Planet Waves - Aftermath

Aftermath

Planet Waves was Dylan's first 'proper' album in three and a half years. With a planned tour to follow (his first since 1966 and backed by the same band that supported him on that legendary tour), the media coverage was enormous. Asylum Records planned on releasing Planet Waves the same day the tour began, but an album title change (from Ceremonies of the Horsemen) and a last minute substitution in liner notes (also written by Dylan) pushed the release date back two weeks.

Planet Waves would ship gold, topping Billboard's album charts on the basis of advance orders, but by the end of 1974, it sold a modest 600,000 copies, selling only 100,000 units after those initial orders were made. The figures were a surprise considering the enormous success of the tour; it is estimated that $92 million worth of checks and money orders were sent in from roughly ten million ticket applicants.

The critical reception was generally positive, if a bit muted. The consensus was ultimately strong enough to secure Planet Waves at #18 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1974. "In a time when all the most prestigious music, even what passes for funk, is coated with silicone grease, Dylan is telling us to take that grease and jam it," wrote critic Robert Christgau. "Sure he's domestic, but his version of conjugal love is anything but smug, and this comes through in both the lyrics and the sound of the record itself. Blissful, sometimes, but sometimes it sounds like stray cat music—scrawny, cocky, and yowling up the stairs."

Ellen Willis of The New Yorker wrote, "Planet Waves is unlike all other Dylan albums: it is openly personal...I think the subject of Planet Waves is what it appears to be—Dylan's aesthetic and practical dilemma, and his immense emotional debt to Sara."

Though most of Planet Waves was played on the tour (including a solo, acoustic rendition of the outtake, "Nobody 'Cept You"), as the tour progressed, songs from Planet Waves were removed from the setlist. By the end of the tour, only "Forever Young" would remain.

In the meantime, Dylan and The Band would professionally record many of the shows as they planned their next release. Only "Forever Young," "Hazel," and "Tough Mama" have been performed in recent years.