Bob Dylan - Satisfied Man (1976) (mp3, 128kbps)

Time for a little Bob. His new record is great, so you should just go out and get that right now. Indeed, he seems a bit more 'satisfied' now than he was 33 tears ago when this concert was performed. Some people love the 'Rolling Thunder Review' and some people, not so much. There's some horrendous Joan Baez sprinkled in here, but that might apeal to some people. Roger McGuinn makes an appearance too.

This tour finds Dylan at the peak of his second great career arc. he had come out of hiding in the early part of the decade, got divorced and recorded his masterpiece 'Blood on the Tracks'. After that came Desire, which is even better. The recording of that record was a serendipitous experience. Dylan was literally pulling people in off the street to record, regardless of experience or musical ability. Somehow it all worked out. The album is stellar.

Which brings us to The Rolling Thunder Review. I think Mr. Dylan was flushed with the success of the record and embarked on an anti-tour. He mixed in some of the old political stuff, surrounded himself with a bunch of old friends (musical and not) and took the whole circus out on the road to play smaller venues with as little notice as possible. The experiment didn't quite work perfectly, as the music is, at times, rough and meandering. The violin never stops, which can get a bit grating, and Dylan insisted on painting his face white for reasons that are still not well-understood.

But with all the craziness, you still have some remarkable music, because that's what tends to happen with Dylan at all stages of his career. Keep in mind that when this faze wrapped up, he became a born again Christian and created some of the best and most controversial music of his career. Live version sof that will be posted in the future.

So, almost as always, we find Dylan in transition. He made his comeback with two phenomenal records and then tried to break some rules with this tour. When that didn't pan out, he set off a bomb with the born-again thing. Ballsy? That's what Bob is all about.

Bob's Boots rates this as an 8-1/2 out of ten, and I thinks that's probably right. It is an old recording and has some typical bootleg anomalies, but it still gives you a glimpse at the kind of tour that will never be repeated by a big-time rock star.

Palace Theater, Waterbury, CT Nov.11, 1975

1. Hard Rain
2. Romance In Durango
3. Isis
4. Blowin' In The Wind
5. Water Is Wide
6. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
7. Never Let Me Go (J.C. Scott)
8. I Shall Be Released
9. Simple Twist Of Fate
10. Oh Sister
11. Hurricane
12. One More Cup Of Coffee
13. Sara
14. Just Like A Woman
15. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
16. This Land Is Your Land (W.Guthrie)

The link is in the comments.