Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 5 Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue
For the better part of eight years, beginning in 1966, Bob Dylan stopped touring. When he returned to the stage in January 1974, backed by his ’66 tourmates the Band, America’s rock concert machine, built during those “lost” years, had become such a behemoth, not even Dylan could resist it. For the first few months of ’74, he dutifully performed in basketball and hockey arenas across the country (sometimes twice in one day) to what at the time was unprecedented ticket demand.
A year later, Dylan had the urge to tour again, but this time it would have to be different. Surrounded by old friends (Joan Baez, Bob Neuwirth, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott), newcomers (a young T Bone Burnett, Scarlet Rivera, Rob Stoner), and a few unlikely compatriots (Mick Ronson, Sam Shepard), Dylan envisioned a barnstorming tour that was the antithesis of the previous year’s trek. The notion was to pick a college town, let news of a show spread by word of mouth, roll in by bus and camper, disembark at a venerable old theater or gymnasium, and simply play for three hours, giving everyone in the oversized band their moment in the sun.
Dubbed the Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan & Co. did just that, taking the idea of informal creative enterprise even further in their off-hours, shooting footage for what would become the “film” Renaldo & Clara. Like so many great ideas, the Rolling Thunder Revue eventually mutated from its roots, but thankfully recorders were rolling at five early stops, selections from which appear here for the first time outside of the bootleg world and a couple stray box set tracks.
What the sparkling tapes yield is perhaps the most excited Dylan performances ever. Those familiar with the yin-yang of lethargy and luster that marks so many stretches of the last fourteen years of the Never Ending Tour may fall out of their chair when they hear how animated Bob is, no more so than on the infectious opener, “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”. High octane continues through steamroller overhauls of “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, but here the zeal (especially of busy drummers Howie Wyeth and Luther Rix) and what Eric Clapton calls in the liner notes “incongruous instruments” overwhelm the songs, leaving them as curious but hardly definitive readings. And yet, even as Dylan oversings — which he arguably does in many moments across this set — the sheer force of his performance resonates.
When the band downshifts, the results are more attractive. “Oh Sister”, “One More Cup Of Coffee”, “Sara” and a chugging “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry” are stunners, while some songs benefit from the ensemble’s frenetic energy, namely “Isis” and “Hurricane”.
The moments of deepest musical beauty and this set’s lasting contribution to the catalogue are found in the acoustic performances. Simple, striking takes of “The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll”, “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue”, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit”, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Simple Twist Of Fate”, and a perspective-shifting “Tangled Up In Blue” show Dylan in complete command of his songs. These six masterpieces have never sounded better.
Handsome packaging, insightful liner notes by Larry “Ratso” Sloman, and a bonus DVD (with film footage of “Tangled” and “Isis”) round out this irresistible installment of the Bootleg Series. If the Royal Albert Hall 1966 set put us in the audience for a defining moment of rock history, Live 1975 feels like a more intimate chapter in the secret history of Bob Dylan, capturing a time when the world wasn’t watching.