Bob Dylan – Best of The Rolling Thunder Revue (Pt. 2) Review

Further performances from the legendary Rolling Thunder Revue are thankfully easy to track down. If you know where to look, there is a supply of all-time great performances from Bob Dylan barely hidden. Donning white face paint on a tour with Joan Baez he claims not to remember, Dylan is in white hot form for the collection of songs featured on the Best of The Rolling Thunder Revue (Pt. 2). The first instalment is a taste of the brilliance to come from lesser-known performances, be it from the forgotten dates or the deeper cut songs. Either way, this is a sensational package of mid-1970s excess. It is not of the times; it is the times. Dylan, during this period, is a performer and lyricist who would define the times, even if the times were not accepting of his work. He had conquered the stage and studio, but those of the time were not aware.  

Looking back on his career, it is hard not to consider the Rolling Thunder Revue as one of his greatest peaks. Adapting some of his most interesting, heartbreaking songs to the stage meant overhauling their instrumental form. Rocked-out moments, crashing percussion and a drawl which would drag Dylan into a dark spot for his live performances in the years to come. But before that drop-off in quality is perhaps the best of his work. A flash of brilliance in the sluggish-sounding Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You opens the compilation. Where it may be a very different version of the song fans are familiar with, the heartbreaks and overwhelming ordeal at the heart of it makes those somewhat slurred and staggered lyrics sound even more emotive. Such is the live stage and consequences of the time. Few would have predicted Dylan to release Blood on the Tracks, and even fewer would have hoped for Desire as a follow-up.  

Dylan has often struggled with public perception of his work because, by his own admission, he is far ahead of what is about to be released. It means his performances are dragging along the recently released materials, rather than showcasing them. One More Cup of Coffee, Simple Twist of Fate, and Hurricane are a mangled but objectively brilliant trio of at-the-time contemporary performances. The rest of the compilation features some very strong versions of Knocking on Heaven’s Door and Sara. But the standout moment is a cover of the Woody Guthrie song, This Land Is Your Land. Hearing Dylan cover that song should not be a surprise; he has his roots in folk after all, but given the context of the tour, it remains one of the most shocking moments of his career.  

Consider Just Like a Woman and the instrumental groove it finds, similar to the rest of the Rolling Thunder Revue adaptations and then pair it with the fundamentals of This Land is Your Land. What many may see as a contradiction between sound and worldview, as they did with the electric controversy, is the making of their own mind. In reality, Dylan had not lost sight of what he believed in. For him, as evidenced by this exceptional Rolling Thunder Revue compilation, his work and his beliefs were separate. They would often overlap. No great songwriter can avoid that, but the electrified, rocking tone heard here does not, on paper, lend itself to the folk classics. Trust in Dylan to prove listeners wrong, and not for the first time.