The Fat Angel Sings

Bob Dylan: Hard Rain US TV Broadcast Version – Full Video (May 23rd, 1976)

42 years ago today (9/13/76), Bob Dylan released his true to late 70’s form live album Hard Rain. The album was recorded during the second leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue and was partly recorded on May 23rd, 1976, during a concert at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado. The concert was also filmed and later broadcast by NBC as a one-hour television special in September. The Rolling Thunder tour is most distinguishable by the white face paint Dylan wore and that he chose to play a series of small venues with a revolving cast of musicians that included  Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Roger McGuinn. Watch Dylan perform “One More Cup of Coffee” from the Rolling Thunder Revue tour live in ’75.

In pouring rain, Bob Dylan plays the open air Hughes Stadium at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He has elected to film this show to replace the aborted TV special from Clearwater. In the longest set of the tour, there are several highlights, not all appearing in the TV special. … Included in the TV special, although in a most peculiar order, are second encore “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” the entire Dylan/Baez set (“Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Railroad Boy,” “Deportees,” and “I Pity the Poor Immigrant”); three songs from the first set (“Maggie’s Farm,” “One Too Many Mornings,” and “Mozambique”); and three from the last set (two tremendously powerful readings of songs from Blood on the Tracks, “Idiot Wind” and “Shelter from the Storm” and a faded “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”). Despite the storm clouds raging, the crowd appears to be very enthusiastic, even singing “Happy Birthday” for Dylan before the second encore.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
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Hughes Stadium
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado
23 May 1976

• Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal)
• Scarlet Rivera (violin)
• T-bone J. Henry Burnett (guitar & piano)
• Steven Soles (guitar)
• Mick Ronson (guitar)
• Bobby Neuwirth (guitar & vocal)
• Roger McGuinn (guitar & vocal)
• David Mansfield (steel guitar, mandolin, violin & dobro)
• Rob Stoner (bass)
• Howie Wyeth (drums)
• Gary Burke (percussion)
• Joan Baez (shared vocal on 2-5)

1. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
2. Blowin’ In The Wind (Duet with Joan Baez)
3. Railroad Boy (Duet with Jaon Baez)
4. Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) (Duet wit Joan Baez)
5. I Pity The Poor Immigrant (Duet with Joan Baez)
6. Shelter From The Storm
7. Maggie’s Farm
8. One Too Many Mornings
9. Mozambiqu
10. Idiot Wind
11. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Edited)