Bob Dylan’s best album
Originally published in the January 2026 issue of WKCR’s On-Air Guide.
In 2025, I listened to every Bob Dylan album, an exercise that gave me a great appreciation for his songwriting and sonic diversity. I came away with my favorite album not being Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, or any of the other studio albums he is famous for—rather, I became enamored with Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue, a record that technically celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. It was recorded from the tour of the same name between his heartwrenching ‘comeback’ album Blood on the Tracks and its follow-up, Desire (my personal favorite studio album from Dylan), and it was released as Volume 5 of the “Bootleg Series” of outtakes and live performances in 2002. While Dylan is known today for mutating his songs into nearly unrecognizable forms to perform live, Rolling Thunder is the only one of his three “Bootleg Series” live albums to feature this change on a large scale. Some tracks are fairly similar, but where it counts—whether it be turning folk songs into rock bangers or something else entirely—the changes to these songs perfectly complement the aesthetics of Blood on the Tracks and Desire and show Dylan at the height of his powers of instrumental arrangement.
Rolling Thunder does not start with any one of Dylan’s big rock hits, but rather a song that, originally, closed out his country record from 1969, Nashville Skyline. “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” is a love song that features a cozy and nocturnal vibe in its original form. However, played live in 1975, it is functionally unrecognizable. Take the opening line, for instance: in the original, Dylan croons “throw my ticket out the window / throw my suitcase out there, too,” but in the live version, he all but belts, “throw my ticket in the wind / throw my mattress out there, too.” It might be the way he sings it, or it might be the less specific lyric change, but he makes the opening line feel more carefree. The lyrics are bolstered more by the instant applause after this opening line—it could be that the audience would cheer no matter what Dylan played, but the cheers to him ‘throwing his ticket in the wind’ are an excellent way to open the live compilation, showing that no song is structurally sacred, and anything is up to interpretation.
“Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” is not the only song in Dylan’s catalog to be reshaped for its live version. Take “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” the sprawling ballad from Freewheelin’ which foretells the coming of intense happenings in the world—it’s transformed into a rock song more reminiscent of the singer’s mid-60s albums, like Highway 61 Revisited or Blonde on Blonde. The more electric sound almost masks the dark and dense lyrical content, helping it become more enjoyable for a live audience. In contrast, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”—a topical ballad from 1963’s The Times They Are A-Changin’—gets a sonic facelift with prominent drums and a playful bassline, but the lyrics feel as central to the recording as the studio version. The track, chronicling the murder of a black barmaid by a wealthy white man, feels just as resonant sixty years later as it must have felt twelve years later in 1975. Also included in the opening leg of the first disc, Rolling Thunder’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” is perhaps the most fascinating version of the Dylan classic that the singer-songwriter has ever released. Almost punk-like in its execution, it features stuttering drums and glittering guitars, as well as a totally different melody from the studio version. If one wants to hear versions of classic folk Dylan songs that will knock them off balance and leave them wanting more, they should look no further than Rolling Thunder Revue.
The first disc of the Rolling Thunder Revue live set ends with three stunning duets with Joan Baez, and the two singers breathe life into legendary 60s songs. First up is “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which, instrumentally, is relatively unchanged from the studio version. It is almost odd to hear an additional voice accompany Dylan on this recording, but without Baez’s shimmering vocals in the mix, the listener might think more about how much older he sounds compared to the youthful energy of the Freewheelin’ version. Secondly, “Mama, You Been on My Mind,” a tune not associated with any album but notable in Dylan’s ‘60s catalog, gets a country makeover with a prominent funky bassline. I’m not usually a fan of ‘pronoun-swapping’ in covers of male songs by female artists (and vice-versa), but I quite like the duet version of this song, where Baez and Dylan overlap on the line “As someone who has had you on [his/her] mind”—it reminds us that the song is, in fact, a duet between artists with a complicated relationship. Finally, “I Shall Be Released” (another non-album classic and one of my favorite Dylan compositions) is performed by Dylan and Baez as a breezy folk-rock number. The vocals aren’t the best they’ve ever sounded, and I might prefer the more classic covers of this track by The Band or Nina Simone, but the track’s appearance emphasizes how good this live album is as a ‘greatest hits’ catalog.
The final part of what makes Rolling Thunder Revue my favorite Dylan record has to do with the setlist’s selections from some of the singer’s finest studio albums. 1964’s Bringing It All Back Home is represented by acoustic renditions of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Love Minus Zero,” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” all of which are sung with passion and some melancholy. From Highway 61 Revisited (1965), we get “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.” From 1966’s Blonde on Blonde, we get “Just Like a Woman,” which humorously starts with a clip of an audience member requesting the song and Dylan replying, “Alright, we’ll try it.” Blood on the Tracks, Dylan’s 1975 release, is underrepresented here (perhaps due to the personal lyrical content), but nonetheless makes a mark with stunning versions of “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Simple Twist of Fate.” On the other hand, plenty of 1976’s Desire—which had yet to be released during this tour—is performed, and it spotlights the musical diversity and lyrical brilliance of the record. Look to violinist Scarlet Rivera’s soothing contribution to many tracks, including “Romance in Durango” and “Sara,” or to the spellbinding instrumentation and vocals of “One More Cup of Coffee.” “Hurricane,” an 8-minute monolith protesting the conviction of boxer Rubin Carter, would go on to become one of Dylan’s biggest hits, and it sounds just as great as ever here, situated alongside the revamped versions of ‘60s protest tracks like “Hattie Carroll” and “Hard Rain,” almost creating a continuity of his topical songwriting.
Whether you’re looking for straightforward performances of Dylan’s classics, magical duets with Joan Baez, or fascinating reimaginations of his older folk songs, Rolling Thunder Revue is sure to please you, and on its technical 50th anniversary, I feel especially compelled to spotlight its genius. Throw your ticket in the wind and give it a listen.
