For completists (Hard Rain - Bob Dylan)

Member Name: simoncardwell

Product:	Hard Rain - Bob Dylan
Date:	28/05/09 (5 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Heavy 'Shelter from the Storm'

Disadvantages: Too much clutter

This a live album from the Rolling Thunder Revue Tour of 1975, where Dylan went on the road accompanied by various folk musicians - violinist Scarlett Riviera, folksinger Bob Neuwirth, amongst others. The result, while solid, is a long way short of his best work.

The 2002 Bootleg Series release of Rolling Thunder era performances, is in my opinion, a far superior document of this era. Not to say there is nothing here of worth, my main complaint would be that many of the songs closely associated with the Rolling Thunder Revue, 'Just Like a Woman', 'Sara', are absent here.

The heavy reworking of 'Shelter From the Storm' is probably the best thing here, but too many of the cuts fall flat (Maggie's Farm), making this one for the completists only in my eyes. Maybe in 1976 it was a more necessary purchase, but subsequent releases have rendered this collection almost obsolete.

Summary: Inferior to the 2002 release