“Don’t you remember? I told you long ago!”
(Bob Dylan in Chicago, 1974, “Hero Blues”)

“It’s good to be back! It’s an honor to be here!”
(Bob Dylan in Madison Square Garden, New York, January 30th, 1974, Disc 17 of 27)

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.“
(Søren Kierkegaard)

When Bob Dylan shouts out the words “It’s good to be back! It’s an honor to be here!” to a roaring audience in MSG, it sounds like the words of a man that really means it, a happy man, a man full of pride and joy, to have survived, to be back. Yes, there is an unmistakable, restless energy in these shows, in this tour, as we already knew through “Before The Flood” and endless reports and quotes, from Dylan himself and others. It’s like we can see the jump in Dylan’s steps, his toe-tapping eagerness to be moving on – again. Still, more than anything, for me, the feeling I get, listening to this 27 cd box set, it is not only about power and raw rock’n roll, it’s as much a, though restless, celebration, of music, of song, of being back, of the honor of being back in the game of performing live, backed by The Band, by the band, THE band, by friends, by Levon Helm back on drums. In a not so dylanesque way, he can’t hide it: “Its good to be back! It’s an honor to be here”. My guess is that he often felt this way, this tour, and in later times, maybe still, if not always telling it with words. This return was special. It was the only break of more than two years (1982-1983) from the road of his whole career. Even in the pandemy he was back before two years had passed, in fall 2021. 1974 was special. 50 Years Ago.

Today I know the Dylan chronology fairly well, but my personal way to Dylan took a road that might be less traveled, starting with my endless love for “Desire” at fourteen years old, I can never unring that bell, then next time diving into the mystique and new voice of Dylan at “Street Legal”, before, for the first time experiencing Dylan live, by listening to this most important singer in my life, at “At Budokan”, flabbergasted by a new voice, new versions, new phrasings and yes, you certainly understand. I wasn’t at all troubled by his suit or by the flute, this was the entrance to a part of Dylan’s art that ever since has been as important for me as the studio albums – the performing artist, the live performing artist, the sound of Bob Dylan. The next live album I heard was “Before The Flood” – I had neither heard any live performances from the sixties nor from Rolling Thunder Revue, not even “Hard Rain” at that time, only read about it, like ancient history when I first got to “Before The Flood”, lucky to get the album, to listen to it for the first time. Again – a new voice, a different energy, the wild, magic sound of The Band and the virtuoso musicians, but, as always for me, I was drinking the sound of the vocals, that’s how I am, and I played the naked acoustic material on the album over and over again, to the tears in his voice on “Just Like A Woman” and to the snarling of “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”. At this time I’ve heard the studio versions, but once more experiencing the ocean between the studio and the stage. And – I hadn’t, before this, close knowledge of, or the love for “The Band” and their own songs as I have now. It was all brand new. I mean – wow!! My point is, my reaction to Dylan live 1974 was free from comparing it to all before or after, apart from “At Budokan”, that of course was something else. I loved it and I welcomed it as another side of Bob Dylan, fresh, rocking, energic, free-spirited and thunderous rock, and most of all the beautiful and heartfelt renditions in the acoustic set. How would I range it between all the live stuff we got today, I really don’t know, and why do we really have to choose when we had it all? It had at the time some golden moments that we don’t get anywhere else, that’s for sure, including a version of “The Band” backing Dylan, here matured and improved even more through the years gone by since 1966, and for the last time they were touring together. (Bob Dylan’s part in The Last Waltz was the first time I saw Dylan on film, obviously also with The Band. Also a magic moment for me.) Of course, later we got the phenomenal recordings from 1966 – another time, another band, different voice, songs, performances, dynamics, and another kind of audience, also with many fabulous, yes sometimes unsurpassable highlights, for sure. So little did I know when I listened to “Before The Blood” the first time, but it urged me to listen and search for more.

Even if Dylan had long time given up any attempt of perfection, his choice of opener for the first show, and the opener of the present box set, couldn’t me more perfect, starting this great “comeback tour”, reminding the audience about the sentiments from “It Ain’t Me, Babe” (also played at the same show), but now in a song unknown for most of the audience, only played live a few times in 1963, never on an official release at the time:

“You need a different kinda man, babe
One that can grab and hold your heart
Need a different kind of man, babe
One that can hold and grab your heart
You need a different kind of man, babe
You need Napoleon Boneeparte

Well, when I’m dead
No more good times will I crave
When I’m dead
No more good times will I crave
You can stand and shout hero
All over my lonesome grave“

(From Hero Blues, played as a prologue on the two first shows of the tour, Chicago 3rd and 4th of January 1974.)

Backdrop.

In retrospect I, and most of us, know much about the period between the two tours, from the last show in 1966, 27th of May, and the first show in 1974, 3rd of January. Dylan later told us “I gave up art for family” of the period, including having babies with his wife – one, two, three, four, in 1966, 1967, 1968 & 1969, together with from before a beloved adopted daughter, making it a big family living down in Woodstock – mostly a reclusive life away from the public eye, but not without art in it – the fabulous “Basement Tapes” project in Big Pink, the albums – one, two, three, four, five, six, and then some singles and compilations – “John Wesley Harding” in 1967, “Nashville Skyline” in 1969, “Self Portrait” in 1970, “New Morning” in 1970, (the same year he was moving back to New York City and Greenwich Village), he recorded “Watching The River Flow” and “When I Paint My Masterpiece” with Leon Russell in 1971, then came the surprise of “George Jackson” the same year. So there was the soundtrack for “Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid” in 1973 (and also acting as Alias in the movie) and then finally “Planet Waves” with The Band, in time for the forthcoming tour, released in November 1973. We know about his few public appearances in the period, like the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert in 1968 (backed by The Crackers for three songs, known before as the Hawks, what later became The Band), then the only full concert in the period, visiting the Isle of Wight in 1969 with The Band, the Bangladesh Concert in 1971 with several songs and guest appearance at The Band’s New Years Eve Concert in 1971, with this as one of the songs. An impressive string of new songs, material and recordings for a sabattical period, an impressive string of voices and guises as well. This was still a period where family life was of the utmost importance for the artist, no doubt about it. No touring. A part of the Dylan DNA was put on hold. Till now.

In the same period the world was waiting for or criticizing Dylan’s every foolish, fabulous or unpopular move, while waiting for, expecting, demanding or lost faith in more to come. Dylan describes it best in Chronicles, how the expectations took form of stalking and intrusion in the family’s private sphere, of Dylan being the spokesman he never aspired for, of giving the answers that still and for always were blowing in the wind. Hence “Hero Blues”. Just to remind us. Not all had changed. He still wasn’t Napoleon Bonaparte. Nobody could sing Dylan like Dylan. Nobody could argue Dylan’s position as the greatest songwriter ever. That stuck since the sixties, no matter what.

This is bits and pieces of the backdrop for “Bob Dylan And The Band 1974 Tour” starting in Chicago 3rd of January and ending in Inglewood, 14th of February, after a breath-taking 40 shows in 30 dates. “Before The Flood” was released 20th of June 1974, all compiled from the last three shows in Inglewood, LA, 13.-14. of February with one exception, “Knockin’ on Heavens Door” from New York, 30th of January.

This fabulous and generous box set, makes us a fly on the wall for most of the shows leading up to what became “Before The Flood”, Dylan’s second Asylum release. The public demand of tickets to the tour surely must have made a motivating impression on CBS. Dylan was back for the next release.

The Band was now a great success of their own, touring most of the years Dylan did not, not the more unknown band when they started backing Dylan in 1965, now backing Dylan for the first time for a new tour since 1966, making the tickets the “most wanted” tickets ever when they were advertised but only available through mail order. The story tells us about 20 million applications for the 658.000 seats.

The Box Set.

It’s a giant of a box set when it comes to content, but small and effective in design. 27 cd’s with nice cardboard covers, different photos on the front of each of them. A slim “booklet” in the same size, lots of pictures, fine liner notes by Elizabeth Nelson. I’m impressed and overwhelmed by how much of this treasure chest exists in such good sound quality, even if there is some obvious variation between the shows. Yes, we can of course grieve over the ones that got away, as the shows of early February in Denver and St Louis, missing performances of “Visions of Johanna”, “Desolation Row” and “A Hard Rain’s A-gonna Fall”, and “Fourth Time Around” from Memphis January 23rd, but still remember to be celebrating all the great stuff we actually got. I am of course looking forward to the Third Man Records cherry-picking vinyl compilation of “The Missing Songs From Before The Flood”, but neither this release will deliver the ones mentioned. Such is life. Let’s focus on what we got.

As much as I love the “completeness” or the fictive whole compiled in “Before The Flood” from several shows, also with “The Band” “alone” presenting songs from their own fabulous catalogue, I easily accept the choice made this time, to give us the Dylan tracks only. We’re still able to enjoy “The Band’s” unmistakable and powerful sound backing Bob, whether it is the intense virtuoso solos from Robbie, the magic of Garth Hudson or Levon’s steady hand on the drums. (One place Dylan even shouts: “That was Richard Manuel on the drums!”) Of course, I would have loved a complete show or three, but I’m happy and grateful for the possibility to dive into what we get here. The 417 out of 431 tracks that weren’t officially released is in itself an exhaustive journey, for me impossible to “read from cover to cover”, the last weeks I’ve been altering between whole shows and cherry-picking performances of songs not included on “Before The Flood” (BTF), shows from different parts of the tour, and first performances of both new and old songs. I love the search, and it makes me even more happy than opening the box in the first place, exploring the dylanesque magic of change, both inside a show, between shows, inside a song and between the performances of the same song. It’s all here – as I thought when listening to BTF in the first place, most of all, if not only, in the acoustic parts of the shows. It’s a rich and colorful journey, Dylan delivers more than forty different songs on this tour, some of them both in acoustic and electric versions, “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” both starting and ending shows.

Dylan ties it all together, all phases and stages, both in presentations and in the choosing of songs. The beautiful and touching rendition of “Song To Woody” in Chicago goes back to his first album, then we got “Don’t Think Twice” and “Blowin’ In The Wind” in later shows. A tender, heartbreaking version of “Girl From The North Country” shows up January 7. Fabulous, heartfelt versions of “Hattie Carroll” are introduced from the start – including a great staccato phase in the performance at January 6th, a fine “The Times They Are A-Changin” are introcuced in the second show, a march-like “Hollis Brown” is introduced in the third show, as are the songs “To Ramona” and “Mama You Been On On My Mind” in beautiful, naked versions. “Love Minus Zero” from “Bringing It All Back Home” is included the second night, while “It’s alright, Ma” is introduced from the first night. The beautiful blue and melancholic version of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” and “Like A Rolling Stone” comes the first night, a powerful “Highway 61 Revisited” first introduced in New York, January 31, staying till the end in Inglewood. .“Leopard Skin Pill Box-hat” from “Blonde on Blonde” is also part of the first night of the tour. “All Along The Watchtower” (from John Wesley Harding) are included in the third show, “Lay Lady Lay” (from Nashville Skyline) from the first. So it goes on. “Knockin’ on heavens door” gets its first live performance at the second show, and during the first five concerts both “Something There Is About You”, “Tough Mama”, “Forever Young” and “Wedding Song” are performed in fine versions – fabulous and very touching when it first is introduced January 7. The most beautiful versions of a song from the “Planet Waves” sessions might be the many great versions of “Nobody ‘Cept You”, a fantastic version at the evening of January 6 must be mentioned. Masterly performed. Yes, he ties it all together.

Twelve years – twelve banners over the field. He owns it all, and it is a new morning in 1974, even if he doesn’t sing the songs from “New Morning” this time. Strong sentiments and performances are marinated, often in blue, during the more than seven years from last tour, like: “Up on Housing Project Hill, it’s either fortune or fame/You must pick one or the other, neither of them are what they claim”. It’s not the splendid desperation, in the middle of it all, from 1966, this is as much the sadness of the hindsight blues. For me this song is one of the highlights most of the shows it is included.

I understand well what Dylan means when speaking about this tour, mentions that it was about “power” – the power of it is impossible to not see or hear, and it also evolved through the tour, the band and the singer gets closer and tighter as a unit, sometimes with some of the B-52-feeling some got back in 1966. The afternoon show in Seattle, February 9th, is just a fantastic rock show, they got six carburetors and they are using them all. In the first shows of the tour you can hear them all use all their sensibility to get it right, maybe a song never played, or not in this arrangement, with the charm a more quiet, easy approach gives the performance. In Seattle there is no room for doubt anymore, neither in the electric sets, nor in the acoustic. Some of the songs are picking up speed as the tour goes, for sure, not always making the performances improve, after my taste. “Hattie Carroll” in Seattle is clearly more rushed than in the first shows, and for me. A hasty “Wedding Song” in both Seattle shows lacks the tenderness and poetic beauty from the first versions. It is almost like Dylan tries to make the fastest version possible. “Just Like Tom Thumbs’ Blues” also get a harder treatment than in early January, but in my ears without loosing the depth of the blues laying behind the sentiments of the song. “Just Like A Woman” always makes an impression, even in the “harder” versions, always with buckets of rain and tears behind it. In Oakland February 11, the version of “Gates of Eden” brings tears to my eyes – it is intense and powerful, but some whispering words and ending of lines, underlines the deep beauty of the lyrics. Things like this can happen in a show that elsewhere might seem a bit rushed, just like the stolen moments and golden performances we always know can happen when Dylan is the artist, the suddenly shining diamond of a performance, the timing and phrasing, even in the middle of an uninspired set. I remember “Barbara Allen” in Stockholm 1991 as such a moment, among many – suddenly and suprisingly the gates of Heaven opens and everyone knows it. Magic. That’s the moments we always hopes for. And you’ll find them in this box set, too. In the Inglewood show February 13th the pace is slowed down on “The Times They Are A-Changin'” and makes the song come alive in a whole different way than the speed versions earlier. “Love Minus Zero” is a bit fast, but also tender and sooo beautiful. The same goes for “Just Like A Woman”. You want to cry with the singer. The same happens on the last show, it’s almost like Dylan realizes that this is the end, and brings a dose of sorrow from that into the acoustic songs, including another beautiful “Gates of Eden”. For me personally the final version of “Blowin’ In The Wind”, ending the tour and this box set, is a pale shadow of what I heard on “At Budokan” – one of my favorite versions of the songs ever, while this version leaves me cold, even if I understand the reason for a joyful response to the song, the throwback to the early sixties, the fact that Bob is back again and all that. Then again, this is the beauty of it, the changes in song and choosing and performances of songs we can witness in clear sight, live, and experience in so mmany different ways, depending on so many things, who you are, how does it feel, when where you born, was this your first or zillionth show, your taste for the songs from before, your openness or closedness towards change of arrangements, who you are spending the night with, the sound, the visuals and more – everything bringing colors to your personal experience. Because it’s a personal thing, after all. It’s the personal taste. Never believe it when somebody tells you as a fact that something you love isn’t great. Believe them when they tell you what they love and what’s the reason for. We have to live our lives forwards, but understand it backwards. Also when it comes to understand the deepest cuts in our history. Like me and the 1974 Tour, listening to Before The Flood as 17, starry-eyed by the beauty of the acoustic “Just Like A Woman”, falling in love with the sound of Dylan in 1974, too. That’s how it is. Nothing can change that.

So – do we need this box set? The answer is of course negative. Life goes on without it. For me it was a no-brainer, even if I don’t need it. I’m an explorer in the sound of Bob Dylan. If you are the same, you’ll find gold inside this box. Not only, but plenty. A curated “Before The Flood 2” from the first part of the tour could have ben interesting, then by focusing on some of the greatest moments of the 1974 Tour.

The most obvious link between the tour of 1974 and the Rough And Rowdy Ways Tour of the last years, might be the use of “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)”. It’ not like he was introduced by Ronnie Gilbert at Newport in 1965: “And here he is…take him, you know him, he’s yours.” That’s wrong, of course, always was. That’s the point.

“You say you love me and you’re thinkin’ of me
But you know you could be wrong
You say you told me that you want to hold me
But you know you’re not that strong

I just can’t do what I’ve done before
I just can’t beg you anymore
I’m gonna let you pass
And I’ll go last”

He could do other stuff in 1974, as he still can, believe it or not, fifty years later.
Why do we have to choose?

Johnny Borgan

Detailed information about the box set from bobdylan.com

Bob Dylan 1974 Live Recordings Sampler – YouTube playlist
Bob Dylan 1974 Live Recordings Sampler – Spotify playlist