For me there was something absolutely magical about the year of 1976. I was fourteen and was totally enchanted by listening to a friends version of “Desire”. It changed my life. It had more to do with the sound of it all, the music, but most of all the intensity and passion in Dylan’s vocals. Later I was introduced to both “Street Legal” and Dylan live “At Budokan” before I heard and came to love the raw rocking, sometimes even punk “Hard Rain” live album from 1976, recordings from two of the shows in May, the 16th from Fort Worth in Texas, and the the 23d from Fort Collins, Colorado, the last of the two also filmed for the TV special broadcast in September the same year. Many of us has hoped for an official release of this one, maybe with even more tracks than we got, some of them I got to see when visiting the Dylan archives in Tulsa a few years ago. Sadly it is not reported to be a part of this years voluminous release, “The 1976 Live Recordings”. Maybe someday! But we do get a phenomenal collection of 39 (!!!) cd’s, covering most of the tour, of the second part of “The Rolling Thunder Revue”. No, I haven’t heard this release, but I’m excited to dive into it, “all the profesionally recorded shows from this tour”, the May 16th show from Fort Worth will even be released in an 3-LP version. Yippee! This post is really just me preparing for a listening experience I hoped for in years.

The first part of the Rolling Thunder Revue might be the all time favorite Dylan tour for many of his listeners, and it makes sense. It’s fabulous, also in my opinion, both as we could see it documented in Dylan’s movie “Renaldo and Clara” from 1978, with so many epic live performances, as well as documented in Martin Scorsese’s film “Rolling Thunder Revue – A Bob Dylan Story” from 2019. Both Bootleg Series, Volume 5: Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue, released in 2002, and the 14-cd box set from 2019: Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, all formats explains the special position this tour has both for Dylan and his audience and listeners. 1976 was something else, something completely different, even with some of the same songs, even with mostly the same musicians, but with, again, another side of Bob Dylan, for some provocative, for some punk as in a negative way, for some punk as in a positive way, sometimes in-your-face aggressive, almost brutal in some versions, sometimes angry, sometimes bitter, but then again, sometimes tender, sometimes sad, sometimes heartbroken – even from “just” “Hard Rain”, we had it all, including some of Dylan’s finest performances of some of his most complex songs, as f.i. “Idiot Wind”. Just fabulous!

This is the third tour in three years, all with their own distinct feeling, colour and flavor, both visually and musically – Dylan always in a state of becoming, then as now. And now it is true, once again, we don’t have to choose. We can soon cherrypick our favorites songs and performances from 1976 as much as we like. From the heartbreaking “Visions of Johanna” and “If you see her, say hello” in Lakeland in April to the mentioned song from Fort Collins, the last of the recorded shows, leaving out the one not properly recorded show in Salt Lake City, as reported with the only performed version of “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts”. The recording equipment was sent home after Fort Collins. I guess Dylan knew that…

We don’t really know what we are waiting for, but we know something. Such as the following:

The songs included in the box-set – alphabetically – and number of versions.

Song	Number of versions
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall	2
Blowin’ in the Wind	25
Dink’s Song	1
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)	5
Going, Going, Gone	13
Gotta Travel On	24
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine	1
I Pity the Poor Immigrant	22
I Threw It All Away	12
I Want You	5
If You See Her, Say Hello	2
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight	11
Idiot Wind	21
Isis	21
It Ain’t Me, Babe	4
It Take a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry	2
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue	1
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)	4
Just Like a Woman	3
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues	1
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door	20
Lay, Lady, Lay	22
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat	1
Like a Rolling Stone	1
Maggie’s Farm	26
Mozambique	18
Mr. Tambourine Man	23
Oh, Sister	10
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)	2
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)	2
One Too Many Mornings	14
Railroad Boy	22
Romance in Durango	3
Seven Days	4
Shelter from the Storm	21
Simple Twist of Fate	5
Spanish Is the Loving Tongue	1
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again	12
Tangled Up in Blue	2
The Times They Are A-Changin’	1
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You	2
Vincent van Gogh	24
Visions of Johanna	1
Weary Blues from Waitin’	1
When I Paint My Masterpiece	1
Wild Mountain Thyme	6
Will the Circle Be Unbroken	1
You’re a Big Girl Now	9
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go	16

The songs included in the box set – from most to least played

It obviously will be interesting to study some of the one-offs here, compared to other live versions. We already know about unique versions of “Visions of Johanna”, “If Your See Her, Say Hello” and “Spanish Is The Loving Tongue” (actually the only version mentioned at bobdylan.com – the incomplete Chile Benefit versjon understandably omitted. Will some of the songs change in arrangement during the tour – as we know they sometimes might? Or at least from the first to the second part of Rolling Thunder?

Song	Dylan’s first studio recording of the song	Number of live versions 1976
Maggie’s Farm	1965	26
Blowin’ in the Wind	1963	25
Gotta Travel On	—	24
Vincent van Gogh	—	24
Mr. Tambourine Man	1965	23
I Pity the Poor Immigrant	1967	22
Lay, Lady, Lay	1969	22
Railroad Boy	—	22
Idiot Wind	1975	21
Isis	1976	21
Shelter from the Storm	1975	21
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door	1973	20
Mozambique	1975	18
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go	1975	16
One Too Many Mornings	1964	14
Going, Going, Gone	1973	13
I Threw It All Away	1969	12
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again	1966	12
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight	1967	11
Oh, Sister	1976	10
You’re a Big Girl Now	1975	9
Wild Mountain Thyme	—	6
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)	—	5
I Want You	1966	5
Simple Twist of Fate	1975	5
It Ain’t Me, Babe	1964	4
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)	1965	4
Seven Days	1991	4
Just Like a Woman	1966	3
Romance in Durango	1976	3
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall	1963	2
If You See Her, Say Hello	1975	2
It Take a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry	1965	2
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)	1976	2
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)	1966	2
Tangled Up in Blue	1975	2
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You	1969	2
Dink’s Song	1961	1
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine	1967	1
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue	1965	1
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues	1965	1
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat	1966	1
Like a Rolling Stone	1965	1
Spanish Is the Loving Tongue	1971	1
The Times They Are A-Changin’	1964	1
Visions of Johanna	1966	1
Weary Blues from Waitin’	—	1
When I Paint My Masterpiece	1971	1
Will the Circle Be Unbroken	—	1

Which albums are represented in Rolling Thunder, part two, 1976?

It is quite interesting to learn that each of the albums from the “electric trilogy” from the mid-sixties are up there with “Desire” when it comes to songs performed.

The debut album, Self Portrait and New Morning are not represented, neither are Basement Tapes.

Dylan studio album	From which studio albums are songs represented
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan	2
The Times They Are A-Changin’	2
Another Side of Bob Dylan	1
Bringing It All Back Home	6
Highway 61 Revisited	6
Blonde on Blonde	6
John Wesley Harding	3
Nashville Skyline	3
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid	1
Planet Waves	1
Blood on the Tracks	7
Desire	6
Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II	3
Not from a Dylan studio album / traditional / cover / archive-only in this context	8

Overview over shows included in the box set

This table is based on the tracklist in the informations from bobdylan.com. “Included” means that the concert or recording is represented on one or more CDs in the 39-CD box set.

Date	Concert/recording	Location	CDs	Status
April 18, 1976	Civic Center	Lakeland, Florida	CD 1	Included, though partly incomplete
April 20, 1976	Bayfront Civic Center Auditorium	St. Petersburg, Florida	CD 2–3	Included
April 21, 1976	Curtis Hixon Hall	Tampa, Florida	CD 4	Included
April 22, 1976	Unaired TV Show / The Midnight Special, Starlight Ballroom, Belleview-Biltmore Hotel	Belleair, Florida	CD 5	Included as a TV recording
April 23, 1976	Sports Stadium	Orlando, Florida	CD 6–7	Included
April 25, 1976	University of Florida Field	Gainesville, Florida	CD 8–9	Included
April 27, 1976	Tully Gymnasium, Florida State University	Tallahassee, Florida	CD 10–11	Included
April 28, 1976	University of West Florida Field House	Pensacola, Florida	CD 12–13	Included

Date	Concert/recording	Location	CDs	Status
April 29, 1976, early	Expo Hall, Municipal Auditorium	Mobile, Alabama	CD 14–15	Included
April 29, 1976, late	Expo Hall, Municipal Auditorium	Mobile, Alabama	CD 16–17	Included
May 1, 1976	Reid Green Coliseum	Hattiesburg, Mississippi	CD 18–19	Included
May 3, 1976, early	The Warehouse	New Orleans, Louisiana	CD 20	Included, but only as a one-CD excerpt in the box
May 4, 1976	Louisiana State University Assembly Center	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	CD 21–22	Included
May 8, 1976	Hofheinz Pavilion	Houston, Texas	CD 23–24	Included
May 10, 1976	Memorial Coliseum	Corpus Christi, Texas	CD 25–26	Included
May 11, 1976	Municipal Auditorium	San Antonio, Texas	CD 27–28	Included

Date	Concert/recording	Location	CDs	Status
May 12, 1976	Municipal Auditorium	Austin, Texas	CD 29–30	Included
May 15, 1976	Gatesville State School for Boys	Gatesville, Texas	CD 31	Included as a shorter recording
May 16, 1976	Tarrant County Convention Center Arena	Fort Worth, Texas	CD 32–33	Included complete; also planned as a separate 3-LP release
May 18, 1976	State Fair Arena	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	CD 34–35	Included
May 19, 1976	Henry Levitt Arena	Wichita, Kansas	CD 36–37	Included
May 23, 1976	Hughes Stadium, Colorado State University	Fort Collins, Colorado	CD 38–39	Included complete; connected to Hard Rain

Concerts Omitted from the Box Set

Compared with the official tour list, most dates are represented in the 39-CD box set. The table below shows only the concert that does not appear as its own represented recording in the box tracklist.

Date	City	Venue	Status in the 39-CD box	Comment
May 25, 1976	Salt Lake City, Utah	Salt Palace	Omitted	The official tour list ends here, but the box tracklist stops with Fort Collins on May 23, represented on CDs 38–39.

Why Salt Lake City is missing: The Salt Lake City concert on May 25, 1976 is missing because it was not professionally recorded. After the television recording and the Fort Collins concert two days earlier, Dylan’s management sent the professional recording equipment home. As a result, there are no tapes that could be included in a box set devoted to the professionally recorded concerts from the 1976 leg. As far as is known, there are also no audience recordings or bootlegs from the Salt Palace show, making it one of the most mythologized absences from the Rolling Thunder Revue period.

The concert is especially notable because Dylan is believed to have performed “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” live that night — the only known concert performance of the song in his career. The absence of any recording has made the Salt Lake City show something of a “holy grail” for Dylan fans. At least one of the holy grails.

Just waitin’ for the songs to shine.

Bob Dylan isn’t for all. He is an acquired taste. Dylan 1976 might not be for all. Still – as it has been for many of the archival releases through the years, some people with listen with new ears, things might change in fifty years. But – the no-nonsense take-no-prisoners provocative attitude might not be for all. But for some of us, maybe for many of us, I’m pretty sure, we’ll find a couple of new golden moments to cherish together with so many in this cornucopia of an treasure chest we know as Bob Dylan. Just wait for it! I’ll stand in line.

Johnny Borgan