Bob Dylan – The Complete Recordings 1976 Review

Hardly a complete recording, as that would run on for days, but a fifteen-track compilation of what bootleggers believe is, indeed, a complete experience. The Complete Recordings 1976 pulls from one of the better Bob Dylan tours pre-Rough and Rowdy Ways. A sweeping statement, but undeniable given the quality to come from Dylan and his time on the Rolling Thunder Revue. He may have told Martin Scorsese he remembered very little of the occasion and saw nothing special about it, but Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and Hard Rain speak for themselves. So too does The Complete Recordings 1976, an instrumental experience worth hearing. These are the sounds of Dylan preparing himself for the stage. What you can gauge from the instrumentals is just how much Dylan and the new musicians backing him on stage were willing to change the foundations of these all-time great songs.  

Some of them, at the time contemporary tracks like One More Cup of Coffee and Isis, provide the framework for how the classics would be reinterpreted. A bass-heavy lead on One More Cup of Coffee is a thrill of a listen, these tracks providing Dylan and the band with some much-needed rehearsal time at the start of 1976. Much-needed in the sense of giving new life to songs which had only just released, rather than in a sense of rusty performance. It was far from it from Dylan on stage around this time. You can hear his vocals occasionally across these rehearsals, which seem to be more of a guide than a full-blown performance. The Complete Recordings 1976 will be of real interest to those who wanted to hear more from the Rolling Thunder Revue, an all-time great performance. Crucial to that listening experience is knowing what you’re in for.  

Dylan and the band were already sounding solid at this point, had already incorporated Desire tracks into the setlist, but went a little further with what they could do for the older tracks. You can hear it in classics like Just Like a Woman and deep cuts of the time with When I Paint My Masterpiece. Compare these instrumentals to that of the Hard Rain show and you can find a solid overlap which showcases just how well Dylan adapted to the rock and roll of the 1970s. He did so by taking note from artists he would collaborate with in the 1980s, people like Tom Petty, for instance. Maggie’s Farm and One Too Many Mornings would make for great features on Hard Rain and much of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. There’s some phenomenal bootlegs out there of this era of shows.  

What a decade it was for Dylan on stage, too. He would start slow and then the likes of The Complete Recordings 1976 would remind listeners, both of the time and now, just how innovative Dylan is. Hurricane and Lay Lady Lay are excellent, latter stage listens for this compilation which are just as groovy with Dylan’s lead vocals as they are without. That’s what this compilation effort will highlight for those just digging into the deeper cuts of this tour. There are plenty out there with the know-how to find them, or a knowledge of how the YouTube search bar functions. Incredible renditions were built off the back of these instrumentals. Listening to these is a real treat, the skill on display is obvious, but the nuance added to these songs is such a brilliant time.