"Something like a Circus": Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and Performing in America more

The Rolling Thunder Revue represented another shift in Dylan's career, coming on the heels of a tour in 1974 with The Band and the release of the album Blood on the Tracks, and fueling the creation of the film Renaldo and Clara, which paired concert footage with scenes featuring performers on the tour, all written by Dylan, Sam Shepherd and others. The concert tour reflected growing possibilities of theatricality in changing entertainment venues (from small clubs to concert halls and sports complexes), and the opportunities for engagement with the musician/artist this change represented to the consumer/listener/fan. Dylan's concert tour involved a diverse group of musicians at larger venues with sizable seating capacities, and expectations were high for intense performances. Concert audiences met a unique concert show, one Dylan based on the history of various American and European art forms, and one reflective of his career to that point. Considering Sean Wilentz's examination of this tour and Dylan's myth in American popular culture in Bob Dylan in America, this paper examines the development and reception of the Rolling Thunder Revue, and the limited showings of the now out-of-print Renaldo and Clara. The paper assesses the expectations and receptions to the tour's performances in 1975-1976, discussing media approaches in this time period, from announcements for the 1974 tour with The Band through the release of Renaldo and Clara in 1978, all to discern where artistic development, music performance, and recording and filming came into contact with audience expectations.