The Rolling Thunder Finale with Scarlet Rivera

1975-12-08, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

Flagging Down the Double E’s is an email newsletter exploring Dylan shows of yesteryear. I’m currently writing about every show on the Rolling Thunder Revue. If you found this article online or someone forwarded you the email, subscribe here to get a new entry delivered to your inbox every week:

via Netflix

Update June 2023: This interview is included along with 40+ others in my new book ‘Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members.’ Buy it in hardcover, paperback, or ebook here!

Today, our trip through every show on Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder comes to its end, on the 45th anniversary of the grand finale at Madison Square Garden. And, when I thought about how to end this series, there was only one name: Scarlet Rivera.

No musician is more closely associated with Rolling Thunder’s sound, image, and general vibe than Scarlet. Despite only being onstage for part of the show, she came to embody everything you think about when you think “Rolling Thunder.” It’s hard to imagine the sound of Desire without Scarlet’s violin and it’s hard to imagine the look of the Rolling Thunder stage without Scarlet standing to Dylan’s right, wearing some mystical outfit, staring Bob down.

Scarlet and I spoke back in October, before this special series even began, but I wanted to save her interview for the grand finale. Here’s my conversation with Scarlet Rivera:

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Dylan famously first spotted you on the street from his car. Before then, what was your career looking like?

I flew a one-way ticket to New York City. I had this belief that I was going to break into rock music and do something with the violin that wasn't in music yet.

The first paying gig I did was with Ornette Coleman. He introduced me to the Revolutionary String Ensemble, which was very avant-garde jazz-ish music. I took some lessons with Leroy Jenkins, the black jazz violin player. After a couple, he told me I didn't need lessons. I also was playing at night with a 13-piece Cuban band to make money.

Did you think of yourself as a jazz musician back then?

No, I was just experimenting. I auditioned for a lot of rock things too. I also had my own rock fusion band at the time called Mammoth.

There’s a Blues for Allah sticker on your violin in the Scorsese movie. Were you in the Deadhead scene?

No, but I liked that sticker. I related to the skeleton playing the violin, so I put it on my violin and kept it on the whole time. That was my traveling companion.

I gather your first live performance with Bob was at the Muddy Waters show.

That happened the same day that I met Bob. I was walking down 13th street off of 1st Ave. He pulled over and asked, "Can you play that thing?" We ended up in a conversation. Our conversation was short and sweet. Perhaps it knocked him off of his feet, because he said he had to hear me play. We went to his loft in the Village. He asked me to play along with him. He just didn't give me any information like, "This is what key it's in and here's a chart.” He didn't say anything about anything.

After playing for like an hour, he got up abruptly. He said, "I got to go hear a friend play in the Village. You want to come along?" I said, "Sure."

We jumped back in the car, went a few minutes away to the club the Bottom Line. His friend that was playing was Muddy Waters. I was expecting to watch the whole show from the bar. He went up and did one song with Muddy and the place erupted in just thunderous applause. At the end of that song, he went to the microphone and said, "Now I want to bring up my violinist."

You had no idea that was coming?