The Desire Album

Jul 28: First DESIRE session

With [Emmylou] Harris, Sheena, Scarlet, Stoner, and new boy Wyeth, Dylan was keen to get down to business. Wyeth was given an insight into the man's working methods on the very first take of the evening, "Golden Loom":

"We started the song and I think they were recording it... and we sort of fumbled the ending. .. I asked Bob, 'Are we gonna end this or is it gonna fade?' And he went into such a lengthy explanation... that everybody got so confused... [And finally} he said 'Let's not even do it'. And Stoner said [to me], 'Don't ask him anything. Just play'." - Howie Wyeth

Tracks Recorded:

• Romance In Durango
• Abandoned Love

Rob Stoner (bass), Scarlet Rivera (violin), Howie Wyeth (drums), Emmylou Harris (steel-guitar), Sheena (tambourine and congas).

On Romance In Durango, Dom Cortese (mandolin and accordion), Eric Clapton (dobro), unknown trumpet.

Jul 30: Second DESIRE session

Dylan was delighted by Wyeth, telling Stoner, "Your drummer sounds great, it sounds great." Wyeth's crisp dispatch, aligned to Stoner's sympatico bass lines, turned a previously cluttered sound on its head. As Stoner puts it, "We just went back into the studio and started running through tunes, bam, bam, bam, just getting every complete take, every complete tune was a take.... We were so hot... I think we were still doing takes as late as five and six A.M. that morning."

Tracks Recorded:

• Isis
• One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)
• Joey
• Mozambique
• Hurricane
• Oh, Sister
• Black Diamond Bay
• Rita May

This take of "Hurricane" is not the one on the album, but a copy was sent by Dylan to Ruben Carter.

Jul 31: Third DESIRE session

After the euphoria of July 30th, the following night's session was bound to seem anticlimatic. According to Wyeth, Dylan was "bummed out.. we thought eveything sucked at that point."

Track Recorded:

• Sara

Rob Stoner (bass), Scarlet Rivera (violin), Howie Wyeth (drums), Sheena (tambourine and congas).

Oct 24 Final DESIRE session

Track Recorded:

• Hurricane

Rob Stoner (bass), Scarlet Rivera (violin), Howie Wyeth (drums), Steven Soles (guitar), Ronee Blakeley (vocal) and Luther Rix (congas).

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The Rolling Thunder Revue

Shortly before moving to Los Angeles in 1972 John recorded his first solo album for the then major label Paramount. Among the artists helping out were many friends from the Woodstock and NYC areas including the wonderful and inventive electric guitar player Amos Garret, Howie Wyeth (piano and drums), Steve Soles and Ned Albright (harmony singing), Bob Neuwirth (co-producer), and Rob Stoner (elec bass). Howie, Steve, Rob and Bob were the first core of Bob Dylan's infamous Rolling Thunder Revue Tour in 1975. The four having come together totally by chance, walking in off the street separately and gathering around a piano with Bob Dylan at the Bitter End Bar. "I surely regret living on the west coast at the time and not being there" says John, especially since the aforementioned people met for the first time during his Paramount recording sessions, a year or two before.

This segment contains excerpts from an article called "Dylan - The Eye of the Hurricane", text by Larry Sloman, Copyright Penthouse Poster Press, 1975. It was on the back of a poster "Penthouse Poster press Rock Superstars Poster Magazine, #6" and was posted to the Highway 61 Bob Dylan Discussion list on May 9, 1996.

It really captures the spirit of the Rolling Thunder Revue.

And we've all learned to accept it, accept it with pride. For Dylan is always in the cultural forefront writing about things that most of us will come to understand one or two years later. The Rolling Thunder Revue is typical of this. Dylan sharing a stage with the greats and soon-to-be greats alike. The whole idea for the whirlwind, six week tour of small Northeastern halls came one night at the Other End when Dylan, Jacques Levy and longtime friend and general music scene body Bob Neuwirth conspired to put together a package that would blow into a town, pick up whatever local talent was around, and play a relaxed, almost circus-atmosphere concert. Dylan called Baez, Ronnee Blakely jammed one night in New York and was added, McGuinn fell into the bar one night and joined, it was that impromptu. Using the nucleus of the band that had recorded Desire, Rob Stoner on bass, Howie Wyeth on drums, Scarlett Rivera on violin, Luther Rix on precussion, Dylan and the entourage left New York for Plymouth, Massachussetts in late October. Mick Ronson joined and so did Steve Soles, an LA singer-songwriter.

Onstage it was like a carnival. Neuwirth and the back up band, self-named Guam, warmed up the audience. Next Dylan ambled on to do about five songs. After intermission, the curtain rose to an incredible sight, Bob and Joan, together again after all these years. After a few numbers, Baez took center stage for a dynamic six-song set, followed by a solo set from Bob. Then he was joined by the band for a few numbers, and the finale, This Land Is Your Land, featuring everyone on stage from Allen Ginsberg to Bob's mother Beattie one night. The spirit was si amazingly warm that when Joni Mitchell flew in to play one concert, she wound up staying for the remaining three nights of the tour. And it all came to a dramatic finale December 8th in Madison Square Garden where, with the help of Muhammed Ali, Roberta Flack and 14,000 screaming partisans, Dylan performed a benefit concert for imprisoned boxer and Dylan's latest cause, Rubin Carter.

The tour itself earned terrific acclaim. McGuinn enthused, "I've never done anything better in my life. The tour was indescribable. It was the greatest high I've ever done, cause it was on the natch." Baez too loved working with Dylan again and since I was the only reporter allowed on the tour, told me "The music is great. Bobby went out of his way to make everyone feel comfortable by sharing time and so on. It's exciting to sing with him and it's always a challenge."

All shows in the Revue were taped and filmed. The Revue was featured in the LP and Television special "Hard Rain"

Bob Dylan came to my show at the Troubadour in L.A. in 1973. Barefoot and looking a lot like Jesus. He invited me on the Rolling Thunder Tour. - Kinky Friedman

As a result of the energizing effect of the Rolling Thunder Revue, Roger McGuinn went into the studio with the Rolling Thunder Review band: Mick Ronson, David Mansfield, Rob Stoner and Howie Wyeth, and recorded the album Cardiff Rose. Cardiff Rose is an excellent album. It is an album that Bob Dylan fans who are not familiar with would enjoy. It contains an excellent cover of Dylan song "Up to Me", and "Take Me Away", a song about The Rolling Thunder Revue.

The Revue is well remembered, more than 20 years later. The 1994 edition of Dave Marsh's "The New Book Of Rock Lists" cites the band 'Guam', the Rolling Thunder Revue combo, 11th in his list of 'Great Backup Bands' on page 383.

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