Reviews

1. August West – November 30, -0001

   Ok, so this isn’t the best album that dylan has made, but 5 stars says i love it, and i do.This is raw and edgy and covers all bases that Bob treads. We have a somewhat country rock feel here, but only somewhat … and i don’t mean the eagles or any of that new pop music they call country. It certainly leans more towards the rock but the instrumentation adds a flavour of country.Tonight i’ll be staying here with you is virtually b@lls out rock (with a small dash of country) and comes over very well.It ain’t me babe felt like i may not like the rearrangement but halfway through i was feeling it. (i still prefer the original, but this has something to offer).hard rain is like a tough country blues and it works, but i prefer the hard rain movie version.lonesome death of hattie carroll works with a loping country rock feel.romance in durango is excellent and shows they had this one ready before they put it down in the studio.isis is a great little ballad with a semi reggae feel (i probably prefer the album version, but desire is one of my equal favourite dylan albums …. for the record – times are a changin’ – bringing it all back home – hwy 61 – blonde on blonde – blood on the tracks – desire – slow train – shot of love – infidels – bootleg 1-3 – bootleg 4 – bootleg 6 …. sorry i can’t separate them, they are all classics and essential in my mind)mr tambourine man is played acoustically and dylan sounds a little husky but it doesn’t detract.simple twist of fate is also acoustic and very goodblowin in the wind is acoustic and pretty straight and sweetened with joan baez doing the harmonymama you’ve been on my mind is an upbeat country, again with baez and works very welli shall be released is very well done and again baez on harmonyit’s all over now baby blue is done pretty straight with a sensitive vocallove minus zero is again done pretty straight with a sensitive vocaltangled up and blue is done pretty straight and very enjoyablethe water is wide the band is back and baez on harmony vocal. this is a very moving version.it takes a lot to laugh is done pretty much in the original style with just a little more grunt and a little less blues.oh sister is very similar to the album versionhurricane is also very similar to the album versionone more cup of coffee is again very similar to the album versionsara is also very similar to the album version and all these desire songs come across very well and impassioned.just like a woman is a little different to the original, but not in any kind of obnoxious wayknockin on heaven’s door is pretty straight with a countyish feel.This is a great album and a little more polished than hard rain, but i do have a soft spot for hard rain and sure hope they expand and fix that up for a home dvd/bluray release

2. Mark – November 30, -0001

   Ok, so this isn’t the best album that dylan has made, but 5 stars says i love it, and i do.This is raw and edgy and covers all bases that Bob treads. We have a somewhat country rock feel here, but only somewhat … and i don’t mean the eagles or any of that new pop music they call country. It certainly leans more towards the rock but the instrumentation adds a flavour of country.Tonight i’ll be staying here with you is virtually b@lls out rock (with a small dash of country) and comes over very well.It ain’t me babe felt like i may not like the rearrangement but halfway through i was feeling it. (i still prefer the original, but this has something to offer).hard rain is like a tough country blues and it works, but i prefer the hard rain movie version.lonesome death of hattie carroll works with a loping country rock feel.romance in durango is excellent and shows they had this one ready before they put it down in the studio.isis is a great little ballad with a semi reggae feel (i probably prefer the album version, but desire is one of my equal favourite dylan albums …. for the record – times are a changin’ – bringing it all back home – hwy 61 – blonde on blonde – blood on the tracks – desire – slow train – shot of love – infidels – bootleg 1-3 – bootleg 4 – bootleg 6 …. sorry i can’t separate them, they are all classics and essential in my mind)mr tambourine man is played acoustically and dylan sounds a little husky but it doesn’t detract.simple twist of fate is also acoustic and very goodblowin in the wind is acoustic and pretty straight and sweetened with joan baez doing the harmonymama you’ve been on my mind is an upbeat country, again with baez and works very welli shall be released is very well done and again baez on harmonyit’s all over now baby blue is done pretty straight with a sensitive vocallove minus zero is again done pretty straight with a sensitive vocaltangled up and blue is done pretty straight and very enjoyablethe water is wide the band is back and baez on harmony vocal. this is a very moving version.it takes a lot to laugh is done pretty much in the original style with just a little more grunt and a little less blues.oh sister is very similar to the album versionhurricane is also very similar to the album versionone more cup of coffee is again very similar to the album versionsara is also very similar to the album version and all these desire songs come across very well and impassioned.just like a woman is a little different to the original, but not in any kind of obnoxious wayknockin on heaven’s door is pretty straight with a countyish feel.This is a great album and a little more polished than hard rain, but i do have a soft spot for hard rain and sure hope they expand and fix that up for a home dvd/bluray release

3. Dano – November 30, -0001

   This is a 4-star edition of the Bootleg Series for “very good.” I would prefer to give it 4.5. Other reviews have made the point that this release omits some worthy songs that were played during the Rolling Thunder Revue. Setting aside the contributions from the other musicians, such as Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Bobby Neuwirth, Roger McGuinn etc…(perhaps Columbia did not want to chase down getting appearance permissions?), there are still a handful of Dylan songs that were played that would have made a nice addition to this compilation (“When I Paint my Masterpiece,” “I Don’t Believe You,” “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine,” “Fourth Time Around”) or other covers (“Never Let Me Go,” “This Land is Your Land,” “Dark as a Dungeon,” “Wild Mountain Thyme”). Given almost 20 minutes of available disc space on each of the discs, the opportunity for Columbia to load up the CDs for the sake of value was there. Besides, those were all tunes very worthily performed during the Revue. Had Columbia added some of these available songs to this compilation, I might give it 6 stars. Oh well. We can’t have it all, I suppose.So, what do we have? The selections on these discs represent well what the typical Dylan portion of a typical night was like during the ‘75 Rolling Thunder Revue. The creativity, energy, enthusiasm, and vitality of Dylan during this tour was outstanding. The sound of the band is exciting, captivating, and at times even breathtaking (“Isis,” and “Hurricane,” for example). The blending of Mick Ronson’s guitar leads, David Mansfield’s peddle steel, and Scarlet Rivera’s violin creates a compellingly woven texture of exotic sounds befitting the nature of the Desire songs. In particular, Rivera’s violin may be the most important to the unique sound that was Rolling Thunder. The gems on this release are the songs from Desire: “Romance in Durango,” “Isis,” “Oh Sister,” One More Cup of Coffee,” “Hurricane,” “Sara.” These songs come alive with passion, vigor, nuance, and expression in a way that the studio recordings just could not achieve.Oh, and Dylan himself was in particularly good voice through it all. Dylan’s solo acoustic performances are “spot on” as are the duets with Joan Baez (and that takes a lot for me to admit. I am not a fan of Joan’s caterwauling vibrato. I would not have missed her had she not been invited on the tour, but she didn’t wreck any of Bob’s songs. I think she behaves herself and adds a nice touch on his songs).We can quibble about whether or not these were the absolute best versions of these songs (Were the “Romance in Durango,” and “Isis” from Biograph perhaps even better?). But, those are minor quibbles. The evidence is clear from this release as well as the circulating tapes that Dylan was at a creative peak during this time. He didn’t “mail in” any of these performances.Add this one to your Dylan collection.