Bob Dylan – Providence 1975 Review

There are two periods where Bob Dylan is at his very best on stage. After the release of Blood on the Tracks, and before the release of Time Out of Mind. The latter is built on the returning confidence Dylan experienced after the MTV Unplugged performance. The former, though, that is based on the shaky foundations which brought the Rolling Thunder Revue to life.  A three-hour masterclass from Dylan is about par for the course during this period of his career. He had an abundance of hits and an audience in the palm of his hand after a successful return to the stage a year before Providence 1975. His touring collection of musicians, this one featuring Mick Ronson with a rendition of Life on Mars, is tremendous. After performances from Bob Neuwirth and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot is a masterclass from Dylan. His set is split in two by a thunderous Joan Baez performance.  

Diamonds and Rust is still a staggering classic from her, and the bold nature needed to perform a song about Dylan after duetting with him on Never Let Me Go is not lost on Providence 1975. That roaring performance is hardly going to affect Dylan’s own work, but it does add a layer of context to his appearances across the Rolling Thunder Revue. His three songs preceding the Baez inclusion are strong efforts from the veteran performer. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall feels like a route into some long-forgotten style of performing, despite it being just a decade before this Providence 1975 show. It was how quickly Dylan evolved, how rapidly his on-stage persona and performance changed, that made the difference. He would keep his audiences in an ever-spiralling style where they could hardly, if ever, keep up with his innovations. It comes through on the Baez duet, Never Let Me Go, and is a staple of the songs he plays in his set to round out the evening.  

Oh, Sister is an outstanding start to the second set from Dylan. Sparse sounding but still brutal in its delivery, a favourite of the Rolling Thunder Revue before it was released on Desire in 1976. Dylan is not teeing up his audience for the Blood on the Tracks follow-up, he has played more than a few unreleased songs several times across his career. This is a chance to play out a track which had caught Dylan by surprise. That is the beauty of so many of the songs featured here, not least One More Cup of Coffee. It would be predominantly contemporary material from Dylan here, who also fits Hurricane and Sara into the set. Both are excellent and are fairly close to what would feature on Desire, which released just two months after this performance. The only classics featured are earlier in the show, and a rather moving performance of Just Like a Woman. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, too, is a classic, but hadn’t had the time to gestate as that Blonde on Blonde track had.  

Pair those two songs with a cover of the Woody Guthrie classic, This Land is Your Land, and it feels like Dylan is ready for the next stage of his career. He omits most of his classics in favour of contemporary material. Even the pieces from earlier in his discography are heavily overhauled. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is slowed and staggered, the tempo reflecting a gunfighter shot down and wandering towards an end which is neither satisfactory nor undeserved. It’s this moodiness which would prevail through the Rolling Thunder Revue, and it makes all the difference for those returning to these live sets. Providence 1975 is well worth a listen even now. Excellent renditions of some very-best works, not just from Dylan, but Baez and Ronson too.