Bob Dylan - Hard Rain (1976) [Japanese TV Version]

With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, it is easy to see that Bob Dylan's decision to mount a second version of The Rolling Thunder Review in 1976 was a miscalculation. The 1976 tour was everything that the original was not, and suffered as a consequence - large venues in areas where Dylan was not as popular as he probably thought he was, along with bad weather and poor ticket sales resulted in a poor reception to the tour. Some dates had to be switched to smaller venues, some were merged with others to take up the slack, and a few were cancelled altogether. Dylan's personal life was in tatters, and these problems in his professional one could not have helped his ego or his already fractious mood.

The tour kicked off at the Civic Centre in Lakeland, Florida and the press reviews were less than enthusiastic, a fact that Bob Neuwirth picked up on two nights later in St. Petersburg, where he referred to one offender as a "…newspaper for the deaf, dumb and blind." Things had improved immeasurably by the time Dylan and his band returned to Clearwater on the 22nd for the third gig, where the afternoon and evening performances were being filmed for an NBC television special. However, Dylan had a falling out with film-maker Bert Sugarman, and decided not to use the footage that had already been shot. This left him with a problem as there was a contract in place, so in order to hold up his end, Dylan agreed to film a later concert at his own expense.

After appearances in Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kansas, Dylan had decided to use the penultimate gig (Fort Collins, Colorado) for the long awaited TV special that was to replace the aborted Clearwater disaster. Again, luck did not favour him and his by now, frustrated troupe of musicians, the heavens opened and it remained that way for four days. Eventually, with time running out and money being wasted, it was decided to perform the concert in the rain. "It was awful" says bassist Rob Stoner recalling the dreadful weather conditions, "…everybody is playing and singing for their lives, and that is the spirit that you hear on that record".

As often happens when determination battles against adversity, determination won. At the one concert that really mattered, Dylan and Guam (as the band was now named) gave a triumphant and extremely well received performance. Dylan prowled the stage like a caged lion, snarling into the microphone and glaring at his audience with what Joan Baez called his "…viper eyes." "Hard Rain" (the film) was broadcast on NBC on September 10th 1976, to a generally poor response. Among the words used to describe it were "…artless," "…an anti-special," and "…a mess." This is a pity, because viewed almost thirty years later, this is a truly compelling piece of film - it may be ragged in places, but there is more passion and intensity than you will witness in any slick, polished, ultimately false musical extravaganza in today's famous for fifteen minutes world.



Musicians

Bob Dylan - vocals, Guitar
Mick Ronson - Guitar
T-Bone Burnett - Guitar, Piano
Steven Soles - Guitar, Background Vocals
David Mansfield - Guitar
Rob Stoner - Bass, Background Vocals
Howard Wyeth - drums, Piano
Gary Burke - Drums
Scarlet Rivera - strings





Hard Rain - Japanese TV version, Fort Collins, May 23, 1976

- A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
- Blowin' in the Wind
- Deportee
- I Pity the Poor Immigrant
- Shelter From the Storm
- Maggie's Farm
- One Too Many Mornings
- Mozambique
- Idiot Wind
- Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Edited)


The Japanese TV version of Hard Rain has better picture quality than the US TV version although it's missing one song (Railroad Boy) and has Japanese titles throughout the song.

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