BOB DYLAN & THE ROLLING THUNDER REVUE : NIGHT OF THE HURRICANE

 

Disc One (78:42)

  1. Good Love Is Hard To Find (Bob Neuwirth)
  2. Introduction (Bob Neuwirth)
  3. Sleazy (Bob Neuwirth)
  4. Hula Hoop (T-Bone Burnett)
  5. Too Good To Be Wasted (Rob Stoner)
  6. Laissez Faire (Steven Soles)
  7. Life On Mars? (Mick Ronson)
  8. Band Introduction (Bob Neuwirth)
  9. Alabama Dark (Bob Neuwirth & Ronee Blackley)
  10. Need A New Sun Rising (Ronee Blackley)
  11. Cindy (When I Get Home) (Bob Neuwirth)
  12. Mercedes Benz (Bob Neuwirth)
  13. Shadows And Light (Joni Mitchell)
  14. Coyote (Joni Mitchell)
  15. Edith And The Kingpin (Joni Mitchell)
  16. Don't Interrupt The Sorrow (Joni Mitchell)
  17. Bill Franklin (Bill Franklin)
  18. Muhammad Ali & Others (Muhammed Ali)
  19. Rubin Carter (Via Phone) (Rubin "Hurricane" Carter)
  20. Mr. Sapir (Judge Eddie Sapir)
  21. John J. Hooker (John J. Hooker)
  22. Many Thanks (Bob Neuwirth)

Disc Two (71:17)

  1. Ramblin' Jack (Bob Neuwirth)
  2. Muleskinner Blues (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
  3. Pretty Boy Floyd (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
  4. Salt Pork, West Virginia (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
  5. I'm A Rich And Ramblin' Boy (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
  6. When I Paint My Masterpiece (with Bob Neuwirth)
  7. It Ain't Me, Babe
  8. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
  9. Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
  10. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
  11. Romance In Durango
  12. Isis
  13. The Times They Are A-Changin' (with Joan Baez)
  14. Dark As A Dungeon (with Joan Baez)
  15. Mama, You Been On My Mind (with Joan Baez)
  16. Never Let Me Go (with Joan Baez)
  17. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine (with Joan Baez)
  18. I Shall Be Released (with Joan Baez)

Disc Three (54:05)

  1. Diamonds And Rust (Joan Baez)
  2. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Joan Baez)
  3. Prison Trilogy (Billy Rose) (Joan Baez)
  4. Joe Hill (Joan Baez)
  5. Long Black Veil (Joan Baez)
  6. Please Come To Boston (Joan Baez)
  7. Introduction (Joan Baez)
  8. 25th Of Last December (Roberta Flack)
  9. Why Don't You Move In With Me? (Roberta Flack)
  10. Eight Miles High (Roger McGuinn)
  11. Chestnut Mare (Roger McGuinn)
  12. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez with Roger McGuinn)

Disc Four (45:21)

  1. Love Minus Zero / No Limit
  2. Simple Twist Of Fate
  3. Oh, Sister
  4. Hurricane
  5. One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)
  6. Sara
  7. Just Like A Woman
  8. Knockin' On Heaven's Door (with Roger McGuinn)
  9. This Land Is Your Land (with The Rolling Thunder Revue)

Label : Original Master Series

Venue : Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA

Recording Date : December 8, 1975

Quality : Soundboard recording (A+) / Last 5 tracks : Audience recording (A+)

Review : The concluding date of Bob Dylan's legendary 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour doubled as a benefit for wrongly imprisoned prizefighter Rubin Carter, the subject of Dylan's famed narrative "Hurricane." An excellent companion to Sony's official release The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5: Live 1975, this unauthorized four-disc set captures the performance in its entirety, complete with superior sound quality and a beautiful package that mirrors Sony's own aesthetics. The fiery, sinuous folk-rock sound that defined the Rolling Thunder dates reaches its apex here. Familiar songs like "It Ain't Me, Babe," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and "Just Like a Woman" radiate new life, galvanized by Dylan's impassioned vocals and his all-star band's crackling energy.

Review (Albums That Should Exist) : In 1975 and 1976, Bob Dylan put on a concert tour called "the Rolling Thunder Revue." It's something he's never done before or since, because instead of putting on regular concerts with himself as the main musician and one or more opening musicians, this was more like a traveling road show. Yes, Dylan was the main star, but he shared the spotlight with other big stars too, as well as lesser knowns. There have been two official releases related to the Rolling Thunder Revue: "The Bootleg Series, Volume 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue," and "The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings." The first one contains selected songs from various concerts, and the second one contains no less than five complete Dylan sets from the tour, as well as rehearsals, and more. Yet all of these releases ignore the other musicians who played with Dylan (except for the duets he did with Joan Baez). I've always wanted to hear a complete show from this tour, with Dylan AND all the other musicians. Here it is, in all three hours and 50 minutes of it! If you want to hear just one full Rolling Thunder Revue concert, this is the one, for several reasons. For starters, this concert had a special purpose, to help free professional boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter from prison. Dylan (and many others) felt Carter was unjustly imprisoned, so he wrote a song about it, "Hurricane," which would be included on his 1976 album "Desire." I don't want to go into the full story, but if you want to know more, I suggest watching the 1999 movie "The Hurricane" starring Denzel Washington. Although the concert was still part of the tour, it was given the special name "Night of the Hurricane." Many famous people attended it, and there was a lot of press about it, helped by the fact that it was held in New York City. Given all that, it's a lucky break that there's a soundboard bootleg of this entire concert with fantastic sound quality. This sounds just as good as any of the officially released material from the tour. Also, it's from a sweet spot in the tour where the musicians had found their groove but hadn't grown bored or fatigued (as would happen with many of the 1976 shows on the tour). Furthermore, many of the musicians here played for all or most of the tour, like Roger McGuinn and Joan Baez. But this concert gets an extra lift with the special guests Joni Mitchell and Roberta Flack. Mitchell did play on some other shows during the tour, but this is as good as it gets in terms of sound quality for her set. And this was the only show with Roberta Flack. Also, Robbie Robertson from the Band played guitar on "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and possibly a couple other Dylan songs. Another special guest was boxing legend Muhammad Ali. During the show's intermission, Ali came out on stage and gave a speech about the point of the show, raising public awareness and pressure to release Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter from prison. During this speech, Ali spoke on the phone to Carter from his prison cell. Some other lesser knowns spoke as well, including some politicians. All in all, this segment took up half an hour. It's fine to listen to it once, but I don't think it stands up to repeat listenings. So I've brutally edited than half an hour down to just five minutes, focusing on Ali's phone call with Carter. A lot of the what is cut out is unnecessary fluff. For instance, Ali got sidetracked and spent a few minutes praising a politician friend of his, who he claimed was going to run for president. (I looked it up, and that person did run for many offices, but never won anything.) Later on in the concert, Dylan, with his great sarcastic wit, makes a reference to this by introducing another musician and commenting that person is NOT running for president. At nearly four hours, this is probably the longest album I've posted on my blog so far.

Note # 1 : The speech of Mr. Spaire is a typo, it should be Mr. Sapire, who's real name was Eddie Sapir, a municipal judge in New York City and former city councilman in New Orleans and is talked about there as a future mayor (he did not object when a reporter called him the second most powerful man in New Orleans, after Mayor Moon Landrieu). Sapir invited the crowd to come to the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans for more Hurricane doings. “We in the deep South are interested in justice,” he said. “We’ll go to New Orleans and continue the job.” Sapir had already met with Hurricane to plan a second benefit. His connection with Carter was purely accidental, he has since said. Besides being a judge, he is a practicing attorney in New Orleans and one of his clients had earlier talked with George Lois about Hurricane’s case. That client was Clyde Carson, 35. Carson and Sapir first met in December 1972, when Carson was a salesman for a sign company in Las Vegas, Ad Art by name.

Note # 2 : The last 5 tracks are audience recordings. The sound problems on the end of disc 2 also occur on all other bootlegs of this concert. Probably something went wrong in the transfer process.