Hard Rain (Bob Dylan album)

Last updated
Hard Rain
Bob Dylan - Hard Rain.jpg
Live album by
ReleasedSeptember 13, 1976 (1976-09-13)
RecordedMay 16 and 23, 1976
Genre Rock
Length51:06
Label Columbia
Producer Don DeVito and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan chronology
Desire
(1976)
Hard Rain
(1976)
Masterpieces
(1978)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Christgau's Record Guide B− [2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]

Hard Rain is a live album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 13, 1976, by Columbia Records. The album was recorded during the second leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue.

Contents

The album was partly recorded on May 23, 1976, during a concert at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado; the penultimate show of the tour, the concert was also filmed and broadcast by NBC as a one-hour television special in September. (Hard Rain's release coincided with this broadcast). Four tracks from the album ("I Threw It All Away," "Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again," "Oh, Sister," and "Lay, Lady, Lay") were recorded on May 16, 1976, in Fort Worth, Texas. [5] Neither the album nor the television special was well received.

"Although the band has been playing together longer, the charm has gone out of their exchanges," writes music critic Tim Riley. "Hard Rain...seemed to come at a time when the Rolling Thunder Revue, so joyful and electrifying in its first performances, had just plain run out of steam," wrote Janet Maslin, then a music critic for Rolling Stone . In his mixed review for Hard Rain, Robert Christgau criticized the Rolling Thunder Revue as "folkies whose idea of rock and roll is rock and roll clichés."

A representation of the earlier 1975 portion of the Rolling Thunder Revue was released in 2002 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue . A more comprehensive 14-disc collection entitled Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings was released in 2019 to coincide with the Netflix documentary-film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese .

Despite heavy promotion that placed it on the cover of TV Guide , NBC's television broadcast of the May 23rd concert drew disappointing ratings. The album peaked at No.17 in the U.S. and No.3 in the UK. Hard Rain eventually earned gold certification.

Three of the recordings on Hard Rain ("Lay, Lady, Lay", "Idiot Wind", and "Maggie's Farm") were included on the Masterpieces compilation (1978), and "Shelter from the Storm" was included on the Live 1961–2000 compilation (2000).

Track listing

All tracks are written by Bob Dylan, except where noted

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Maggie's Farm" 5:23
2."One Too Many Mornings" 3:47
3."Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" 6:01
4."Oh, Sister"Dylan, Jacques Levy 5:08
5."Lay Lady Lay" 4:47
Total length:25:06
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Shelter from the Storm"5:29
2."You're a Big Girl Now"7:01
3."I Threw It All Away"3:18
4."Idiot Wind"10:21
Total length:26:09

Personnel

Additional musicians

Technical

Certifications

Certifications for "Hard Rain"
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [7] Gold50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI) [8] Gold100,000^
United States (RIAA) [9] Gold500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

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References

  1. Thomas, Stephen (1976-09-10). "Allmusic review". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  2. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: D". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved February 24, 2019 via robertchristgau.com.
  3. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0195313734.
  4. Rolling Stone review Archived October 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Bjorner, Olof. "Soon To Be Divorced, Bob Dylan 1976, page 19" (PDF). Bjorner.com. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  6. "Bob Dylan's 1976 TV concert special Hard Rain surfaces online". 22 October 2013.
  7. "Canadian album certifications – Bob Dylan – Hard Rain". Music Canada . Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  8. "British album certifications – Bob Dylan – Hard Rain". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  9. "American album certifications – Bob Dylan – Hard Rain". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved September 19, 2022.