Bob Dylan Live 1975

Dylan as Lou Reed’s R’n’R Animal.

Dylan’s Roller Thunder Revue was a great experiment with Dylan gathering a fine assortment of musicians and creating what was basically his version of the then-current glam rock phenomenon. Check out the make up that Dylan and at least some of the band is wearing on the DVD that comes with this. He even has Mick Ronson (a glitter-rock guitar hero at the height of his fame) playing guitar for him!

Lou Reed’s RNRA album (recorded 1973, released in ’74) was a collection of glam/heavy metal versions of his VU songs, which some critics took as sacrilegious. His take – “what if this is the way I always wanted them to sound?!” He took chances and wasn’t (and isn’t) afraid of change.

This is the way I view this phase of Dylan’s career. He was obvious undergoing one of his many transformations and he was radically changing his songs from their original context.

Not that he hadn’t done that before – just going electric was sacrilegious to his original fans! But this took the songs to a completely different level.

He does still do some relatively traditional acoustic versions of some of his material and includes old friends such as Joan Baez on a few tunes, which serve as a touchstone to his previous incarnations. But some of these performances bulldoze over the old songs almost to the point of being unrecognizable.

Opening (appropriately) with a great version of “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”, he then moves into an almost reggae version of “It Ain’t Me Babe”, which gives the audience a taste of the variety they will hear in this concert.

It takes a minute to realize that he is singing “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” due to the hard-rock arrangement, but it’s a rollicking good time!

Throughout the concert, he throws in some songs from the then-new Desire album. I’m not much of a fan of “Romance in Durango”, but “Isis” is particularly strong and passionate.

His lengthy acoustic segment starts with his classic “Mr. Tamborine Man” and includes “Blowin’ In The Wind” with Joan which goes into a re-worked, upbeat, and practically bluegrass take of “Mama, You Been On My Mind”, both with nice harmony work.

Several more great tunes fill out this set including “Tangled Up in Blue” and another duet with Baez on the traditional “The Water Is Wide”.

Back to electric with a very hi-energy, 70’s-rock-styled “It Takes a Lot to Laugh”. From here Dylan goes into a mini-set of songs from Desire – “Oh Sister”, “Hurricane”, “One More Cup of Coffee” and “Sara”. Powerful stuff, especially “Hurricane”, which deservedly rec’d quite a bit of airplay when the studio album was released.

The album closes with an electric, slightly eclectic “Just Like a Woman” and a finale of his anthemic “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”.

This is a super collection of an under-represented period for Dylan. I love the 1966 set, but this is great for showing off how versatile this man really is.