Bob Dylan lines up 39-disc Rolling Thunder Revue 1976 box set
Bob Dylan will release 381 live tracks from 1976 in a 39-disc box set on 6 November.
The collection is titled Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings. It documents the second, spring 1976 leg of his Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings announced the set, which holds 371 previously unreleased tracks among its 381 total Bob Dylan's official site. It brings together every professionally recorded show from that leg, as reported by Pitchfork.
That is a large cast to fit on one stage. Guests on the tour included Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson and writer Allen Ginsberg. The bands behind them included Rob Stoner, Scarlet Rivera, Howie Wyeth, Mick Ronson and T Bone Burnett.
One night gets its own release. The 16 May show in Fort Worth will also be sold separately on the same day as a 3xLP, a triple-vinyl package. A live recording of "Going, Going, Gone" from Fort Worth is streaming on Dylan's official site, where preorders for the box are listed.
The 39-CD deluxe set comes with a booklet carrying liner notes, short essays that give context for a release, by Mikal Gilmore. The package also includes rare photographs. The announcement names 6 November as the date for both the box and the Fort Worth vinyl.
The new set follows a similar project for the tour's first leg. The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings arrived in 2019 as a 14-disc box with five complete shows. That edition included a 52-page booklet with never-before-seen photographs. That release was timed to sit alongside a Martin Scorsese documentary about the tour, as reported at the time by Rolling Stone.
The live tapes have a clear chain. David Hendel was the front-of-house mixer, the engineer balancing the sound for the audience, for the second half of the Revue. A recording of the 1976 Austin concert comes from his personal collection, as described in a 2024 account of that show Rolling Stone.
For listeners, this means a night-by-night view. With full shows kept intact rather than cut to highlights, small changes in setlist, line-up and delivery can be followed across the spring run.
