The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5: Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue

It's intriguing to discover that much of Bob Dylan's best music was released long after the fact. The Bootleg Series has been an extensive but never-complete dusting of Dylan's shelves of outtakes and live performances. This release features live recordings from the first jaunt of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, when all the musicians involved were fresh and excited and playing with electricity in their veins. The cast is mind-boggling: Joan Baez, T-Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, Roger McGuinn, Bob Neuwirth, Scarlet Rivera, Mick Ronson, Rob Stoner, and Howie Wyeth. Dylan re-creates his entire catalog, so certain folk songs rock with new tempos while others dance acoustically to different flows. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" are set up for a jamboree, while "Mr. Tambourine Man" remains naked, with Dylan chewing the lines up with revelatory phrasings. He challenges Baez to harmonize with him. "Tangled Up in Blue" gets a few lyrical switcheroos. "Sara," "Isis," and "Hurricane" soar as instant classics, performed here before their official release on Desire.