Dylan and The Band in masterful form rock the big rooms.
A landmark year – 1974 – as Dylan went out on tour for the first time in 8 years, and significantly this was on tour again backed by The Band. Some things had changed during that passage of time – The Band for example had stepped into their own spotlight and had issued era-defining albums such as ‘Music from Big Pink‘, ‘The Band‘ and ‘Stage Fright‘. We’d also had ‘Cahoots‘ and ‘Moondog Matinee‘ which were indications that the wheels were starting to come off The Band’s wagon but they were none-the-less a major musical entity in their own right. Dylan was having a bit of a scrabbling around phase – at the start of 1974 ‘New Morning‘ stood as his last studio album (let’s forget ‘Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid‘ since it was predominantly conceived as a movie soundtrack and ‘Dylan‘ out of kindness) and that had been released in 1970. Due to lack of real interest at Columbia, Dylan had jumped ship to Asylum Records, reconnected with The Band in mid-1973 and the resulting album ‘Planet Waves’ was released January 1974. Dylan and The Band started touring before the new album hit the stores, and it should surprise exactly no one that the set lists would feature hardly anything from ‘Planet Waves.‘ There’d be ‘Forever Young‘ and quite ironically the outtake ‘Nobody ‘Cept You’, but otherwise, with notable exceptions like ‘All Along The Watchtower‘, ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door‘ and ‘Lay Lady Lay‘, we are predominantly regaled with songs from 1966 and earlier. Not completely – a few later songs do pop up occasionally, but considering the majority of the sets then predominantly.
There were big differences from the last time these men had gone out on tour together – they were older, obviously, and fame had touched them all. Dylan had been electric for years, had gone back to acoustic, had had some country paths to stroll down – the audience had had eight years to get used to the idea that Dylan would not be the ragamuffin folk-protest singer forever. He was married, he had kids, it was all so very different. And then the music scene had changed – no longer were Dylan and The Band forced to play through whatever pathetic PA the venue might have – stacks of speakers, decent sound, big, big rooms were the order of the day. The tour spawned a live album – ‘Before the Flood‘ – and everyone agreed that Dylan and The Band brought a great energy to the concerts. A mild rapture ensued. But ‘Before the Flood‘ was but four sides of vinyl, a lot was missing. Not anymore.
This is not ‘Before the Flood (Deluxe).’ Everything by Dylan (and to be clear nothing by The Band) from ‘Before the Flood‘ is on it, obviously, but this is a complete as we’re likely to get document of Dylan’s landmark return to touring in 1974 covering a full 27CDs. That’s 431 tracks, and 417 of them were not on ‘Before The Flood‘. At least, not these recordings. It’s not that every gig was the same set list, but every gig was quite a similar set list, with the biggest differences gig to gig occurring when we have examples of Matinee and Evening performances (and what a day that would have been). Otherwise, of say fourteen Dylan songs on one night, the next night will have ten, or more, the same, and where there are variants to the lists it is a small number of songs that are rotated through. If that’s something that you might have a problem with then it’s reasonable to say that this huge collection won’t be for you. However, if that much Dylan sounds like something to celebrate then not only is this box-set squarely aimed at you but you’d also be quite correct.
Where to start in an attempt to give a picture of such a huge collection? We’re definitely not going through this track by track. As one listens there are any number of questions and thoughts which arise – from the very start in fact, January 3rd 1974, Chicago and the first song – ‘Hero Blues‘, an unremarkable shuffling blues with Dylan casting some serious shade on a woman who wants him to be some kind of hero, who pictures him as a conquering Bonaparte. A song so minor it’s only studio recordings are as demos and outtakes. A surprising choice to kick-off a comeback to touring with, and then to follow it with a ragged ‘Lay, Lady, Lay.’ Two gigs this opener lasted, and then for a few nights it’s ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35‘ that sets things going but it too disappears from this prominent slot and soon we’re into the familiar angry, snarling and defiantly electric ‘Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)‘ as opener, moved from its earlier position as set closer. This ‘Blonde on Blonde’ song had been kicked up a gear and has Dylan, night after night, coming on like a gale, the song’s meaning surely twisted to fit the situation Dylan found himself in. “Look,” he seems to be saying, “you were booing in ’66, now you like these songs done this way. But don’t think we’re friends forever, I won’t stick to this path forever and I know you’re fickle enough to not get the next step.” Halfway through the tour he decides to really hammer this message home by using the song as the opener and the closer. Audacious! As if to make sure that “I can’t do what I done before / I ain’t going to beg you any more” has not passed by the attention of the enthusiastic fans. The version that closes out CD7 covering the January 11, 1974 – Montreal Forum, Montreal, Canada gig is just dripping with laboured sarcasm, with Dylan’s vocal conveying that he just really can’t be bothered to disguise his contempt anymore. Something similar occurs during the February 13th 1974 rendition of ‘It Ain’t Me Babe‘ where Dylan decides to try out punctuating his points with a sung chuckle reminiscent of Elmer Fudd. There are strange and bewildering things throughout. But, the premier attraction of the sets are the songs that are delivered with the 1974 power band rocking out with extremes of confidence to endless rows of gleeful ticket purchasers. Version after version of ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door‘, ‘Like A Rolling Stone‘, ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man‘ and ‘All Along The Watchtower‘. It’s true that ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35‘ has lost a lot of its strangeness, but it rocks well and Garth Hudson can be relied on to add some new peculiar features from the keyboards. ‘Ballad Of Hollis Brown‘ as a rock song works better than one might imagine – surely it was the starkness that made this song hit home? Well, perhaps not that alone.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also Dylan’s nightly acoustic set – a man, a guitar, a harmonica and a bunch of the greatest songs ever written. It’s as much a reminder of why Dylan had set music scenes around the world on their head as the all-electric band is a demonstration of how to rock better than anyone else out there at the time. ‘Wedding Song‘ is impassioned, ‘It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Bleeding‘ powers along with nary a stumble, ‘Gates Of Eden‘ sacrilegiously in the context of this tour suggests that maybe Dylan actually prefers playing acoustic.
The recordings are a mixture of the crystal clear and in some cases the rather muddy and hissy – that’s the price to be paid for such completeness – as they come from a variety of media. The Tour was captured on a stereo soundboard mix, on both 1⁄4” tape and cassette and David Geffen commissioned recordings on multitrack tape of the later concerts with the aim of quickly getting a live album out on Asylum. This does mean there are some real oddities, such as ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)‘ from the January 4, 1974 Chicago Stadium which, thanks to a recording effect, seemingly has Dylan singing with a distinct lisp. On the whole though the sound quality leans towards a range from the acceptable to the very good.
Is this an essential purchase other than for those for whom this is quite obviously an essential purchase? Well, that depends on whether you enjoy ‘Before the Flood‘, and also enjoy it predominantly for Dylan. If it is a record you frequently turn to then this won’t do you any harm – and it will highlight a few times that they missed the take of the tour because a full professional recording hadn’t been made. It’s worth noting that the retail price works out at around £4 per CD so it won’t break the bank as much as one might imagine and of course there’s a nice booklet with the track listing, an informative essay and some great photos of Dylan and The Band.
