Customer Reviews

Hard Rain

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a few notches away from Dylan's most polished work, and I love it. The album might just as well been titled "For Anyone Who Didn't Hear Me The First Time." Dylan and his band tear through the formerly low - key "Shelter From The Storm," turning this rocky and raw version into something more meaningful, if that's possible. "One Too Many Mornings" is another great example of Dylan's ability to rework his songs to fit his mood, and this treatment works wonderfully well amidst the commotion of this album.

"Memphis Blues Again" and "You're A Big Girl Now" also sound great, though I wish Bob would leave "Maggie's Farm" off the song list every once in a while. It's a classic, but one, maybe the only one, that Dylan did to death over the years in concert.

The explosion here is "Idiot Wind." The studio track dripped blood. This live rant just splatters it all over the place. The beauty of the song is that Dylan's voice and phrasing are just so perfectly annoying that they take this hymn of hate way over the top, right where it should be. When Bob gnarls "I kiss goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me," it makes "It Ain't Me, Babe" sound like "You Light Up My Life."

"Hard Rain" is Dylan at his near - best, at least as far as live recordings go. It's a must - have.

If you sometimes find yourself shouting "Judas" at the radio when Bob Dylan comes on playing something band-backed, this record is probably not your thing.
Me, I love it. It's too short by far, but Dylan and the Rolling Thunder band rock like never before or since. In my opinion, the intense "Hard Rain" is just as great as the fabled "Live 1966" (the so-called Royal Albert Hall concert from the Free Trade Hall in Manchester).

Bob Dylan and his band play some of the hardest, rawest and most ragged rock n' roll music of his entire career - just listen to him tearing through a spiced-up "Maggie's Farm" or doing a melodic folk-rock interpretation of "One Too Many Mornings".
But the highlight of "Hard Rain" has to be the closing ten-minute rendition of the venomous "Idiot Wind". Dylan sneers and shouts his way through a magnificent version of one of his most memorable songs - that one cut alone is worth the price of admission. Powerful stuff!

After seeing the Hard Rain TV special of the Rolling Thunder Revue, I snatched up this album ASAP. At first, it was disappointing that much of the material from the special was not included. But after a few listens, it didn't matter. Hard Rain offers up a loose, inventive and somewhat tortured picture of Dylan. As ever, Dylan reinterprets his songs with uncanny brilliance. The ragged edge of the Revue adds to the effect and the documentary production values suit the performance perfectly. Sure, Bob wails off-key and his voice is ragged, but the emotion he conveys in "One Too Many Mornings" and "You're A Big Girl Now" is riveting. The chiming guitar riffs of Memphis Blues Again, with Dylan howling "can this really be the end?", are spellbinding. The selections from his two then-current releases are equally superb. The heartache and bitterness expressed in "Idiot Wind" in the studio is taken to a higher level, and the quiet restraint of "Shelter from the Storm" gives way to a crackling electric guitar fury. Hard Rain has been subjected to poor reviews generally, though undeservedly. It has a raw, ragged beauty. You can almost feel the rain on your face and hear the slop of the muddy ground. Put it on and soak in the experience.

I wrote this review on Amazon UK 5 yars ago. Since then, the "Bootleg Series " has appeared (inlcuding the incredible "Live 1975"). However, I see no reason to change it. It simply is THE best live Dylan album. "Shelter from the Storm" is just immense.

If I had to choose one Dylan album, this could well be it. With BD, you don't get the "like the album track plus hoots and claps" approach, and with "Hard Rain", even more than other live albums, you get songs that are completely wrenched out of their original setting. For me, it is THE Dylan live album.
More than anything else, this is a hard rock reworking of songs that, for the most part, were originally almost ballads (I nearly said gentle, but that might be pushing it too far): on Hard Rain, they are driven with a ferocious intensity - the album title is particularly apt.

Three tracks give some relief from the pressure (Oh Sister, One Too Many Mornings, and You're A Big Girl Now), and even these are considerably starker than their studio originals.

The versions of Lay Lady Lay and I Threw It All Away - both originally from "Nashville Skyline" - and (especially) Shelter From The Storm are revelations. Are they really the same songs as the "originals", they are just so different? Just listen to the "Blood On The Tracks" and "Hard Rain" versions of Shelter one after the other.

These six songs are to me the best ones on the album. In addition, there are rumbustious versions of Maggie's Farm and Stuck Inside Of Mobile, and the album closes with a venomous version of Idiot Wind, of all tracks on the CD the one most like the studio original (at least the one issued on "Blood On The Tracks").

If you are a Dylan fan who hasn't got Hard Rain, I would recommend getting it. If you aren't a Dylan fan (but think that you might become one) the decsion is not as clear cut: personally I would prefer the delights of knowing the originals and discovering the Hard Rain version than the other way round.

The lone official document of the Rolling Thunder Revue, this may be skimpy on song selection, but what is here is immaculate. Opening up with a powerful version of Maggie's Farm (Dylan's long-time concert staple), it then leads into yet another incredible re-invention of One Too Many Mornings. The set continues with the always fun "Stuck Inside of Mobile..." before going into Oh, Sister, another staple of the Rolling Thunder tour. Lay, Lady, Lay comes up next, which gets a big response from the crowd (it was requested earlier.) I Threw It All Away has a nice rendition here as well. However, the true standouts on this album are the re-workings of three songs from Dylan's masterpiece, Blood On The Tracks. Shelter From The Storm is the first of these, more of a raging version here, and every bit as profound. You're A Big Girl Now is an excellent, excellent re-make... featuring numerous instrumental sections, and some particularly agile guitar playing. Still... the closing version of Idiot Wind is worth the price of the album itself. Long one of my favorite Dylan songs, this powerful song lends itself well to a raging live performance, and Dylan puts it across convincingly here, putting some real grit and emotion into the song. It's almost like a mantra; it's power is undeniable. While I don't reccommend this for your first live Dylan album (Live 1966 and Before The Flood both serve the casual fan better), it is certainly a must-own for fans.

I have a roomful of live dylan, from every year of his career. And yet, I keep coming back to this masterpiece of an official release. He and his band sound like they are on the edge of either death or rebirth. The critics who negatively received this album have really missed the boat. We are talking about one of the best live albums in history. The fact that it is only a fragment of the RTR2 is frustrating but in no way diminishes the power, majesty, and pain of what is here. If you don't have it and you understand the supreme artistry of this man, what's keeping you away??

This is, without question, my favorite (officially released) live-Dylan album. Released in 1976, "Hard Rain" was, for twenty-five years, the only "authorized" glimpse we had of Dylan's famous Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975-76. Columbia fixed this oversight by releasing Live 1975 several years back. As wonderful as that compilation is (and it *is* wonderful), "Hard Rain" is even better.

Whereas the songs on Live 1975 are sung beautifully, the songs on "Hard Rain" seem raw and unpredictable; they have an unparalleled intensity. At times, it's as if Dylan is tearing the songs out of his soul, so powerful is his voice and delivery. It can be emotionally exhausting just listening to these marvelous performances.

I can't find a single flaw in this album. Songs that never do much for me, either live or as originally recorded (songs like "Maggie's Farm" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile...") are downright wonderful here. Songs I've always liked in their original incarnations are given heart-wrenching, heart-stopping new arrangements ("One Too Many Mornings" and "I Threw It All Away"). And some of the remaining tracks are gems ofsheer brilliance. This version of "You're A Big Girl Now" is nothing short of phenomenal. And the album's closer, "Idiot Wind," is one of
the best live performances of Dylan's entire career: bitterness and blood dripping from Dylan's voice, absolute genius maintained for almost ten minutes (minor lyric flub notwithstanding). It's so great, I think it might even surpass the amazing recorded version on "Blood on the Tracks."

All that's missing from this album is a great performances of the album's title-song. What? An album called "Hard Rain" that doesn't feature "Hard Rain"? What's the rationale behind that?

Through the years I have read and heard a lot of mixed feelings about 'Hard Rain'. I think time has brought to light that the ragged feel of these versions by and large does them justice. The killer take on "Shelter From The Storm" is worth the price of the disc alone.

There is a very cool swagger to the way the Rolling Thunder Review approached these songs. "You're A Big Girl Now" benefits in the same way "Shelter" does. The original versions on 'Blood on the Tracks' are nothing short of wonderful but don't have the raw edge these live versions do. I appreciate that Dylan was never one to duplicate what he did in the studio. I love that he takes risks and re-interprets his songs.

Bob Dylan's live albums in general have been a mixed bag. This and 'Live 1966' have become my personal favorites. If you haven't listened to 'Hard Rain' in a while or aren't familiar it's worth the time.

i heard a lot of bad reviews of this record prior to buying it (and before the Internet). But to briefly echo what's already been said about it ... don't hesitate, just buy. It ain't pretty and the sound is occasionally terrible ... esp. considering a label released it, but the performances are almost-always exceptional. Idiot Wind and Shelter are worth the meager price of the disc, but there's a lot of great material on here. Like Zappa's brilliant-but-underrated "Bongo Fury," this is one live album that everyone should own but few do.

I personally feel that this is the best Dylan live album out there. This version of Maggies Farm is so good that it is hard for me to listen to any other version anymore. I love the treatment that One Too Many Mornings receives. The rest of the album continues in the same great fashion, and is properly finished off with a superb version of Idiot Wind. Also, if you can get ahold of the video from the tv performances of these tracks, you should definetely check it out. Dylan looks so driven. Its worth the watch and will help you appreciate these tracks more, after you can put them in context.