Bob Dylans 1974 Tour With the Band to Be Commemorated With 27-Disc Boxed Set
Bob Dylan fans have long thought that the 1974 live double album Before the Flood was an insufficient record of the historic tour he did earlier that year with the Band as his backing group. But just how insufficient? Like, 400 tracks worth of insufficiency?
Bob Dylan fans have long thought that the 1974 live double album “Before the Flood” was an insufficient record of the historic tour he did earlier that year with the Band as his backing group. But just how insufficient? Like, 400 tracks’ worth of insufficiency?
Dylan followers’ taste for completeness will be put to the test — a test many will pass with flying colors — this fall when Sony Music issues “Bob Dylan — The 1974 Live Recordings,” a boxed set that includes all or part of 27 Dylan performances from the tour, spread across that many CDs. It comes out via Columbia/Legacy on Sept. 20.
Altogether, the set contains 417 previously unreleased tracks, plus with the dozen from L.A.’s Forum that were already included on the “Before the Flood” release back in ’74.
To herald the coming of the boxed set, the label issued a previously unreleased performance of “Forever Young” on Tuesday, taken from an afternoon show in Seattle on Feb. 9, 1974. (Several of the sets captured in the collection were matinees, something that was clearly much more in vogue 50 years ago than it is now.)
There’s an interesting wrinkle for vinyl collectors. Clearly, a full release of the content in LP form is not in the cards, since it would probably entail at least a 50-disc boxed set. But Jack White’s Third Man Records is issuing a condensed vinyl iteration — a three-LP set (augmented by one 7-inch single) that will contain one specially selected version of each song performed on the tour that was not previously represented on the “Before the Flood” album. This green-vinyl companion volume is titled “The 1974 Live Recordings — The Missing Songs From Before the Flood.” Fans who want it will need to sign up for Third Man’s quarterly Vault subscription service by July 31. (Scroll down to see the full track list for the limited vinyl release.)
Liner notes have been penned by Elizabeth Nelson, who doubles as a well-regarded rock critic as well as frontperson of the band the Paranoid Style. (Read her recent assessment of Dylan’s 1975 “Desire” album, published in Pitchfork, here.)
The announcement for the new project says that 133 of the 417 tracks have been “newly mixed from 16-track tape.” That represents a surprisingly high number of shows from the tour that were recorded with that sophisticated a unit. The rest are presumably in less high quality, but all of them are direct off the board and not audience recordings; the announcement says that the box includes “every single surviving soundboard recording” from the tour, which lasted six weeks.
Ray Padgett, a Dylan Substack writer and author of the book “Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members,” put the announcement in context on his X (formerly Twitter) feed: “It’s pretty much the holy grail for ’74 fans. 21 of these soundboards tapes are never-before-circulated. That’s an insane number. Only 5 soundboards were already circulating… The soundboards come from both 16-track tape (the shows recorded for Before the Flood) and more basic 1/4” tape and cassette. But Before the Flood was taken almost entirely from the final 2 LA shows. So the multitracks of NYC, Seattle and Oakland have mostly never been heard… Most excitingly, many of the new soundboards come from early dates when setlists were wilder. As the tour went on, things began to stagnate in both song choice and performance (energy substituting for nuance). But the first couple weeks are special. Better than Before the Flood.”
But, as Padgett and some other Dylan fans immediately lamented, the box does not include the sets that were performed by the Band, sans Dylan, on the tour each night — incalculably large as their inclusion would have made the set, among other artistic, legal or logistical factors likely standing in the way of including the Band material.
Notably, the “1974 Live Recordings” CD set is not being marketed as part of the ongoing Dylan “Bootleg Series” collections, which offer a more selective overview of the artist’s work during a certain period. This release is more akin to the 14-CD “Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings” released in 2019, which also was not a “Bootleg Series” release — although it comes close to doubling the number of discs contained in that collection. The 27 discs pale against the 36 included in the 2016 release “The 1966 Live Recordings,” however.
The fact that this is not a “Bootleg Series” volume may offer some encouragement to Dylan fans who hope that the next official excavation of unreleased studio material might yet come within the next year. (The last volume in that series, “The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996–1997),” was released in January 2023.)
Dylan, who rarely goes off tour for long, is back out on the road at present, performing as part of Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival outing. He has 16 more shows lined up as part of the Nelson-led tour, including a July 31 stop at the Hollywood Bowl.
Full track list below — scroll through if you dare:
DISC 1 January 3, 1974 – Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL
Hero Blues
Lay, Lady, Lay
Tough Mama
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
All Along the Watchtower
Song to Woody
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 2 January 4, 1974 – Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL
Hero Blues
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Tough Mama
Ballad of a Thin Man
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Love Minus Zero/No Limit
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Maggie’s Farm
DISC 3 January 6, 1974 (Afternoon) – The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Tough Mama
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
To Ramona
Mama, You Been on My Mind
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
DISC 4 January 6, 1974 (Evening) – The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
It Ain’t Me, Babe
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
The Times They Are A-Changin’
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Song to Woody
Mr. Tambourine Man
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 5 January 7, 1974 – The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
It Ain’t Me, Babe
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Just Like a Woman
Girl from the North Country
Wedding Song
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 6 January 9, 1974 – Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
It Ain’t Me, Babe
It Take a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Just Like a Woman
Girl from the North Country
Wedding Song
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 7 January 11, 1974 – Montreal Forum, Montreal, Canada
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Gates of Eden
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 8 January 14, 1974 (Afternoon) – Boston Gardens, Boston, MA
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
It Ain’t Me, Babe
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Gates of Eden
Just Like a Woman
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 9 January 15, 1974 – Capital Centre, Largo, MD
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Wedding Song
Just Like a Woman
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 10 January 16, 1974 – Capital Centre, Largo, MD
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
One Too Many Mornings
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Gates of Eden
Nobody ‘Cept You
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 11 January 17, 1974 – Coliseum, Charlotte, NC
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
Lay, Lady, Lay
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Ballad of a Thin Man
All Along the Watchtower
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Gates of Eden
Just Like a Woman
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Forever Young
Something There Is About You
Like a Rolling Stone
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
DISC 12 January 19, 1974 (Afternoon) – Hollywood Sportatorium, Hollywood, FL
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