Rolling Thunder Revue - The Fall Tour of 1975

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 Canada. 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 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".)

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 Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land,' featuring everyone on stage from Allen Ginsberg to Bob's mother Beattie one night. The spirit was so amazingly warm that when Joni Mitchell 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 Garden where, with the help of Muhammed Ali, Roberta Flack and 14,000 screaming partisans, Dylan performed a benefit concert for imprisoned boxer and Dylan's latest cause, Rubin Carter. 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 technique of turning the backstage story into a plot with the journalist as beleaguered hero," according to music critic 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... 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— 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."