festivals in the world. So, people who go there don't care whether the newsmen are interested about the performers or not, they go there anyway!
The Finnish urban legends about Bob's performance in Ruisrock in 1990 are too many to be told here. Some of them are true, some of them are not. I can't tell you here all the stories. I only mention two of them. I think the first one is true, about the second one I'm not so sure.
The first legend is about Dylan's arrival to Hamburger B�rs, a four star hotel facing the main square of Turku. There were only few fans who knew that he would stay at that hotel, so Bob could have walked through the main entrance without anyone disturbing him, but he didn't do that. Instead he came in through the kitchen on the other side of the bulding! He had also a bodyguard and some other men surrounding him. The legend tells also that he stayed only few hours in that hotel before travelling to Ruissalon Kansallispuisto where the Festival was going on. It had started already at noon and Bob came there many hours before it was his time to perform. He stayed in his Bus, he didn't come out.
The other legend claims that he had been drinking heavily before that concert. If that's true, I didn't notice it. Dylan gave us a strong performance. Usually Dylan's festival performances are short (10-14 songs), but in Turku he performed 19 songs! MASTERS OF WAR was pure fire! POLITICAL WORLD was nice to hear, because it was new then. Afterwards I realised that on that beautiful and hot summer evening I had heard a song that became a live rarity (the last performance was in Glasgow 1991).
I liked Ruisrock concert a lot. Hard to say if it was better or worse than Helsinki 1989, but anyhow it was good. The recording I heard afterwards was only a shadow of the REAL thing! If you weren't there, it's not fair to say anything about the concert. That's the funny thing. Sometimes you think a concert is bad, but afterwards when you hear the tape, you think: "wait a minute, it wasn't so bad at all". In Turku it was the other way round:you hear the tape and think: " uuh, was it any good...". But dear Dylan friends: I can assure you, IT WAS! Like sledgehammer says: "Trust me....".

Set List:
1. Subterranean Homesick Blues
2. I Believe In You
3. Stuck Inside Of Mobile
4. Simple Twist Of Fate
5. Masters Of War
6. Gotta Serve Somebody
7. It's Alright Ma
8. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
9. Mr. Tambourine Man
10. Boots Of Spanish Leather
11. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
12. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
13. Political World
14. Shooting Star
15. All Along The Watchtower
16. In The Garden
17. Like A Rolling Stone
18. Blowin' In The Wind
19. Maggie's Farm


I'm glad so many people have read my TURKU 1990 concert review here. I've received some emails from Dylan friends who have wanted to share their memories with me. One of the most interesting of these emails was written by a guy named SLOTHROP. He gave me permission to use the first part of that email here. So, here's his text on the front page of Slow Train, but only for some days. After that I move it to the concert section under the title Turku 1990.

"I read your comments on the Ruisrock concert. One other semi-mythical aspect of that gig that I can verify is that the entire press/backstage area was cleared, ENTIRELY, half an hour before Bob went on. At least half an hour. I'd fiddled myself an accreditation on the strength of an old FOT (Freelancer Ohjelmaty�ntekij�t) pass, and was therefore able to partake liberally of the civilised press bar and wander into the backstage during interviews. I was there (and even probably have some pictures hidden away somewhere) for the Hooters' press conference, which if I remember correctly was terminated abruptly because "EVERYONE HAS TO GO". "Everyone" seemed to include even the likes of the band-members themselves and Juice, who was also on the bill. Some people were a bit pissed off, but the entire area was vacated. The set as such was definitely worth the scrum at the front. The man was ON. Probably the 3rd best Ruisrock show I've seen, after Neil's and Jackson Browne's sets..."
SLOTHROP 2005