One of the best tours Bob Dylan ever carried out and it’s all set to be released as part of The 1976 Live Recordings. Copyright claims and licensing rights mean Bob Dylan’s team need to push out a compilation once a year. It’s much to the benefit of fans now that we’re entering a period of all-time great moments. Martin Scorsese doesn’t make a documentary about anything, but he did take the time to pick through The Rolling Thunder Revue. Boasting 381 tracks, the compilation is set to be an all-time great release from Dylan’s team. Those who have trudged their way through the dozens of high-quality bootleg recordings of this tour will know what to expect. Hard Rain remains one of Dylan’s best releases, and we’re about to receive a mighty surplus of material that, for hardcore Dylan listeners, will be an incredible treat. Going, Going, Gone, live from the Tarrant County Convention Center Arena, is arguably the best version of the song given the context of the performance and the lyrical change Dylan makes to note such an occasion.
It’ll be the talking point of this single more than anything else. Appreciate the instrumental quality spurred on by those days with The Band, but make sure to note that Diamonds and Rust nod, Dylan changing the lyrics here to take a light swipe at Joan Baez’s song of the same name. That song would see Dylan’s character picked apart, and it felt, more than anything, like the start of the end for their relationship, both professionally and personally. We shouldn’t take satisfaction in the romantic hang-ups of others, but what a change it is. An electrifying new meaning to a song Dylan would drop from his set after the conclusion of The Rolling Thunder Revue. Bob Dylan had been performing Going, Going, Gone at a few of his shows before this, and would rely on it frequently in the 1978 leg of his tour, but nothing after that.
There’s clearly a hurt still at play, that Diamonds and Rust mention ties in so nicely with the “head in the dust” line. Given how frequently Dylan was touring, how often he still performs, it feels like a slippery but definite insight into his headspace when on the road. Beyond an urgent lyrical change (something Dylan would make occasionally to songs on The Rolling Thunder Revue tour), it’s just a classy rendition of a great Planet Waves track. Dylan plants himself as a figure without control of the romantic loss, this person lingering in the doorway while he hopes his lover changes her mind. It’s a bit of a literal take on the title but it’s a clear route through the song, which in this live environment sounds spectacular. Those string additions, the heavier instrumental tone brought on by the electric guitar, it’s unlike anything Dylan would ever do on stage again.
Smoky, cool renditions of his greatest hits are what The Rolling Thunder Revue offered. How lucky we are to have a batch of brilliant renditions on their way. There’s an excess of quality to many of Dylan’s tours but, between this and The Live 1974 Recordings which captured Dylan and The Band’s comeback and build-up to The Last Waltz, these are the golden years of Dylan on-stage. He would get far more experimental, gospel-oriented, or even tired of rock in the decade to follow. Perhaps that bolsters The Rolling Thunder Revue a touch more than first thought. But it doesn’t detract from this version of Going, Going, Gone being a must-listen. A staggering piece of live material that, for the initiated Bob Dylan fans who want to sink their teeth into the ins and outs of his relationship with Baez, serves as a mandatory listening experience.
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