Bob Dylan 44: Live 1975

In what looked to be a nice trend, a hit Dylan album was followed by a release from the vaults. And happily, somebody in charge of these things realized that something like the Bootleg Series could be as educational and revelatory as it could be lucrative. The so-called fifth installment (and third actual release) is a textbook case of its high potential.

Outside of illicit bootlegs and eyewitness accounts, all the casual observer might have known about the Rolling Thunder Revue would have been from the generally overlooked Hard Rain album from 1976, which presented a sampling of recordings from the end of a tour when Bob and the band were pretty burnt out. If you were equally underwhelmed by Desire, it could have been tough to tell what the big deal was about concerning this era. The two CDs (and one brief DVD) in Live 1975 go a long way to change that opinion, presenting some fantastic performances from the beginning of a ramshackle traveling circus of a tour.

The recordings are taken from five professionally taped shows from the first leg of the Revue, right around when the surreal Renaldo And Clara was being filmed. The performances are certainly superior to his previous tour, and most of the rearrangements are successful. “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”, complete with new words, is an excellent start for the set. (The usual opener for each night, “When I Paint My Masterpiece”, isn’t included anywhere.) “It Ain’t Me Babe” is too much of a gallop, but “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll” get an extra charge from the upbeat blues backing. “Romance In Durango” and “Isis” are similar here to the versions on Biograph, but again, context goes a long way. An acoustic set includes a rewritten “Simple Twist Of Fate” and an excellent “Tangled Up In Blue”, which had yet to change much except for some of the perspective, before bringing out Joan Baez for some duets—always an acquired taste.

Because of the variety of songs played throughout the tour, as well as contributions from some of the other performers, Live 1975 is not a definitive document of a typical show. But by presenting such a strong program, it does a valuable service in restoring this period in a better light, so much so that it illuminates Hard Rain and even Desire. A little, anyway.

Dylanologists still want everything, of course. Sure enough, to coincide with another film with Martin Scorsese’s name attached, a 14-CD box set offered those five shows in toto (save any of the stuff the other musicians played before he walked onstage), plus three discs of rehearsals and another of oddities from the same period. Overall, this set’s a little more accessible, and the material more diverse than on The 1966 Live Recordings—five similar but not identical setlists being a little more palatable than 18.

The rehearsals, some complete, some fragments, are interesting in places, as we hear Bob trying his own stuff out (with musicians asking for songs based on first line, not the actual title), often with different lyrics, either because he forgot them or he really was “evolving”. He hits on a few covers, too; “People Get Ready” is one, having been a promo item since Renaldo And Clara first hit theaters, and apparently, knowing there’d be a box set one day, he had to try “Spanish Is The Loving Tongue”. Some traditional folk pieces would make it to the regular sets, like “Dark As A Dungeon” and “The Water Is Wide”, but “Slow And Easy” is only heard during the rehearsals, and it’s lovely. Stick around till disc 14 for a hotel jam on “The Tracks Of My Tears” and a lounge-style “Simple Twist Of Fate” performed at a mah-jongg parlor.

Bob Dylan Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue—The Bootleg Series Vol. 5 (2002)—4
Bob Dylan The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings (2019)—3½