Rolling Thunder Revue

The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour consisting of a traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976; the prevailing theory was that the tour was named after the Native American shaman Rolling Thunder. Others maintained that tour was named after Operation Rolling Thunder, the U.S. aerial bombardment campaign conducted during the Vietnam War. But according to Dylan, there was a simpler explanation "I was just sitting outside my house one day thinking about a name for this tour, when all of a sudden, I looked into the sky and I heard a boom! Then, boom, boom, boom, boom, rolling from west to east. So I figured that should be the name". The January 1976 release of Dylan's album Desire fell between the two legs of the tour.

Among those featured in the Revue were Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Kinky Friedman and Bob Neuwirth. Neuwirth assembled the backing musicians, including T-Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, David Mansfield, and Steven Soles, and, from the Desire sessions, the violinist Scarlet Rivera, the bassist Rob Stoner, and the drummer Howie Wyeth.

The tour was thoroughly documented through film, sound recording, and in print.

Read more about Rolling Thunder Revue:  Origins, The Fall Tour of 1975, The Spring Tour of 1976, Aftermath, Tour Dates

Famous quotes containing the words rolling and/or thunder:

    But dread
    was in her, a bloodbeat, it was against the rolling dark
    oncoming river she raised bulwarks....
    Denise Levertov (b. 1923)

    Lies save trouble now, but may return in thunder and lightning.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)