Rolling Thunder Revue
Encyclopedia
The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour consisting of a traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan
, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976; the prevailing theory was that the tour was named after the Native American
shaman Rolling Thunder
. Others maintained that tour was named after Operation Rolling Thunder
, the U.S. aerial bombardment campaign conducted during the Vietnam War
. But according to Dylan, there was a simpler explanation "I was just sitting outside my house one day thinking about a name for this tour, when all of a sudden, I looked into the sky and I heard a boom! Then, boom, boom, boom, boom, rolling from west to east. So I figured that should be the name".
The January 1976 release of Dylan's album Desire fell between the two legs of the tour.
Among those featured in the Revue were Joan Baez
, Roger McGuinn
, Ramblin' Jack Elliott
, Kinky Friedman
and Bob Neuwirth
. Neuwirth assembled the backing musicians, including T-Bone Burnett
, Mick Ronson
, David Mansfield
, and Steven Soles
, and, from the Desire sessions, the violinist Scarlet Rivera
, the bassist Rob Stoner
, and the drummer Howie Wyeth.
The tour was thoroughly documented through film
, sound recording, and in print.
perform at Madison Square Garden
. According to Arthur Rosato, the soundman on Renaldo and Clara
, their 1972 world tour reignited his interest in playing live, and also had a large influence on Dylan's return to the concert circuit.
In October 1975, soon after completing Desire, Dylan held rehearsals for an upcoming tour at New York
's midtown Studio Instrument Rentals space. The bassist Rob Stoner
, the drummer Howie Wyeth, and the violinist Scarlet Rivera
, all of whom were heavily featured on Desire, were retained for the rehearsals. Joining them were T-Bone Burnett
, Steven Soles
, and David Mansfield
. The three had been dismissed during the Desire sessions in attempt to focus the overall production, but Dylan decided to recruit the trio for the upcoming tour.
When rehearsals began, many of the musicians were apparently uninformed about plans for an upcoming tour. At the same time, Dylan was casually inviting others to join in with the band. According to Stoner, the group rehearsed "for like a day or two - it [was] not really so much a rehearsal as like a jam, tryin' to sort it out. Meanwhile all these people who eventually became the Rolling Thunder Revue started dropping in. Joan Baez was showing up. Roger McGuinn was there. They were all there. We had no idea what the purpose for these jams was, except we were being invited to jam."
According to Lou Kemp, a friend of Dylan's who eventually organized the tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue "would go out at night and run into people, and we'd just invite them to come with us. We started out with a relatively small group of musicians and support people, and we ended up with a caravan." At one point, Patti Smith
was invited to join, but amicably declined Dylan's invitation. However, Dylan did add one surprising element to the Rolling Thunder Revue when he invited Mick Ronson
to join the tour. Ronson was the lead guitarist and arranger in David Bowie
's former backing band, The Spiders from Mars
. Ronson would accompany the Rolling Thunder Revue throughout the upcoming tour.
Another musician invited on the tour was introduced to Dylan on October 22, when Dylan went to see David Blue perform at The Other End. It was there that he met Ronee Blakley
, the actress/singer who had recently starred in Robert Altman
's celebrated film Nashville. At the end of Blue's show, Blakley joined Dylan on-stage for a few songs, joined by poet Allen Ginsberg
and guitarist Kenny Davis (Leichtling); afterwards, Dylan extended her an invitation to join the Rolling Thunder Revue. She initially declined due to prior commitments, but eventually changed her mind and appeared at rehearsals two days later.
However, the same day Blakley showed up for rehearsal, Dylan returned to the recording studio to re-record Desires "Hurricane
" (due to legal concerns involving the song's original lyrics). Employing Blakley as a substitute for Emmylou Harris
(who had prior engagements to attend to), Dylan quickly recut "Hurricane", the last recorded work done for Desire before its release in January 1976.
Sometime in October, Dylan also contacted an old friend and filmmaker, Howard Alk
. Dylan's ambitions apparently included a film of the tour, and Alk accepted Dylan's offer to shoot the film. When the tour rehearsals were still in progress, Alk reportedly began filming scenes in Greenwich Village
for possible inclusion in the film.
Dylan also contacted the actor/playwright Sam Shepard
. Shepard was still relatively unknown at the time, and probably Dylan was introduced to him by Jacques Levy
, who at that time had been co-writing with Dylan some of the lyrics of the Desire album (Shepard was also a former lover of Patti Smith). Shepard flew in from California
and met with Dylan at rehearsals, where Dylan asked him if he had seen Marcel Carné
's Les Enfants du Paradis or François Truffaut
's Shoot the Piano Player
. Dylan said that those were the kinds of films he wanted to produce on the tour.
The poet Allen Ginsberg
would accompany the tour for most of its 1975 run, but his planned recitations, as well as some performances by other Revue members, were cut before the opening date to keep the concerts at a manageable length. However, Ginsberg's recitation was restored at one concert, at the prison where Rubin Carter
was serving his sentence.
. However, the secrecy surrounding the tour's intended destinations, the new material Dylan was premiering, and the inclusion of Joan Baez
on the same bill as Dylan for the first time in a decade ensured the tour a good share of media coverage.
According to Larry Sloman
, who documented the tour, "onstage it was like a carnival. Bobby Neuwirth
and the back-up band [dubbed 'Guam'] warmed up the audience. Next, Dylan ambled on to do about five songs. After intermission, the curtain rose to an incredible sight, Bob and Joan, together again after all these years." (Dylan and Baez often opened the second half of the show duetting in the dark on "Blowin' in the Wind
".)
Larry Sloman would later document the tour in a book, On the Road with Bob Dylan, in which he "tries to cop the Tom Wolfe
technique of turning the backstage story into a plot with the journalist as beleaguered hero," according to NPR
's Tim Riley.
Perhaps taking a cue from Ronson's glam-rock experience, Dylan made the surprising theatrical choice of wearing whiteface make-up at many of the shows. Sometimes, he even walked on stage wearing a plastic mask, only to toss it aside after the first song to play harmonica on "It Ain't Me, Babe." According to Rivera, one heckler asked Dylan "Why are you wearing a mask?" to which Dylan replied, "The meaning is in the words."
There is a critical consensus that the tour failed in one regard: the film. As the tour progressed, Shepard discovered his role as screenwriter
was somewhat superfluous, as much of the film was entirely improvised (with little guidance or direction in shaping those improvisations). Shepard would later cover the tour in an offhand journal titled The Rolling Thunder Logbook.
A number of critics wrote about the tour with a great deal of praise.
"The Rolling Thunder Revue shows remain some of the finest music Dylan ever made with a live band," wrote Clinton Heylin. "Gone was the traditionalism of The Band
. Instead he found a whole set of textures rarely found in rock. The idea of blending the pedal-steel syncopation of Mansfield, Ronson's glam-rock lead breaks, and Rivera's electric violin made for something as musically layered as Dylan's lyrics...[Dylan] also displayed a vocal precision rare even for him, snapping and stretching words to cajole nuances of meaning from each and every line."
"These are rugged and inspired reworkings of many Dylan standards—[Dylan] even talks casually to the audience (now a thing of the past)," wrote Tim Riley. "He lights into a biting electric version of 'It Ain't Me, Babe,' and then a thoroughly convincing rock take of 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll'...and an 'Isis' that makes the Desire take sound like a greeting card."
on January 25. Before the Concert, Dylan chose to meet with the man that discovered him, Roy Silver, and Silver's partner, manager Richard Flanzer for some advice. Silver and Flanzer quickly provided Artists including Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr and Dr. John, to make this Concert the most successful event of the Tour, with Dylan at his best.
Dylan then tried to recreate the Rolling Thunder Revue's success in the spring of 1976. Rehearsals were held in Clearwater, Florida
during April, and the first show was on April 18 at the Civic Center
in Lakeland, Florida
. The tour continued throughout April and May in the American South and Southwest.
The penultimate show of the tour took place on May 23 at Hughes Stadium
in Fort Collins, Colorado
. Comments about it typified the feeling about the spring tour: "Although the band has been playing together longer, the charm has gone out of their exchanges," wrote NPR's Tim Riley. "The Rolling Thunder Revue, so joyful and electrifying in its first performances, had just plain run out of steam," wrote music critic Janet Maslin
for Rolling Stone
.
The final Rolling Thunder show took place on May 25. Held at a half-empty, 17,000 seat Salt Palace
in Salt Lake City, Utah
, it would be Dylan's last performance for twenty-one months (except for The Last Waltz in November 1976 for The Band
), and it would be another two years before Dylan recorded another album of new material.
In recent years, the second leg of the tour has been held in higher regard by fans and critics.
television special Hard Rain; the Hard Rain live album
containing selections from that and another late May date was released simultaneously. The television special garnered poor reviews and disappointing ratings, despite a TV Guide
cover of and interview with Dylan. Live album sales were modest.
Dylan and Shepard's completed film, now the symbolist-romance-cum-concert-film Renaldo and Clara
, would not be released until 1978; the critical reception largely negative. It was, for the most part, the only official release documenting the live shows from the fall 1975 leg. However, a majority of the film consisted of the haphazard, fictional drama filmed during the tour.
Most performances from the fall 1975 tour were professionally recorded (in addition to wide bootleg recording). In 2002, The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue
, incorporating performances from a number of the fall shows, saw issue in 2002. As the first official release to capture the Revue at its peak, it was warmly received by fans and critics. In August 2010, a source close to Dylan told Rolling Stone that a documentary about the Rolling Thunder tour had been in development for years and could be released relatively soon.
Following the tour, the trio of Burnett, Soles and Mansfield continued to work together as The Alpha Band
.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976; the prevailing theory was that the tour was named after the Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
shaman Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder (person)
Rolling Thunder was a Native American medicine man. He was born into the Cherokee nation and later moved to Nevada and lived with the Western Shoshone...
. Others maintained that tour was named after Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained US 2nd Air Division , US Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 1 November 1968, during the Vietnam War.The four objectives...
, the U.S. aerial bombardment campaign conducted during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. But according to Dylan, there was a simpler explanation "I was just sitting outside my house one day thinking about a name for this tour, when all of a sudden, I looked into the sky and I heard a boom! Then, boom, boom, boom, boom, rolling from west to east. So I figured that should be the name".
The January 1976 release of Dylan's album Desire fell between the two legs of the tour.
Among those featured in the Revue were Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer and performer.-Life and career:Elliot Charles Adnopoz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents in 1931. Elliott grew up inspired by the rodeos at Madison Square Garden, and wanted to be a cowboy...
, Kinky Friedman
Kinky Friedman
Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election...
and Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. A mainstay of the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene, he subsequently became a friend and associate of Bob Dylan alongside whom he appears in D.A...
. Neuwirth assembled the backing musicians, including T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...
, Mick Ronson
Mick Ronson
Michael "Mick" Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars...
, David Mansfield
David Mansfield
David Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....
, and Steven Soles
Steven Soles
Steven Soles is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and guitarist.Known also as J. Steven Soles, he was asked by Bob Dylan to join the band for his 1975-1976 "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour, and he also played with Dylan on Street Legal and the following tour, including the live album Bob...
, and, from the Desire sessions, the violinist Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera is an American violinist. She is best known for her work with Bob Dylan, in particular on his album Desire and as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue.-Early career:...
, the bassist Rob Stoner
Rob Stoner
Robert David Rothstein , better known as Rob Stoner, is an American multi-instrumental musician....
, and the drummer Howie Wyeth.
The tour was thoroughly documented through film
Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara is a surrealist movie, directed by and starring Bob Dylan. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was released in 1978...
, sound recording, and in print.
Origins
In late July 1972, Dylan saw The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
perform at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
. According to Arthur Rosato, the soundman on Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara is a surrealist movie, directed by and starring Bob Dylan. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was released in 1978...
, their 1972 world tour reignited his interest in playing live, and also had a large influence on Dylan's return to the concert circuit.
In October 1975, soon after completing Desire, Dylan held rehearsals for an upcoming tour at New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's midtown Studio Instrument Rentals space. The bassist Rob Stoner
Rob Stoner
Robert David Rothstein , better known as Rob Stoner, is an American multi-instrumental musician....
, the drummer Howie Wyeth, and the violinist Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera is an American violinist. She is best known for her work with Bob Dylan, in particular on his album Desire and as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue.-Early career:...
, all of whom were heavily featured on Desire, were retained for the rehearsals. Joining them were T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...
, Steven Soles
Steven Soles
Steven Soles is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and guitarist.Known also as J. Steven Soles, he was asked by Bob Dylan to join the band for his 1975-1976 "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour, and he also played with Dylan on Street Legal and the following tour, including the live album Bob...
, and David Mansfield
David Mansfield
David Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....
. The three had been dismissed during the Desire sessions in attempt to focus the overall production, but Dylan decided to recruit the trio for the upcoming tour.
When rehearsals began, many of the musicians were apparently uninformed about plans for an upcoming tour. At the same time, Dylan was casually inviting others to join in with the band. According to Stoner, the group rehearsed "for like a day or two - it [was] not really so much a rehearsal as like a jam, tryin' to sort it out. Meanwhile all these people who eventually became the Rolling Thunder Revue started dropping in. Joan Baez was showing up. Roger McGuinn was there. They were all there. We had no idea what the purpose for these jams was, except we were being invited to jam."
According to Lou Kemp, a friend of Dylan's who eventually organized the tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue "would go out at night and run into people, and we'd just invite them to come with us. We started out with a relatively small group of musicians and support people, and we ended up with a caravan." At one point, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
was invited to join, but amicably declined Dylan's invitation. However, Dylan did add one surprising element to the Rolling Thunder Revue when he invited Mick Ronson
Mick Ronson
Michael "Mick" Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars...
to join the tour. Ronson was the lead guitarist and arranger in David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's former backing band, The Spiders from Mars
The Spiders from Mars
The Spiders from Mars were rock singer David Bowie 's backing band in the early 1970s, and consisted of Mick Ronson on guitars, Trevor Bolder on bass guitar, and Mick Woodmansey on drums....
. Ronson would accompany the Rolling Thunder Revue throughout the upcoming tour.
Another musician invited on the tour was introduced to Dylan on October 22, when Dylan went to see David Blue perform at The Other End. It was there that he met Ronee Blakley
Ronee Blakley
Ronee Blakley is an American entertainer. Though an accomplished singer, songwriter, composer, producer and director, she is perhaps best known as an actress...
, the actress/singer who had recently starred in Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's celebrated film Nashville. At the end of Blue's show, Blakley joined Dylan on-stage for a few songs, joined by poet Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and guitarist Kenny Davis (Leichtling); afterwards, Dylan extended her an invitation to join the Rolling Thunder Revue. She initially declined due to prior commitments, but eventually changed her mind and appeared at rehearsals two days later.
However, the same day Blakley showed up for rehearsal, Dylan returned to the recording studio to re-record Desires "Hurricane
Hurricane (song)
"Hurricane" is a protest song by Bob Dylan co-written with Jacques Levy, about the imprisonment of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. It compiles alleged acts of racism and profiling against Carter, which Dylan describes as leading to a false trial and conviction....
" (due to legal concerns involving the song's original lyrics). Employing Blakley as a substitute for Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
(who had prior engagements to attend to), Dylan quickly recut "Hurricane", the last recorded work done for Desire before its release in January 1976.
Sometime in October, Dylan also contacted an old friend and filmmaker, Howard Alk
Howard Alk
-Career:Alk enrolled in the University of Chicago at the age of 14. He was a member of the Compass Players cabaret troupe and one of the founders of The Second City. Alk had previously worked with Sills at the Gate of Horn. According to Sahlins, Alk coined the group's name...
. Dylan's ambitions apparently included a film of the tour, and Alk accepted Dylan's offer to shoot the film. When the tour rehearsals were still in progress, Alk reportedly began filming scenes in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
for possible inclusion in the film.
Dylan also contacted the actor/playwright Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
. Shepard was still relatively unknown at the time, and probably Dylan was introduced to him by Jacques Levy
Jacques Levy
Jacques Levy was an American songwriter, theatre director, and clinical psychologist.Levy was born in New York City in 1935, and attended its City College. He received a doctorate in psychology from Michigan State University. Levy was a trained psychoanalyst, certified by the Menninger Institute...
, who at that time had been co-writing with Dylan some of the lyrics of the Desire album (Shepard was also a former lover of Patti Smith). Shepard flew in from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and met with Dylan at rehearsals, where Dylan asked him if he had seen Marcel Carné
Marcel Carné
-Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...
's Les Enfants du Paradis or François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
's Shoot the Piano Player
Shoot the Piano Player
Shoot the Piano Player is a 1960 French film directed by François Truffaut, starring Charles Aznavour.The film is loosely based on the novel Down There by David Goodis.- Plot summary :...
. Dylan said that those were the kinds of films he wanted to produce on the tour.
The poet Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
would accompany the tour for most of its 1975 run, but his planned recitations, as well as some performances by other Revue members, were cut before the opening date to keep the concerts at a manageable length. However, Ginsberg's recitation was restored at one concert, at the prison where Rubin Carter
Rubin Carter
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter fought professionally as a middleweight boxer from 1961 to 1966. In 1966, he was arrested for a triple homicide in the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey...
was serving his sentence.
The Fall Tour of 1975
On October 30, Dylan held the first Rolling Thunder Revue show at War Memorial Auditorium in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The first leg of the tour was relatively small, spanning thirty shows and reaching only towns along the northeastern seaboard, including some in CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. However, the secrecy surrounding the tour's intended destinations, the new material Dylan was premiering, and the inclusion of Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
on the same bill as Dylan for the first time in a decade ensured the tour a good share of media coverage.
According to Larry Sloman
Larry Sloman
Larry "Ratso" Sloman is a New York-based author best known for his collaboration with Howard Stern on the radio personality's two best-selling books, Private Parts and Miss America. He also appears in all of Kinky Friedman's mystery novels as the Dr. Watson to Kinky's Sherlock...
, who documented the tour, "onstage it was like a carnival. Bobby Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. A mainstay of the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene, he subsequently became a friend and associate of Bob Dylan alongside whom he appears in D.A...
and the back-up band [dubbed 'Guam'] warmed up the audience. Next, Dylan ambled on to do about five songs. After intermission, the curtain rose to an incredible sight, Bob and Joan, together again after all these years." (Dylan and Baez often opened the second half of the show duetting in the dark on "Blowin' in the Wind
Blowin' in the Wind
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war and freedom...
".)
- After a few numbers, Baez took center stage for a dynamic six-song set, followed by a solo set from Bob. Then he was joined by the band for a few numbers, and the finale, Woody GuthrieWoody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's 'This Land Is Your Land,' featuring everyone on stage from Allen GinsbergAllen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
to Bob's mother Beattie one night. The spirit was so amazingly warm that when Joni MitchellJoni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
flew in to play one concert, she wound up staying for the remaining three nights of the tour. And it all came to a dramatic finale December 8th in Madison Square GardenMadison Square GardenMadison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
where, with the help of Muhammed Ali, Roberta FlackRoberta FlackRoberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...
and 14,000 screaming partisans, Dylan performed a benefit concert for imprisoned boxer and Dylan's latest cause, Rubin CarterRubin CarterRubin "Hurricane" Carter fought professionally as a middleweight boxer from 1961 to 1966. In 1966, he was arrested for a triple homicide in the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey...
. That concert was known as "The Night of The Hurricane."
Larry Sloman would later document the tour in a book, On the Road with Bob Dylan, in which he "tries to cop the Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
technique of turning the backstage story into a plot with the journalist as beleaguered hero," according to NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's Tim Riley.
Perhaps taking a cue from Ronson's glam-rock experience, Dylan made the surprising theatrical choice of wearing whiteface make-up at many of the shows. Sometimes, he even walked on stage wearing a plastic mask, only to toss it aside after the first song to play harmonica on "It Ain't Me, Babe." According to Rivera, one heckler asked Dylan "Why are you wearing a mask?" to which Dylan replied, "The meaning is in the words."
There is a critical consensus that the tour failed in one regard: the film. As the tour progressed, Shepard discovered his role as screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
was somewhat superfluous, as much of the film was entirely improvised (with little guidance or direction in shaping those improvisations). Shepard would later cover the tour in an offhand journal titled The Rolling Thunder Logbook.
A number of critics wrote about the tour with a great deal of praise.
"The Rolling Thunder Revue shows remain some of the finest music Dylan ever made with a live band," wrote Clinton Heylin. "Gone was the traditionalism of The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
. Instead he found a whole set of textures rarely found in rock. The idea of blending the pedal-steel syncopation of Mansfield, Ronson's glam-rock lead breaks, and Rivera's electric violin made for something as musically layered as Dylan's lyrics...[Dylan] also displayed a vocal precision rare even for him, snapping and stretching words to cajole nuances of meaning from each and every line."
"These are rugged and inspired reworkings of many Dylan standards—[Dylan] even talks casually to the audience (now a thing of the past)," wrote Tim Riley. "He lights into a biting electric version of 'It Ain't Me, Babe,' and then a thoroughly convincing rock take of 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll'...and an 'Isis' that makes the Desire take sound like a greeting card."
The Spring Tour of 1976
A second Hurricane Carter benefit was held at the Astrodome Houston, TexasHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
on January 25. Before the Concert, Dylan chose to meet with the man that discovered him, Roy Silver, and Silver's partner, manager Richard Flanzer for some advice. Silver and Flanzer quickly provided Artists including Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr and Dr. John, to make this Concert the most successful event of the Tour, with Dylan at his best.
Dylan then tried to recreate the Rolling Thunder Revue's success in the spring of 1976. Rehearsals were held in Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
during April, and the first show was on April 18 at the Civic Center
Lakeland Center
The Lakeland Center is an 8,178-seat multi-purpose arena, in Lakeland, Florida. It opened in November 1974, as the Lakeland Civic Center, it gained its current name in June 1994....
in Lakeland, Florida
Lakeland, Florida
Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States, located approximately midway between Tampa and Orlando along Interstate 4. According to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 94,406...
. The tour continued throughout April and May in the American South and Southwest.
The penultimate show of the tour took place on May 23 at Hughes Stadium
Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium
Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the home field of the Colorado State Rams of the Mountain West Conference....
in Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Collins is a Home Rule Municipality situated on the Cache La Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, and is the county seat and most populous city of Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Fort Collins is located north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. With a 2010 census...
. Comments about it typified the feeling about the spring tour: "Although the band has been playing together longer, the charm has gone out of their exchanges," wrote NPR's Tim Riley. "The Rolling Thunder Revue, so joyful and electrifying in its first performances, had just plain run out of steam," wrote music critic Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
.
The final Rolling Thunder show took place on May 25. Held at a half-empty, 17,000 seat Salt Palace
Salt Palace
This article describes a large building in Utah. A one-story building made of locally mined salt blocks in Grand Saline, Texas is also called the "Salt Palace"....
in Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, it would be Dylan's last performance for twenty-one months (except for The Last Waltz in November 1976 for The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
), and it would be another two years before Dylan recorded another album of new material.
In recent years, the second leg of the tour has been held in higher regard by fans and critics.
Aftermath
The May 23 Colorado show was filmed for the September 1976 NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television special Hard Rain; the Hard Rain live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
containing selections from that and another late May date was released simultaneously. The television special garnered poor reviews and disappointing ratings, despite a TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
cover of and interview with Dylan. Live album sales were modest.
Dylan and Shepard's completed film, now the symbolist-romance-cum-concert-film Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara is a surrealist movie, directed by and starring Bob Dylan. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was released in 1978...
, would not be released until 1978; the critical reception largely negative. It was, for the most part, the only official release documenting the live shows from the fall 1975 leg. However, a majority of the film consisted of the haphazard, fictional drama filmed during the tour.
Most performances from the fall 1975 tour were professionally recorded (in addition to wide bootleg recording). In 2002, The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue
The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue
The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue is a live album by Bob Dylan released by Columbia Records in 2002. It documents the Rolling Thunder Revue, led by Bob Dylan prior to the release of the album Desire...
, incorporating performances from a number of the fall shows, saw issue in 2002. As the first official release to capture the Revue at its peak, it was warmly received by fans and critics. In August 2010, a source close to Dylan told Rolling Stone that a documentary about the Rolling Thunder tour had been in development for years and could be released relatively soon.
Following the tour, the trio of Burnett, Soles and Mansfield continued to work together as The Alpha Band
The Alpha Band
The Alpha Band was a rock band formed in July 1976 from the remnants of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. Band members were T-Bone Burnett, Steven Soles, and David Mansfield, plus sidemen who differed from record to record and included: David Kemper ; gospel great Andrae Crouch; and former Beatle...
.
Tour dates
| Date | City | Country | Venue | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 Shows | |||||
| October 30, 1975 | Plymouth | United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
War Memorial Auditorium | ||
| October 31, 1975 | |||||
| November 1, 1975 | North Dartmouth | Massachusetts University University of Massachusetts Dartmouth The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is one of five campuses and operating subdivisions of the University of Massachusetts . It is located in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States, in the center of the South Coast region, between the cities of New Bedford to the east and Fall River... |
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| November 2, 1975 | Lowell | Technical University University of Massachusetts Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public university in Lowell, Massachusetts, and part of the University of Massachusetts system... |
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| November 4, 1975 | Providence | Civic Center Dunkin' Donuts Center The Dunkin' Donuts Center , is an indoor arena, located in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, United States... |
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| November 6, 1975 | Springfield | Civic Center MassMutual Center The MassMutual Center is a multi-purpose arena and convention center, in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. Built in the city's Metro Center across from Court Square, the facility opened in 1972 as the Springfield Civic Center and was at that time considered to be the largest arena in the... |
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| November 8, 1975 | Burlington | Patrick Gym Patrick Gym The Roy L. Patrick Gymnasium is a 3,228 seat multi-purpose arena in Burlington, Vermont. It was built in 1963. It is used mainly as the home arena of the University of Vermont Catamounts. It hosted the 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2010 America East men's basketball tournament championship game, as the... |
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| November 9, 1975 | Durham | Lundholm Gym Lundholm Gym Lundholm Gym is a 3,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Durham, New Hampshire. It is home to the University of New Hampshire Wildcats athletics program, including men's and women's basketball, volleyball and gymnastics.... |
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| November 11, 1975 | Waterbury | Palace Theater | |||
| November 13, 1975 | New Haven | Veterans Memorial Coliseum New Haven Coliseum The New Haven Coliseum was a sports-entertainment arena located in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Construction began in 1968 and was completed in 1972... |
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| November 15, 1975 | Niagara Falls | Convention Center Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center was an indoor multi-purpose venue, in Niagara Falls, New York, with a capacity of 10,000 people.The venue was built as part of an urban renewal project in the city. It actually was built in the center of a main thoroughfare, Falls Street, and blocked... |
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| November 17, 1975 | Rochester | Community War Memorial Blue Cross Arena The Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial is a multi-purpose indoor arena, located in Rochester, New York. Its maximum seating capacity is 13,000... |
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| November 19, 1975 | Worcester | Memorial Auditorium Worcester Memorial Auditorium The Worcester Memorial Auditorium, also known simply as the Worcester Auditorium, is a multi-purpose arena and auditorium in Worcester, Massachusetts. Built in 1933, as a World War I War memorial in the form of a multi-purpose hall, the Auditorium has a , and is located in Lincoln Square... |
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| November 20, 1975 | Cambridge | Harvard Square Theater | |||
| November 21, 1975 | Boston | Boston Music Hall Orpheum Theatre (Boston, Massachusetts) The Orpheum Theatre is a music venue located at 1 Hamilton Place in Boston, Massachusetts. One of the oldest theaters in the United States, it was built in 1852 and was originally known as the Boston Music Hall, the original home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The concert hall was converted for... |
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| November 22, 1975 | Waltham | Brandeis University Brandeis University Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it... |
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| November 24, 1975 | Hartford | Hartford Civic Center | |||
| November 26, 1975 | Augusta | Augusta Civic Center | |||
| November 27, 1975 | Bangor | Municipal Auditorium | |||
| November 29, 1975 | Quebec City | Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
Colisee de Quebec Colisée Pepsi Colisée Pepsi , formerly the Colisée de Québec , is a multi-purpose arena in Quebec City, Quebec.It was the home of the WHA and NHL Quebec Nordiques from 1972–1995, and is currently the home of the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League... |
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| December 1, 1975 | Toronto | Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leaf Gardens is an indoor arena that was converted into a Loblawssupermarket and Ryerson University athletic centre in Toronto, on the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto's Garden District.One of the temples of hockey, it was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the... |
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| December 2, 1975 | |||||
| December 4, 1975 | Montreal | Montreal Forum Montreal Forum The Montreal Forum was an indoor arena located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Called "the most storied building in hockey history" by Sporting News, it was home of the National Hockey League's Montreal Maroons from 1924 to 1938 and the Montreal Canadiens from 1926 to 1996... |
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| December 7, 1975 | Clinton | United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
E.M.C.F.W Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women is a prison facility for women of the state of New Jersey Department of Corrections, located in Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, near Clinton. Its official abbreviation is EMCFW. The facility was named for Edna Mahan Edna Mahan Correctional... |
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| December 8, 1975 | New York City | Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the... |
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| 1976 Shows | |||||
| January 25, 1976 | Houston | United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Houston Astrodome Reliant Astrodome Reliant Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, USA. The stadium is part of the Reliant Park complex... |
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| April 18, 1976 | Lakeland | Lakeland Civic Center Lakeland Center The Lakeland Center is an 8,178-seat multi-purpose arena, in Lakeland, Florida. It opened in November 1974, as the Lakeland Civic Center, it gained its current name in June 1994.... |
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| April 20, 1976 | St. Petersburg | Bayfront Arena Bayfront Arena The Bayfront Center was an indoor arena in St. Petersburg, Florida that hosted many concerts, sports, and other events, holding up to 7,500 people. It was built in 1965 and demolished in 2004.... |
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| April 21, 1976 | Tampa | Curtis Hixon Hall Curtis Hixon Hall Curtis Hixon Hall, located at 600 Ashley Drive, was an indoor sports arena, convention center, concert venue, and special events center built downtown beside the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida... |
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| April 22, 1976 | Bellair | Starlight Ballroom | |||
| April 23, 1976 | Orlando | Orlando Sports Stadium Orlando Sports Stadium Orlando Sports Stadium was an indoor arena, located in Orlando, Florida. The venue was opened in 1967 and was later re-named after professional wrestler and promoter Eddie Graham.... |
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| April 25, 1976 | Gainesville | University Of Florida Field Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field is the football stadium for the University of Florida and the home field of the university's Florida Gators football team. It is located on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus. The stadium was originally built in 1930, and has been regularly... |
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| April 27, 1976 | Tallahassee | Tully Gymnasium Tully Gymnasium The Bobby Tully Gymnasium is a 2,500 seat multi-purpose arena, in Tallahassee, Florida, that opened in 1956. It is the home of the Florida State University Seminoles volleyball team. Prior to the Donald L. Tucker Center opening in 1981, it was home to the men's basketball team as well... |
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| April 28, 1976 | Pensacola | UWF Field House | |||
| April 29, 1976 | Mobile | Exop Hall | |||
| May 1, 1976 | Hattiesburg | Reed Green Coliseum Reed Green Coliseum Reed Green Coliseum is an 8,095-seat multi-purpose arena, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States. It opened on December 6, 1965 and is home to The University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles basketball team. Prior to the Coliseum, USM's teams played at the USM Sports Arena, a 3,200 seat... |
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| May 3, 1976 | New Orleans | The Warehouse The Warehouse (New Orleans) The Warehouse, located at 1820 Tchoupitoulas Street, was the main venue for rock music, in New Orleans, in the 1970s. It opened on January 30, 1970, with Fleetwood Mac, followed the next night by The Grateful Dead. The Allman Brothers Band were regulars.... |
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External links
- Bjorner's Still on the Road tour dates and set lists, 1975 leg
- Bjorner's Still on the Road tour dates and set lists, 1976 leg