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Times were weird.
The President of the United States had been run out of office a year ago, in the face of near-certain impeachment and conviction for high crimes and misdemeanors. Two disturbed women — one a lunatic follower of Charles Manson — tried to shoot his successor.
New York City was on the verge of implosion, compressed under the weight of crime, corruption and economic failure. Homegrown radical groups were planting bombs and shooting it out with police — on live TV in Los Angeles. The country was deeply divided along cultural faultlines ripped wide open by the Vietnam War, which stumbled to its ugly conclusion in the spring. An energy crisis and inflation left the American economic engine was lugging and pinging and maybe running out of gas.
It was 1975, and America was looking and feeling pretty threadbare. Yet, as gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson — who documented much of the “fear and loathing” of those times would have it — “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
In October, the circus came to town, under the direction of gaucho-hatted Bob Dylan in white face paint in The Rolling Thunder Revue. Yeah, the weird had turned pro, alright — and Dylan was never better.
That fall 1975 leg of the Rolling Thunder tour that barnstormed through New England, eastern Canada and New York has gone down in rock legend. It was weird; it was wild; it was wonderful.
The band was incendiary. Dylan sang with Joan Baez for the first time in years. There was Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. There was Alan Ginsburg. The great playwright Sam Shepard was brought along to write a screenplay for a film — but ended up publishing his observations of the circus as The Rolling Thunder Logbook in 1977. Patti Smith hung out with him. Joni Mitchell was brought on for one show and ended up sticking around for three.
Dylan himself engaged with a commitment and an intensity seldom seen before or since. He reinvented early songs. The 1962 vintage “A Hard Rain’s a‑Gonna Fall” comes off as an almost-joyous rocking shuffle. His new material, which would be released on the album Desire in 1976 (featuring the vocal support of the sublime Emmylou Harris), was extraordinary, from the lament for assassinated mobster Joey Gallo in “Joey” to the snarling justice-for-Ruben Carter epic of “Hurricane” to the cinematic Mexican Western “Romance in Durango” (all co-written with lyricist and theater director Jacques Levy).
And the man actually acted like he wanted to be there on the stage.
The Rolling thunder benefit concert at Madison Square Garden for Hurricane Carter, a boxer who was imprisoned for murders he swore he didn’t commit.
As Rolling Stone writer Larry Sloman wrote:
“I’ve been seeing Bob perform since 1966. I’ve never seen him as good as he was during the Rolling Thunder tour, night in, night out. He was just amazing, phenomenal energy, and incredible passion. They tried to go out and do something unique and they succeeded. It was just amazing music every night — the most incredible conviction and spirit.”
NPR served up a sample of some of the songs.
In times no less weird, divided and unstable, we have an opportunity to tap into that conviction and spirit in Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. Described as “part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, ” the film drops on Netflix on June 12. I’m planning to save it up for Father’s Day on June 16 and watch it with my daughter Ceili.
She’s no big Dylan fan, but I think that swirling, slashing December 4, 1975, version of “Isis” is gonna win her over.
Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of May in the drizzlin’ rain
In a time of weird and unsettled weather, Bob Dylan brought the thunder. Ceili’s generation could use a little of that right now.
TJ says
Well Done.…
Add some technology and your intro could apply to today?
You could also find a 68–70 big block Road Runner, Torino or Super Sport Nova on the used car lot for a smoking deal!
I was young, but I remember my parents dinner conversations; working class White guys getting perms and the fashion!
My older brother had himself a good time in those days…
John Cornelius says
Oh, yes…
Matthew says
What do you think about Dylan winning the Nobel prize for literature? It seemed kind of weird to me since he was writing songs and not poems or novels. At sometime he was someone people actually like compared to say George Bernard Shaw or Fitzgerald.
I thought it was odd, but more relevant than Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing at all.
Matthew says
Except for maybe the hard sciences, I find it hard to take the Nobel’s seriously.
TJ says
100%
I never understood Dylan’s timing when singing … the emphasis often seemed to fall in all the wrong places.
But then I learned as a lyricist he was largely influence by jazz poetry. And then I heard jazz poetry read aloud and it all clicked. *That’s* where he gets (or got, back in the day) the pacing and emphasis of his lyrical delivery.
‘Literature’ is still a long stretch but lyrically Dylan is far more influenced by writers than by musicians.
Saddle Tramp says
Excellent writing and forecast for the coming storm!! I will avoid wading into the more controversial thoughts here. Countless books and articles written about Dylan. That says something about both his importance and his ever lasting inscrutability. I was struck down by Dylan in the 60’s when waking down a sidewalk and heard RAINY DAY WOMAN # 12 & 35 from a transistor radio. It penetrated me in a audibly indelible way I can never forget. What I learned from Dylan is that “words” matter. Words really matter. For my money he has yet to receive an undeserved accolade. Perhaps it appeared that he was entered into the Le Mans whereas maybe he was a Top Fueler. His words burn like fire and words are words are words in anyone else’s hands…
Great piece Jim!!!
Glad it resonates.
Saddle Tramp says
RAINY WAY “ WOMAN “ that is.
And should probably have added “They will stone you when you’re walking down the street…” because that line stood out to me as if he was singing it just to me at the time.
Saddle Tramp says
Bonus pack:
Related to traveling shows. Just finished reading in CREATIVE NONFICTION ((True stories, well told) Issue 69 with the theme of INTOXICATION and writers drunk on lust, life, booze and the Holy Spirit. The Last Waylon Party is a story written by Sarah Curtis the daughter of songwriter and musician Sonny Curtis. Sonny ran the road with Waylon Jennings for years. Both the bad road and the good road. A traveling circus she calls it. Sonny and Waylon were born one month apart just outside of Lubbock, Texas. Waylon spent his early years in a dirt-floor shack and Sonny in a dugout underground shelter. She writes beginning with her experience starting with the perspective of a young 7 year old girl. Worth the read…
I HAVE to get my hands on that.
Saddle Tramp says
ISSUE 70 also has some interesting reads as well. The theme of this one is HOME (finding our place in the world). One of the stories is IMMORTAL OGALLALA and is about small town Texas and water. Hart, Texas to be exact. A geography I spent 8 years in. Another good one is VISITS TO THE BORDER starting out with the surveying and demarcation of the U.S. / Mexico border following the Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo. So many stories, so little time. Fortunately they have a way of finding me and not the other way around. Saves on legwork…
TJ says
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tJDqGlv_Qyk
Saddle Tramp says
Darn it again!!
That’s (writers drunk on lust, life, booze, beauty, words and the Holy Spirit). Gotta have beauty and words…
Indeed.