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WD_461/ 2008
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Works on paper: Drawings 5 | | Medium: | oilstick on paper | | Size (inches): | 40.2 x 25.2 | | Size (mm): | 1020 x 640 | | Catalog #: | WD_0461 | | Description: | Signed, date and copyright in pencil on the reverse.
Before the Flood -
Live album by Bob Dylan & The Band
Released: June 20, 1974
Recorded: January-February 1974
Genre: Rock
Length: 92:38
Label: Asylum, Columbia
Producer: Bob Dylan & The Band
Before the Flood is a 1974 live album by Bob Dylan and The Band, documenting the Bob Dylan and The Band 1974 Tour.
History:
Before the tour even began, a live album release was already planned; a substantial number of the performances were professionally recorded. When it came time to compile the album, most of these recordings were taken from the final three shows at the Los Angeles Forum in Inglewood, California. After the tour ended, Rob Fraboni and Phil Ramone were both recruited to edit and mix the multitrack recordings so gained, drawing also on shows from New York City, Seattle, and Oakland.
The title of the album is thought to be taken from a novel (Farn Mabul) by Yiddish writer Sholem Asch; Dylan had a personal relationship with Moses Asch, son of Sholem and founder of Folkways Records. Another theory in regards to the album's title is that the live album was released before the inevitable flood of bootlegs could surface, and saturate the underground market.
A double album released on Dylan's then-label, Asylum Records, it was a source of contention for The Band, who at the time were struggling to gather enough material to fulfill their contract with Capitol Records.
Before the Flood reached #3 in the U.S. and #8 in the UK.
Reviews for Before the Flood were generally positive as critical consensus was strong enough to place it at #6 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1974. "At its best, this is the craziest and strongest rock and roll ever recorded," wrote critic Robert Christgau in one of the more generous reviews. "All analogous live albums fall flat. The Rolling Stones are mechanical dolls by comparison, the Faces merely sloppy, the Dead positively quiet. The MC5 achieved something similar by ignoring musicianship altogether, but while the Band sounds undisciplined, threatening to destroy their headlong momentum by throwing out one foot or elbow too many, they never abandon their enormous technical ability. In this they follow the boss. When he sounded thin on Planet Waves, so did they. Now his voice settles in at a rich bellow, running over his old songs like a truck. I agree that a few of them will never walk again, but I treasure the sacrilege; Uncle Bob purveying to the sports arena masses. We may never even know whether this is a masterpiece." Christgau graded the album an A.
Track listing:
All songs by Bob Dylan, except where noted.
Disc one:
1. "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" 4:15
2. "Lay Lady Lay" 3:14
3. "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" 3:27
4. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" 3:51
5. "It Ain't Me, Babe" 3:40
6. "Ballad of a Thin Man" 3:41
7. "Up on Cripple Creek" (Robertson) 5:25
8. "I Shall Be Released" 3:50
9. "Endless Highway" (Robertson) 5:10
10. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Robertson) 4:24
11. "Stage Fright" (Robertson) 4:45
Disc two:
1. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" 4:36
2. "Just Like a Woman" 5:06
3. "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" 5:48
4. "The Shape I'm In" (Robertson) 4:01
5. "When You Awake" (Manuel/Robertson) 3:13
6. "The Weight" (Robertson) 4:47
7. "All Along the Watchtower" 3:07
8. "Highway 61 Revisited" 4:27
9. "Like a Rolling Stone" 7:09
10. "Blowin' in the Wind" 4:30
Credits:
* Rick Danko: Bass guitar, fiddle, vocals.
* Bob Dylan: Guitars, harmonica, piano, vocals.
* Levon Helm: Drums, mandolin, vocals.
* Garth Hudson: Lowrey organ, clavinet, piano, keyboards, saxophones.
* Richard Manuel: Piano, electric piano, organ, drums, vocals.
* Robbie Robertson: Guitars, vocals.
* Bob Dylan and The Band: Producers.
* Phil Ramone: Recording engineer.
* Rob Fraboni: Recording & mixing engineer.
* Nat Jeffrey: Mixing engineer.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_the_Flood
Bob Dylan and The Band 1974 Tour
Dates: January 3, 1974 - February 14, 1974
The Bob Dylan the The Band 1974 Tour was a two-month concert tour in early 1974 that featured Bob Dylan, in his first real tour in eight years, performing with The Band, who as The Hawks had once been his little-known backing band.[1] It was the first time he returned to the road since his exhaustive 1966 world tour between the releases of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde.
History:
Recorded on the 40-show January and February 1974 Dylan/Band reunion tour coming on the heels of Dylans hit album Planet Waves (also backed by The Band), this live set was a high-profile comeback for both sides of the bill. While virtually all the songs here were familiar and might be considered "hits," few of them sound similar to their original versions; Dylans songs in particular are re-arranged and sung with a ferocity not found on the originals.
The concert series that resulted in this album was one of the most in-demand tickets in rock music history; tickets were sold by mail-order only and promoter Bill Graham has claimed that there were mail-order requests for more than twelve million tickets, though only about a half-million seats were available for the shows.
The 40-date, 21 city tour began on January 3, 1974 and ended on February 14, 1974. Dylan's first full-fledged tour since 1966, it received an enormous amount of coverage from the music press, and it would prove to be very profitable. Top-dollar tickets were $9.50, an extravagant sum in 1974, and the tour received 5.5 million pieces of mail, applying for up to four tickets each. According to Clinton Heylin, it's estimated that $92 million worth of checks and money orders were sent in by close to 4% of the American population.
The first show took place at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois, and it was witnessed by an audience of 18,500. The first song performed was "Hero Blues," an obscure, previously unreleased song that Dylan recorded back in 1962. Over the course of two hours, Dylan and The Band performed alternating sets broken down into three categories: Dylan performing his own songs backed by The Band, Dylan's solo acoustic performances, and The Band's performances of their own songs. There was one attempt at including Dylan in The Band's set, when Dylan played harmonica during a performance of "Share Your Love With Me", sung by Richard Manuel. Though the performance was executed without mistakes in front of an appreciative audience, after the show, Dylan and The Band decided not to include Dylan in any more of The Band's performances.
Beginning with the next concert, the tour took on a standard formula: an opening six-song Dylan/Band set, a five-song Band set, three more Dylan/Band performances, a five-song Dylan acoustic set, a three to four song Band set, and a joint finale.
At the beginning of the tour, a few songs from Planet Waves were performed in concert, but as the tour wore on, these songs gradually disappeared from the setlist. By the end, only "Forever Young" would remain. Songs like "Hero Blues" and "Nobody 'Cept You" were also performed at some of the earlier shows, but such idiosyncratic choices would eventually disappear as well. Dylan's older, celebrated compositions were already heavily favored, but as the tour wore on, they would completely dominate the shows. As Nat Hentoff would write, "Dylan's sound and beat are of the past...the gestalt is anachronistic."
Dylan and The Band were very aware of the nostalgic atmosphere surrounding the tour, even as they recast Dylan's back catalog in dramatic, new arrangements. However, there were moments where contemporary events did connect with the proceedings.
When the tour first began, the Watergate scandal was dominating the headlines. One of the most popular songs on the tour was "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)". Performed during Dylan's solo acoustic sets, it never failed to elicit cheers when Dylan got to the words, "Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked." This reaction can be heard very explicitly on the recording of the song that appears on the album.
Towards the end of the tour, Dylan and the Band made a stop at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California. Dylan would write in his tour diary that, though he felt the Oakland shows went fairly well, he had done them on little sleep. Meanwhile, Dylan's performances became less and less restrained, and Dylan would later acknowledge this in an interview taken in 1980. "When Elvis did 'That's All Right, Mama' in 1955, it was sensitivity and power. In 1969, it was just full-out power. There was nothing other than just force behind that. I've fallen into that trap, too. Take the 1974 tour. It's a very fine line you have to walk to stay in touch with something once you've created it ... Either it holds up for you or it doesn't."
Dylan's wife, Sara, was present at those final shows, and during the final show of the tour (which took place on Valentine's Day), Dylan broke from the standard setlist to play Sara's favorite song, "Mr. Tambourine Man". Accompanied by Garth Hudson on accordion, it was only the song's second appearance on the entire tour, and would not be included on Before the Flood.
Aftermath:
The shows were received with great enthusiasm, but Dylan would later claim to have hated every minute, though most evidence suggests this to be an exaggerated claim. Regardless, Levon Helm echoed those sentiments, writing in his autobiography that "the tour was damn good for our pocketbooks, but it just wasn't a very passionate trip for any of us."
The live album Before the Flood was released in June 1974, and contained a representative sample of the tour, drawn primarily from shows in New York City, Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles.
Tour ticket sales proved to Dylan that his commercial prospects were still strong on the road. Furthermore, his critical status was once again growing after years of minimal activity; it would bound far higher with the next year's release of Blood on the Tracks.
Tour musicians:
* Bob Dylan - acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals
* Rick Danko - bass, vocals
* Levon Helm - drums, vocals
* Garth Hudson - organ, piano, clavinet
* Richard Manuel - acoustic and electric pianos, organ, drums, vocals
* Robbie Robertson - lead guitar
References:
1. ^ [Sounes, Howard - Down the Highway. The Life of Bob Dylan]
* Howard Sounes: Down the Highway. The Life of Bob Dylan.. 2001.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan_and_The_Band_1974_Tour
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