Bob Dylan
Live 1975: The Bootleg Series Volume 5
Columbia, 2002
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In November of 1975, Bob Dylan was hitting his stride in a way he hadn’t since his mid-’60s amphetamine-fueled heyday. In January, Blood On The Tracks—one of Dylan’s most accomplished and affecting albums—had been released. That spring, he began popping up in his old Greenwich Village haunts, hungry for some new inspiration. By the end of the summer, he had recorded the adventurous, genre-bending Desire, which would go on to be Dylan’s only chart-topping LP of the ’70s. Yes, the man was on an undeniable roll, his critical and commercial standing reaching new and unprecedented heights. And to cap off this banner year, Dylan embarked on one of the most exciting and innovative tours of his career.
This tour, dubbed the Rolling Thunder Revue, is given its due on the new volume of Dylan’s on-again off-again Bootleg Series. The 22 songs collected on the double-disc paint a well-nigh definitive picture of what went down as Dylan and his merry band of musicians played a string of tiny theater and small arena dates in the northeast United States and Canada. For the past 27 years, die-hard fans have had to rely on decent-to- terrible sounding bootlegs of these now-legendary shows. But Live 1975 presents crystal clear recordings of Dylan and the Rolling Thunder band in all of its glory.
And this is a good thing, because this band was really something else. On paper, it looks like chaos, like a bad idea gone horribly wrong. The glam-rock lead guitar of ex-Spider From Mars Mick Ronson, the country fried pedal steel and mandolin of David Mansfield, the gypsy violin of Scarlet Rivera—these ingredients should by all rights make for a foul-tasting combo. But, somehow, the sonic mismatching conjures up a beautifully loose and ragged atmosphere, appropriate for the carnival-esque feel of the tour.
The Rolling Thunder ’75 tour saw Dylan reclaiming some of his best-known tunes and transforming them with new and exciting arrangements. „It Ain’t Me, Babe,“ one of Dylan’s undisputed classics, is irreverently given a loping, almost-reggae beat. And the formerly hymn-like „A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall“ is played as a pounding, vintage Chicago blues, with Dylan hollering like a man possessed.
The songwriter seems positively ecstatic in his new musical surroundings. In the opening cut, „Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,“ he shouts „get ready!“ His voice sounds warmer than ever before or after. Elsewhere, on the solo acoustic cuts and the handful of duets performed with Joan Baez, he actually sounds happy to be there, happy to be performing for his audience. Yes, Live 75 offers a glimpse into what a happy Bob Dylan might sound like. Surprisingly enough, Dylan doesn’t need to brood to be brilliant.
Also highlighted on Live 75 are the weird and wonderful songs from Desire, which wouldn’t be released until 1976. Dylan debuted more than half of the album on this tour, and the performances, quite frankly, blow away the studio versions. The gripping performance of „Isis“ is worth the price of admission alone. And the mysterious „One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below),“ one of the stranger songs Dylan’s ever written, is given a bone chilling and precise reading. Dylan would never again perform many of these songs, making this tour even more special.
If Live 75 had been released immediately following the Rolling Thunder tour, it would have been undoubtedly hailed as one of the great live albums of the ’70s. Better late than never, I suppose. Fans can only hope that Dylan’s Bootleg Series continues with more regularity in the future. The man’s vault is bulging with unreleased material that is vital to our understanding and appreciation of this great songwriter. Volumes 1-5 are just the tip of the iceberg.
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