1975
The Rolling Thunder Revue
Starting in Plymouth, Massachusetts in October 1975, he led a travelling caravan of musicians including Joan Baez and Roger McGuinn at first through smaller halls in New England and Canada.
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The revue was loose and theatrical. Alongside Baez and McGuinn came Bob Neuwirth, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Mick Ronson, violinist Scarlet Rivera and the poet Allen Ginsberg, with Joni Mitchell joining partway. Dylan often performed in white face paint, and the shows mixed old songs with new ones from Desire, which came out in early 1976. The playwright Sam Shepard traveled along to help with a film, which became Renaldo and Clara, released in 1978. The first leg ended with a benefit for the imprisoned boxer Rubin Carter at Madison Square Garden. A second leg in 1976 produced the album Hard Rain and a television special, and in 2019 Martin Scorsese made a playful documentary about the tour.