These days, Bob Dylan is an acquired taste when it comes to his live performances. He rarely follows a script, plays hits, or sings with much passion. In 1975, it was a completely different story. Assembling a ragtag group of musicians, hangers-ons, and muses, Dylan wore colorful hat and painted his face like a mime. Everyone, even Joan Baez, followed suit and The Rolling Thunder Revue had a couple rehearsals before taking on New England and parts of Canada in the fall on 1975, picking up strays along the way. The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, a 14-CD box set, features rehearsals and five sets from the tour, and serves as a soundtrack to the Netflix film, Rolling Thunder Revue – A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.
If you have any familiarity with Dylan’s activities in 1975, you know he released Blood On The Tracks, arguably one of his finest records, at the beginning of the year and then spent the following months writing and recording material for the equally engaging follow-up, Desire. Around this time, Dylan’s spirit for adventure and mayhem kicked into overdrive. Not only was he anxious to road-test the new material; he also was up for reviving a few old chestnuts. He rounded up T Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Bobby Neuwirth, Scarlet Rivera, Ronee Blakely, Steven Soles, David Mansfield, Rob Stoner, Howie Wyeth and Luther Rix for rehearsals at New York’s S.I.R. studios and the Seacrest Motel in Falmouth, Massachusetts (recordings of both recently unearthed and included in the set). Poet Allen Ginsberg, Roger McQuinn of the Byrds, and songtress Joni Mitchell were just a few of the special guests who showed up here and there. The first leg of the tour began at the end of October in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and ended in New York City at Madison Square Garden on December 8.
Along with the rehearsals, The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings collects sets from three consecutive nights and one afternoon — November 19, 20 and 21 — in Massachusetts, plus December 4 in Montreal and a bonus disc of rare performances. Though they’re nowhere on the rehearsal recordings, you’ll get five versions of “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” “It Ain’t Me Babe,” and “ The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll” opening the five shows. Perhaps the most exciting pieces are from the-then forthcoming Desire — “Romance In Durango,” “Isis,” and “One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below).” With each subsequent performance, Dylan masterfully scales epic streams of consciousness as Rivera’s violin snakes around the melody. The rest of the band, known as Guam and more or less lead by Dylan’s longtime partner-in-crime Neuwirth, gleefully bridge the gaps and drive the sometimes frantic pace.
Other mainstays (and multiple versions) include “I Shall Be Released, “Oh, Sister,” “Hurricane” “Sara,” “Just Like A Woman,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and “This Land Is Your Land.” The tour appealed to longtime Dylan heads when plums like “Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall, “ “Mr Tambourine Man” and the duet of “Blowin’ In The Wind” with Joan Baez were slotted in at various stops. Suffice to say, 148 tracks (100 never previously released) and a booklet filled with photos and liner notes from Wesley Stace should easily whet the whistle of any of those hardcore Dylanites who keep count. Digital, on CD or vinyl, The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, together with Rolling Thunder Revue – A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese on Netflix, capture one of the most riveting periods of Bob Dylan’s career.
~ Shawn Perry
