Bob Dylan will open another chapter of his archives with The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings, a 39-disc collection featuring 381 tracks from the second leg of his landmark tour, including 371 performances that have never been officially released. Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will issue the box set Nov. 6.
The collection covers professionally recorded performances from the 27-date spring 1976 tour, which began April 18 in Lakeland, Florida, and concluded May 25 in Salt Lake City. The recordings feature Dylan alongside an ensemble that included Joan Baez, bassist Rob Stoner, violinist Scarlet Rivera, drummer Howie Wyeth, guitarists Mick Ronson and Steven Soles, David Mansfield and T Bone Burnett. Baez reunited with Dylan for performances including “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Railroad Boy.”
The archival set also captures the broader scope of the 1976 tour, including material connected to the Fort Collins, Colorado, performance that became the basis for the Hard Rain television special and album. The box includes a booklet with liner notes by music journalist Mikal Gilmore and rare photographs. Burnett recalled the tour’s influence, saying, “The Rolling Thunder Revue was the first national punk rock tour.”
A separate three-LP release, The Rolling Thunder Revue: Fort Worth, TX 1976, will arrive the same day. It contains the complete May 16 concert at the Tarrant County Convention Center Arena, newly remixed from the original multitrack tapes. Dylan has previewed the release with “Going, Going, Gone,” a performance from that Fort Worth show.
The 1976 collection follows the 2019 release of The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, which documented the tour’s first leg. The newly announced box set substantially expands the officially available recordings from the following year, offering performances that had remained unreleased for five decades.
Preorder/presave ‘The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings’ – HERE.
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