1975
In the fall of 1975, Bob Dylan blazed a trail across New England with one of the best bands he's ever had, and a bunch of guest stars. (I remember being in graduate school in Eugene Oregon and being very tempted to hit the road for New England to catch these shows; its' one of the few tours I've missed at all.) Called the Rolling Thunder Review, these shows have been sparsely documented in the official cannon (a couple releases on Biograph). This week that's corrected with the release of the marvelous Bootleg Series Volume 5: Live 1975. Of course, these concerts have long been available over the bootleg transom, but it's really exciting to see this stuff officially released, in superb 24-track recordings.
The band on this tour, which called itself Guam, consisted of a stellar and unexpected lineup. T-Bone Burnett. Howie Wyeth. David Mansfield. Mick Ronson. Scarlet Rivera. Joan Baez. Bobby Neuwirth. Rob Stoner. It's a big, energetic, chaotic band. It seems like the chaos swirls around Bob here, and he's in charge of it with energetic, strong performances. This tour has some of his greatest singing; he's in wonderful voice in these songs.
In the spring of 76, most of the band toured again, across the southeast. That tour is "documented" in Hard Rain, a work of a very different, almost depraved kind of genius, a misunderstood masterpiece.
But to all who read this: buy this album. It's sui generis, a singular collection of fantastic music. If you're interested in finding out more about this, read Larry Ratso Sloman's On the Road With Bob Dylan, certainly one of the best -- if not the best -- books on Dylan, and a terrific chronicle of this wonderful tour.
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