Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder

“Per aver creato nuove espressioni poetiche nella grande tradizione della canzone americana”. Con questa motivazione, il 13 ottobre 2016, l’Accademia svedese ha assegnato a Bob Dylan il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura, l’ultimo e forse il più importante dei tanti riconoscimenti a lui tributati. Figura tra le più importanti del panorama musicale planetario, Bob Dylan - come disse Allen Ginsberg - ha portato “la poesia nei jukebox”, raccontando l’America, proseguendone la tradizione musicale e diventandone lui stesso parte integrante..

In the fall of 1975, Bob Dylan embarked on his "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour. It began modestly in New England, with Dylan, Joan Baez, Bob Neuwirth, Rambin' Jack Elliot and their bands hitting small halls in the northeast with only a day or two notice given to the public. Along the way it gathered outstanding critical acclaim and picked up the likes of Joni Mitchell and Roger McGuinn to fill out the bill. By the time it reached Toronto for shows on December 1st and 2nd ’75, the revue had gathered tremendous momentum and now was filling large arenas on a nightly basis. In Toronto they were booked into Maple Leaf Gardens. The shows were running between 4 and 5 hours and despite the impressive roster of performers, this was Bob Dylan's show and his 3 sets were the bedrock of the program.

Hard Rain , Dylan’s 19th album and his second live one, once seemed a generally poor selection from two concerts that were far from his best. After Dylan and the 1967 Greatest Hits collection, this seemed, at the time, Dylan’s least essential album. Hindsight shows that this album introduces the ragged, postmodern Bob Dylan, right from the grungy instrumental ground-pawing ahead of the start of the first number. It represents, too, the late phase of the historic Rolling Thunder Revue tour and captures the distinctive, bare-wired sound of Dylan’s existential gypsy band.

It may be his first live album in six years, but Real Live still is his fourth live album in ten years, and, as such, it still feels a little redundant. Nevertheless, it doesn't feel anywhere nearly as unnecessary as At Budokan and if it doesn't capture a historically significant tour, as Hard Rain did with the Rolling Thunder Revue, this is a better record all the same, capturing a working band – a working band featuring ex-Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, no less – on a pretty good night.

It's a rarity for Crystal Cat to release a Dylan show from the USA, but here we have one. There are a few commercial Labels that have released this show that closes out the 2nd annual Rothbury Festival. All have their good and bad points. This one presents a great audio and incredible bonus tracks. It is a soundboard tape that has been remastered by CC. Of course it also includes CC's flair for packaging.

Arriving after the twin peaks of Blood on the Tracks and Desire, Street Legal seemed like a disappointment upon its 1978 release, and it still seems a little subpar years after its release. Perhaps that's because Bob Dylan was uncertain himself, not just writing a set of songs with no connecting themes, but replacing the sprawl of the Rolling Thunder Revue with a slick, professional big band, featuring a horn section and several backing vocalists. The interesting thing about this is that the music and slick production don't jibe with the songs, which are as dense as anything Dylan had written since before his motorcycle accident.

Rolling Stone Magazine released a list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in November 2004. It represents an eclectic mix of music spanning the past 50 years, and contains a wide variety of artists sharing the spotlight. The Rolling Stone 500 was compiled by 172 voters comprised of rock artists and well-known rock music experts, who submitted ranked lists of their favorite 50 Rock & Roll/Pop music songs. The songs were then tallied to create the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.