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Oct 21, 2024 Web Exclusive By Hays Davis

Eight years after having being booed nightly for the electric sets on their 1966 tour, Bob Dylan and The Band (then known as The Hawks) returned to the road together, and this time with a dynamic energy that stunned fans and critics. For a startlingly expansive look at that tour, The 1974 Live Recordings is a monumental 27-CD box set that includes all professionally recorded shows performed by Dylan with The Band that year, offering an astounding 417 previously unreleased live tracks. They played to crowds that had been anticipating Dylan’s return to live performance years after a motorcycle accident, and hearing about the intensity being generated from those stages as the tour got underway would likely have ratcheted up the clamoring for tickets.

The setlists undergo considerable evolution throughout The 1974 Live Recordings, beginning with a lively “Hero Blues” that serves as the opener for two Chicago shows in this collection before dropping off. Dylan moves freely throughout his songbook for these appearances, with material ranging from his early days through the then-recent Planet Waves album that he recorded with The Band. Contrasted with the full-band performances, there are also plenty of striking moments of Dylan solo that carry just as much power, as with “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” and an animated “Gates of Eden.” Still, the energy of Dylan and The Band together is irresistible throughout, with Band members chiming on vocals to give the proceedings a me-and-the-boys vibe, as with “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” Joyfully boisterous presentations of “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and “Like a Rolling Stone” light up crowds when they pop up, while the players also meaningfully bringing the temperature down at times, as with “Forever Young.”

For those who might balk at considering such a collection, there’s always the well-received 1974 live album Before the Flood, which presented the tour’s first available recordings and also includes some of The Band’s own material, which The 1974 Live Recordings does not. However, the opportunity to aurally join Dylan and The Band for dozens of 1974 shows and to track the tour’s performance evolution over every single surviving soundboard recording is a jaw-dropping treat that would have been unimaginable in earlier years. (www.bobdylan.com)

Author rating: 8.5/10