| |
|
Music Archives:
Most Recent
| Highest
Rated | Alphabetical
| Highest Rated 2006
The Thunder Rolls
 |
|
Bob
Dylan: The Bootleg Series, Volume 5: Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue
Columbia, 2002
Rating: 4.8
|
|
Posted: December 3,
2002
By
Laurence Station
Bob Dylan is a deep well. Arguably the most important and influential
artist in the history of popular music, Dylan has spent his career, for
the most part, resisting the legend of Bob Dylan. That is to say,
resisting the lure of resting on his laurels, playing exclusive Vegas gigs
for maximum profit or hiding away in a guarded castle, living off of the
royalties from past glories. No, unlike others in the rock pantheon, Dylan has continued to
create vital and interesting music (a handful of songs from Time Out of
Mind, his work on the Wonder Boys soundtrack), doggedly remained on the road playing
smaller halls rather than huge arenas (the Never-ending Tour), and has
never forgotten his debt to folk and blues traditions (just about any
track on last year's masterful Love and Theft). But the legend of
Bob Dylan is inescapable. When an artist creates such a diverse, potent
and extraordinarily large body of work, and does so for over 40 years,
it's bound be quite a long time before the mountain built beneath the man
is washed to the sea.
The two CD Live 1975 set, the fifth in Dylan's Bootleg Series,
offers a tantalizing glimpse into the artist's musical oeuvre during the
chaotic, freewheeling first leg of the legendary Rolling Thunder Revue.
Hard Rain, issued in 1976, does contain recordings from the second leg
and less expansive incarnation of the Revue. The initial shows, however,
reveal the true magic of Rolling Thunder (as anyone who's heard the widely
circulated bootleg shows will attest), with writer and theater director
Jacques Levy attempting to organize and manage a production that swelled
to over one hundred artists, crew and various hangers-on. Poet Allen
Ginsberg, Ex-Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn, frequent David Bowie
collaborator Mick Ronson, Joan Baez, Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell were
but a few of the notables who reveled in the tour's spontaneous,
carnival-like atmosphere.
Dylan, in the midst of a painful breakup with his then-wife Sara
(documented earlier that same year on the brilliant, wrenching Blood on
the Tracks), embarked on the Revue as a way to stay on the road, but
also, by virtue of including so many fellow artists, to deflect further
attention from the legend of Bob Dylan. The garish, white face paint Dylan
wore during the shows hardly made him invisible, however, and there's
little question he remained the creative ringmaster throughout. By '75 he
had also amassed an enormous back catalog to draw from, not to mention
songs from the soon to be released Desire album -- of which six
tracks are represented here.
Limited to selections from just four shows that benefited from crystal
clear 24-track professional sound recording, Live 1975 nonetheless
offers a wide array of Dylan material, from early '60s protest songs (a
punched-up, rollicking "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "The Lonesome Death
Of Hattie Carroll"), his subsequent "electric" period ("Just Like A
Woman," "Love Minus Zero/No Limit"), and '70s output ("Tangled Up In Blue"
and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"). But the Revue also served to focus and
refine the Desire tracks. An incendiary "Isis" and
poignantly triste "Sara" shine, but the highlight belongs to "Hurricane,"
Dylan's stirring call-to-arms to free wrongfully imprisoned middleweight
boxer and civil rights activist Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. After asking
anyone in the audience with political clout to help liberate Carter, Dylan
and his band proceed to rip into a ferocious eight-minute-plus scorcher
detailing the boxer's alleged crime and subsequent railroading.
"Hurricane" stands out on Desire, but rarely has it sounded as
impassioned and politically charged as it does here. The passionate
advocating for an unjustly incarcerated man's release adds gravity to the
otherwise jovial atmosphere prevalent throughout the Rolling Thunder tour.
There are other highlights, including a spare, searching rendition of
"Mr. Tambourine Man" and a breezy, infectiously spirited version of
"Romance In Durango," featuring Scarlet Rivera's first-rate violin work,
although nothing equals the potency of "Hurricane." And the only real dud
is an overly sanctimonious, rather than world-weary, singalong take on "I
Shall Be Released." Larry "Ratso" Sloman's liner notes essay,
drawn in part from his book On The Road With Bob Dylan, laudably
straddles the line between hardcore fan and critically observant rock
journalist. Finally, those looking for a signature historical flashpoint
akin to the "Judas" exchange on Live 1966, the previous entry in
the Bootleg Series, won't find it here. Though there is an amusing moment
when someone in the audience calls out for Dylan to play a protest song
and he launches into the decidedly apolitical "Oh, Sister."
Perhaps the lasting legacy of the Rolling Thunder Revue, and further
justification for the existence of Live 1975, is its first glimpse
of what would eventually become the Never-ending Tour Dylan embarked on
during the late '80s. After so much domestic tension, Dylan sought
refuge on the road, moving from venue to venue night after night,
guaranteeing he'd never overstay his welcome or have to deal with any
messy morning-after encounters. Then again, Dylan may just be trying his
hardest to remain one step ahead of the legend, simply "headin' for
another joint," and leaving the slavish hyperbole to reviews such as this
one.
 |
|
When I Paint My Masterpiece, I Hope To God It
Doesn't Look Like This
The nearly four-hour 1978 film Renaldo and Clara
documents the Rolling Thunder Revue in a bizarre "fictional" manner, with
Dylan and wife Sara playing the title characters while Ronnie Hawkins and
Ronee Blakely play Dylan and Sara. The film is not commercially available,
but eBay and other such outlets might be a good place to track down a copy
-- for the impressive musical performances, if little else. |
Site
design copyright © 2001-2007 Shaking Through.net. All original artwork,
photography and text used on this site is the sole copyright of the respective creator(s)/author(s). Reprinting, reposting, or citing any of the original
content appearing on this site without the written consent of Shaking
Through.net is strictly forbidden. Contact us at
shaking@shakingthrough.net if
you wish to use any of the material published here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
