that it was "no accident" that both "Watching The River Flow" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece" made much the same statement. Bell argued that "When I Paint My Masterpiece" is the better song as it is the funnier of the two. Bell heard Dylan mocking both his admirers and his own reputation in this composition, while he detected in "Watching The River Flow" an admission that "If creativity is a habit, Dylan was all but cured." Personnel The musicians who recorded "Watching the River Flow" are: Bob Dylan – vocal Leon Russell – acoustic piano, production Jesse Ed Davis – electric guitar Carl Radle (called Charlie Radle on the session notes) – electric bass Jim Keltner – drums Live performances and covers Dylan first performed the song live on November 21, 1978, in El Paso, Texas, and again, two days later, in Norman, Oklahoma. He did not play it in concert again until July 19, 1987, in Eugene, Oregon; from that point on, he has often included the song in his sets. According to his official website, Dylan has performed the song over 500 times, with the most recent performances occurring on the Fall 2021 leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour. The song was featured in Dylan's 2021 concert film Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan, which was available to stream on the Veeps.com platform for a week beginning on July 18. On April 18, 2011, musician Ben Waters released the album Boogie 4 Stu, a tribute to the late Rolling Stones pianist Ian Stewart, including a version of "Watching the River Flow" featuring the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood, as well as former member Bill Wyman. The five Rolling Stones recorded their contributions separately, in different studios at different times, but the track constituted the first time since 1992 that Wyman had recorded on the same song as his former bandmates. The choice of the song was based on Ian Stewart's judgment that "Watching the River Flow" was "the only decent thing Bob Dylan ever did". The song has been covered by numerous other artists, including Seatrain (1973), the Earl Scruggs Revue (1976), Steve Gibbons (1977), Joe Cocker (1978), Steve Forbert in the I-10 Chronicles (2001), Ken Saydak (2001), Colin James (2005), Asylum Street Spankers (2006), and Steve Gadd (2010). Leon Russell released his own version