If it was any other artist, to do what Bob Dylan did between 1975 and 1976 would have been the achievement of a lifetime.

Throughout 1975, Dylan was recording his Desire album. Then he went on tour in the fall of 1975. The Rolling Thunder Revue was like a carnival. Robert Shelton, who wrote Dylan's biography, No Direction Home, commented: "Spontanety dominated the tour, including itinerary changes, improvisation and guest appearances… Joni Mitchell did two New Haven shows and reappeared. Arlo Guthrie came along in Springfield. Old friends David Blue, Gordon Lightfoot and Robbie Robertson popped up. Roberta Flack was at the prison and New York concerts. Joan (Baez) said she'd never seen such a spirit. Even after arduous shows, the cast would sing their way along on the bus."

Joan Baez said: "The feeling is good, because everybody has some room on stage… Bob has so powerful an effect on so many lives…" Apart from Baez, other musicians on the tour included Roger McGuinn, T-Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson and David Mansfield.

In his book, Behind The Shades, Clinton Heylin wrote: "The Rolling Thunder Revue shows remain some of the finest music Dylan ever made with a live band… Gone was the traditionalism of The Band. Instead he found a whole set of textures rarely found in rock. The idea of blending the pedal-steel syncopation of Mansfield, Ronson's glam-rock lead breaks, and (Scarlet) Rivera's electric violin made for something as musically layered as Dylan's lyrics…[Dylan] also displayed a vocal precision rare even for him, snapping and stretching words to cajole nuances of meaning from each and every line."