November 26: Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol.5 Live 1975 was released 2002

“I was just sitting outside my house one day thinking about a name for this tour, when all of a sudden, I looked into the sky and I heard a boom! Then, boom, boom, boom, boom, rolling from west to east. So I figured that should be the name.”
– Bob Dylan

This is my favourite of Bob Dylan’s bootleg series, and one of the best live albums ever released.

The Rolling Thunder Revue was a concert tour  Bob Dylan with a traveling caravan of notable musicians, including Joan Baez,Roger McGuinn, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Bob Neuwirth assembled the backing musicians, including T-Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, David Mansfield, Steven Soles, and from the Desire sessions, violinist Scarlet Rivera, bassist Rob Stoner, and drummer Howie Wyeth. The tour included 57 concerts in two legs—the first in the American northeast and Canada in the fall of 1975, and the second in the American south and southwest in the spring of 1976.

Tangled up in Blue:

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October 6: Bob Dylan released Bootleg series vol 8 Tell Tale Signs in 2008

 Altars are burning, the flames far and wide
The foe has crossed over from the other side
They tip their caps from the top of the hill
You can feel them come, more brave blood to spill

– ‘Cross the Green Mountain

The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 is a compilation album the official “bootleg series” of rare and unissued recordings. It was originally released as a double, and (limited edition) triple album. It was later released as a single album, consisting of disc one of the double set. The three-disc version of Tell Tale Signs includes a detailed 56 page book annotating the recordings by Larry Sloman, and a book of photos of “The Collected Single Sleeves of Bob Dylan” drawing on Dylan releases from around the world, plus a 7″ vinyl single with two tracks from the set: “Dreamin’ Of You” and “Ring Them Bells”.

The bootleg series—the commentary to the canon—did finally catch up to the latter phases of his recorded output. Again it was a revelation and a fantastic collection of alternative versions and outtakes. It is a strong confirmation of the sky-high quality of Dylan’s latter-day production.

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