Leonard and Bob Dylan in 1975
Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 11:48 pm
So I picked up a copy of the new Bob Dylan box set of live concerts recorded during the fall of 1975 on his Rolling Thunder Review Tour and there was some mentions of Leonard I never heard about before. The booklet says Bob invited Leonard to join the tour which he turned down. It also says Leonard did attend the show in Montreal and on the recording of that show just before Bob starts the song "Isis" he says "This is for Leonard if he's still here". I am assuming that dedication is for our Leonard but not 100% sure. I'm not anywhere near as big of a fan of Dylan's as I am of Cohen's (I'm not downing Dylan, I recognize his genius as a writer, I'm just not that into his preforming style) so I don't follow him as closely or know all that much of his history. I'm wondering if any of our Dylan followers may be able to shed some more light on this period when the two of them almost shared a stage? I did do some reading up on the Rolling Thunder Review Tour on various websites and the booklet in the box set is the only place I see mention of Leonard actually being invited by Bob to join the tour. On a side note I did learn that the tour was in two parts (Oct-Dec 1975 and April-May 1976), and that one of Bob's percussionist/drummers on the first part of the tour was Luther Rix. He had left the tour by the time it restarted in April and was instead Leonard's drummer on his 1976 tour. So I am also wondering if Leonard maybe went out of his way to recruit/steal him for his own band based on what he saw him do in Montreal with Bob in December 1975 or did Bob already cut him from the group and it was just a coincidence that he wound up in Leonard's band a few months later? Once again any insight on this from out Dylan experts would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Dave
Cheers,
Dave