Bob Dylan and The Band 1974 Tour - Shows

Shows

The 40-date, 21 city tour began on January 3, 1974 and ended on February 14, 1974. The show reunited Dylan with The Band on stage after the release of the Dylan's Band-backed Planet Waves album. This 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; Dylan’s songs in particular are re-arranged and sung with a ferocity not found on the originals. A live double album, Before the Flood, was recorded during the tour.

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.