The 1974 Live Recordings Sampler

Bob Dylan & The Band

Released on 20/09/2024 by Columbia - Legacy
Main artists: Bob Dylan The Band
Genre: Rock

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In 1974, Bob Dylan returned to the road after an eight-year absence. His partners, the Band, had backed him on the mostly hostile electric tour of 1966. The pairing had recently completed the not-yet-released (and criminally underrated) Planet Waves; it would be released during the tour. By this time, the Band had established themselves as a top-shelf roots rock act with the albums Music from Big Pink, The Band, and Stage Fright. Together they performed some 30 dates in 42 days -- sometimes two sets per day -- before an average audience of 18,500. Though they weren't aware of it at the time, this tour set new production and audio standards in the industry. The popular double live album from the tour, Before the Flood, showcased Dylan solo acoustic and fronting the Band, as well as selections they performed sans the frontman. The release -- Dylan's first live album -- was primarily recorded at the L.A. Forum at the end of the trip. It charted inside the Top Ten in the U.S. and U.K and was certified platinum. The 1974 Live Recordings is not part of the widely popular Bootleg series that contains some 17 volumes. Instead, it is an enormous 50th anniversary box set (and data dump), released in celebration of Before the Flood's 50th anniversary. This box contains 27 CDs (no vinyl) featuring 431 tracks, 417 of them unreleased -- only the BTF material that appears has seen the light officially. Also left out are the Band's solo performances at these shows.
This monolith doesn't contain all the shows from that tour; these merely sounded best sonically. While the set lists vary a bit night to night, they are quite similar. Then-current Planet Waves material is represented by only three tracks throughout -- "Tough Mama," "Wedding Song," and "Forever Young." The rest is an array of hits and Dylan evergreens played nightly. An exception is set opener "Hero Blues," recorded at Chicago Stadium; it was revived exclusively for the tour. The first five discs here are a bit loose and unruly. That's a good thing, as the hiccups provided the spontaneity and energy required for the rest of the run. The rest bears out the kinetic connection between the performers, though on disc seven (Montreal Forum), Dylan's singing is biting, sarcastic, and cynical. He alternately sounds like a carnival barker, a preacher, and a wild roots-rocker.
The later discs reflect the relative comfort Dylan and the Band performed with, leading to a more polished joint effort. That said, there's plenty of rawness here, but the chaos on the early discs is missed. The 1974 Live Recordings will only appeal to Dylan completists and historians. The music is entirely (and wonderfully) remixed. The box is packed with rare photos by Barry Feinstein. Further, there is a truly magnificent liner essay from the Paranoid Style's vocalist, Elizabeth Nelson (it's the perfect intersection of music fan, musician, and critic). Sony also released a digital 20-track sampler. Further, Third Man Records simultaneously issued a three-LP set containing all the songs from the L.A. concerts left off Before the Flood.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo

The 1974 Live Recordings Sampler

Bob Dylan

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Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) (Live at Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY - January 30, 1974)