Nov. 17, 1975 review: Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue

 

There are concerts and then there are cultural milestones. This is one of the latter. 

Nov. 17, 1975

Dylan Unrolls Thunder,

Paints His Masterpiece 

          They raise the parchment curtain and it’s Shakespeare’s Theater, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the Mariposa Folk Festival all rolled into one. This the rock era’s most magical minstrel show, Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue.

          “Welcome to your living room,” Bobby Neuwirth says in greeting, kicking off a comfortable, down-homey, 3½-hour parade of songs and singers old and new that coalesced around Dylan’s jams this summer with veterans of the Greenwich Village folk scene.

          The not-quite-sold-out afternoon and evening shows in the Niagara Falls Convention Center Saturday run true to advance raves, but with vital differences in mood.

          Afternoon feels like a hootenanny, polite and not quite together. The newly-wakened performers say good morning. They open up to the crowd and glow with a sense of community.

          I hope the film of this tour includes the antics between the two shows, because the evening is crazy. All the males sport eye makeup. Joan Baez does an Edith Bunker imitation. Dylan’s got white triangles painted down his cheeks, like an Indian or a clown.

* * *

COMMON TO both shows is the basic country-rock of the eight-man backup band, laid over with Mike Ronson’s tasty British blues guitar.

          There is also the glamorous fragility of “Nashville” star Ronee Blakley, the tumult for surprise guest Joni Mitchell – looking like a guerilla fighter for love in work shirt and beret – and her two new solo numbers. And there’s Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, an early Brooklyn cowboy model of Dylan.

          Then Dylan himself entering quietly – vest, scarf, Western hat with flowers pinned in it – rendering a raucous duet with Neuwirth on “When I Paint My Masterpiece.”

          His eyes dart, piercing blue, and he rocks from foot to foot on a wild, taunting “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” His quirky, rasping voice is strong and self-assured.

* * *

SECOND HALF opens in darkness on a sparkling Dylan-Baez duet (“Times They Are A-Changin’” in the afternoon, “Blowin’ in the Wind” at night), plus the scorching passion of an old Johnny Ace number, “Never Let Me Go.”

          Baez dedicates a song to the United Farmworkers Union (“Pastures of Plenty” in the afternoon, “Joe Hill” at night). Ex-Byrd Roger McGuinn exudes “Chestnut Mare.” Dylan’s new protest epic for imprisoned boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter gets eerily perfect dynamics from mysterious violinist Scarlett Rivera.

          There’s Dylan’s exquisite tribute to his wife, Sara, followed by “Just Like a Woman.” Everybody’s on stage for the finale, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

* * *

THE ROCK frenzy at night erases the folkie intimacies of the afternoon. There’s no cramped Mitchell-Blakeley piano duet. Baez doesn’t do her arm-on-the-shoulder harmonies with Dylan in “I Shall Be Released.”

          Maximum energy is the rule. Dylan zaps Baez for “Diamonds and Rust” with “Love Minus Zero, No Limit.” Baez has to bull through stompers and whistlers to finish her florid a cappella “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

          But neither show is a mere ‘60s revival. Dylan electrifies the anointed guardian stars of America’s grass-roots musical heritage with the chain lighting of history. Through him, the malaise and drift of the moment suddenly stands still, transfixed and transformed in the face of eternity’s rolling thunder.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Not taken at the Niagara Falls date, but these folks were all there. From left, Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Joni Mitchell had joined the Revue just two nights earlier in New Haven, Conn., invited by Ronee Blakley, who had been a good friend since 1970. None of the setlists mention that she and Joni teamed up for Ronee’s song “Dues,” from the “Nashville” movie.

In her interview with Variety magazine when Martin Scorsese’s film about Rolling Thunder arrived in 2019, Ronee mentions that she also did a couple other songs, “Please” and “Need a New Sun Rising,” though not necessarily in Niagara Falls. She also can be heard singing with Dylan in the 14-CD boxed set of live recordings from the tour. As she notes in the Variety interview, she sang “Just Like a Woman” with him in all the shows.

There’s an audience recording of the second Niagara Falls show on YouTube. Sound is awful, but you can get the idea. Here’s the evening setlist from the recording:

When I Paint My Masterpiece 

It Ain’t Me Babe

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry

Romance in Durango (cut out for copyright)

Isis

Blowin’ in the Wind

I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

Never Let Me Go

Mama, You Been on My Mind

I Shall Be Released

Joe Hill (Baez solo)

Love Song to a Stranger (Baez solo)

Help Me Make It Through the Night (Baez solo)

Chestnut Mare (McGuinn solo)

Love Minus Zero, No Limit

Tangled Up in Blue

Oh, Sister

Hurricane

One More Cup of Coffee

Sara

Just Like a Woman

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

This Land Is Your Land 

Elsewhere on the internet, there’s a partial setlist for the afternoon show that looks like this: 

When I Paint My Masterpiece (with Neuwirth)

It Ain’t Me Babe

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

Romance in Durango

Isis

The Times They Are A-Changin’ (duet with Baez)

? (The Water Is Wide?)

Never Let Me Go (duet with Baez)

I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine (duet with Baez)

I Shall Be Released (duet with Baez)

Simple Twist of Fate

Oh, Sister

Hurricane

One More Cup of Coffee

Sara

Just Like a Woman

Like a Rolling Stone

This Land Is Your Land