Bob Dylan learning to lead a band

The Never Ending Tour (NET) has been a tour of moments.

The Never Ending Tour (NET) has been a tour of moments.  Even though I’ve written probably close to 100 reviews of NET shows, for me a good part of the NET was Bob Dylan learning how to lead a band for the first time.

When he went on tour in ‘64 and ‘65 backed by Levon and The Hawks, they were musicians who pretty much knew how to do it with the songs that they did, it didn’t work out that way first in the studio and then when he finally returned to the road in ’74 they were with him again and they pretty much did the same thing, the same approach.

The next band he had after that was kind of the opposite, the Rolling Thunder band, which was this rag-tag ensemble of musicians from all over. But they somehow made it work.