Third Man Records vinyl exclusives, Part 61: Bob Dylan & The Band “The 1974 Live Recordings” (2024)
The 61st set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in the fall of 2024. For those who are unaware, Third Man Records is the label owned by Jack White, who was the leader of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather, and is now a solo artist. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (usually one full-length album and one 7” single) to its members every three months.
The 61st Vault package featured a 3-LP live album by Bob Dylan and The Band, recorded in 1974 during the same tour utilized for the 1974 double-album Before The Flood. The package's 7-inch single contains two additional live tracks from that tour. The 3 LP's and the single were all pressed in green vinyl. The 3-LP set was packaged in a gatefold cover. The set also contains a 15-page booklet with photos from the tour, and new liner notes by Elizabeth Nelson.
Dylan's 1974 tour reunited him with The Band nearly a decade after their notorious European tour which took place in 1965 and '66, during which Dylan infuriated folk purists by going electric. Man...those people hadn't heard nothin' yet. By 1974, Dylan had taken several years off from touring, after he was injured in a motorcycle accident. And the times had certainly a-changed since 1966. Arena rock -- something that was nearly unimaginable in '66 -- had become all the rage in the age of Led Zeppelin. Meanwhile, The Band (consisting of Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Levon Helm) had recorded six studio albums of their own, and had become roots rock heroes in their own right. So, when Dylan got back into the touring game in '74, he was expected to adapt to a much-evolved concert dynamic. When Dylan and The Band performed 39 shows in 21 cities in January and February of that year, The Band tended to play at their most intense, and Dylan often sounded like he was struggling and straining to keep up with them, and to be heard above them by the arena-sized crowds.
If you've listened to Before The Flood, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The Bob Dylan you hear on that album usually does not resemble the folk troubadour of the '60's; it's more often Bob Dylan the '70's arena rocker, putting the musical pedal to the metal, whether his voice could handle it or not. His hurried, anxious vocal delivery seemed to add a new level of anger and hostility to his well-known songs, paving the way for later artists like the Clash to sing protest songs in a more agitated fashion.
50 years later, in 2024, Columbia Records issued a mammoth 27-CD, 431-track collection of Dylan's songs drawn from all of the professionally recorded shows from the '74 tour. Unlike Before The Flood, this gargantuan set, titled The 1974 Live Recordings, did not contain any of The Band's songs, as the purpose of the set's release was to maintain Sony's ownership of its copyrighted Dylan material. I'm not going to pretend to have listened to that entire monstrosity of a box set, or even pretend to have any intention of ever doing so. But this Vault version of The 1974 Live Recordings gives us a more concise sampling of the collected material, offering 26 of the live tracks from '74 on three vinyl LP's and one 7-inch vinyl single. To differentiate this 3-LP set from the CD box set, the Third Man Vault edition is titled The 1974 Live Recordings: The Missing Songs From Before the Flood, and points out that all of its tracks were previously unreleased before 2024.
Sides A, B, and F of the 3-LP set feature recordings of Dylan performing with backing by The Band, selected from various dates on the tour. The Band's instrumentation gives Dylan's songs a big dose of rock-and-roll energy, sometimes with a harder edge than you might expect from the legendary roots rockers. Their playing seemed to have spurred Dylan on to perform with higher speed and voice volume than we usually expect from him. The opening cut "Something There Is About You", from the then-new Planet Waves album, instrumentally resembles The Band's "The Weight". For "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", The Band added an electric blues-rocking intensity that was almost on the level of early Zeppelin. The murder ballad "Ballad of Hollis Brown" was also turned into a more rugged rocker, as were Dylan's well-known folk numbers "Maggie's Farm" and "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". The country ballad "One Too Many Mornings" is served well by The Band, and would have been even better if one of the Band members had taken the lead vocal. (Of course, then it would not have been included here). "I Don't Believe You" and "It Takes A Lot To Laugh" are provided with just the right grooves by The Band. The Planet Waves selection "Forever Young" (no relation to the later Rod Stewart hit) is based on the slow version, as opposed to the faster one, but still...it sounds like Dylan felt some pressure to perform it with a bit more speed in this setting.
One of many surprising song selections used during this tour was "Hero Blues", which had been a rare outtake from Dylan's Freewheelin' second album. Why did he dust off a long-lost rarity such as this? Were his fans discovering it on YouTube, or maybe as a CD bonus track? In 1974, certainly not! Dylan was always a much-bootlegged artist; after all, the man has now issued 17 volumes of his Official Bootleg Series. Dylan's decision to include that 1962 deep cut in a 1974 concert set list was a reflection of his awareness of the bootlegs of his work which were circulating, during the earliest known days of rock's bootleg industry. In concert, "Hero Blues" was given a raw and heavy blues-rock treatment by Dylan and The Band.
The tracks on Sides C, D, and E were solo performances by Dylan, also selected from various dates on the tour. These performances are more reminiscent of the Dylan of the '60's, when he was not feeling pressure to sing above The Band's instrumentation. Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and harmonica, Dylan sang most of these tracks in a tone which sounded less nervous but no less impassioned than the tracks on the other three sides, and his voice sounded much like it did during the previous decade. The solo cuts on Side E, recorded at later dates than the ones on the other two sides, are the ones where Dylan sounded noticeably more excitable, playing his acoustic folk tunes at a faster pace. (His manner of singing on the Band-backed numbers during this tour is generally thought to have affected his singing voice forever after). Except for the Planet Waves selection "Wedding Song" and the Planet Waves outtake "Nobody 'Cept You", the song selection on these tracks are also drawn from his pre-1966 repertoire, including "Song To Woody" from his 1962 debut album, and the 1964 outtake "Mama, You've Been On My Mind", the studio version of which was not officially released until 1991. In my opinion, these three sides represent the better half of this 3-record set. Although the three sides of tracks recorded with The Band are quite good and possess some historical significance, they mainly serve as an extension of Before The Flood. But these three sides of tracks recorded solo by Dylan possibly capture him at one of the last periods of time in which he still sounded this much like he did in his early days -- and they capture him in essential form, as well.
The 7-inch single contained two more live cuts performed by Dylan and The Band during the 1974 tour. The A-side features the same version of "Blowin' In The Wind" that was included on Before The Flood, which splices the first two verses from the February 13th performance of the song together with the last verse from the February 14th performance. It sounds like one seamless track. Dylan's arena rock vocal makes him sound more frustrated than ever while he sings the protest song's lyrics; meanwhile, The Band gives the song a country-rock instrumental treatment. The B-side features a performance of "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)", taken from an earlier show than the version included on Before The Flood. During this rendition, Dylan's vocal tone is less snappy than it was on the Before The Flood version, but The Band's playing sounds even faster and more furious here than it did on that version -- which had already considerably sped up the tempo and increased the energy level from the 1966 studio version.
Another note for fellow vinyl aficionados: the practice of engraving text in the dead wax, or the runout grooves between the sticker and the last track’s grooves, is present on the two vinyl items in this Vault package. The 7-inch single has "No more" carved in Side A, and "Asylum" carved in Side B. The LP set has the first names of the musicians carved in the different sides: “Rick” is carved in Side A, “Robbie” is carved in Side B, “Richard” is carved in Side C, “Levon” is carved in Side D, "Garth" is carved in Side E, and -- last but not least -- "Bob" is carved in Side F.
Bob Dylan & The Band “The 1974 Live Recordings: The Missing Songs from Before the Flood” (Third Man TMR-989) 2024
Track Listing:
SIDE A:
1. Something There Is About You -- (1/30/74 - New York City)
2. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat -- (1/3/74 - Chicago)
3. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) -- (1/15/74 - Largo, MD)
4. Hero Blues (1/4/74 - Chicago)
Side B:
1. Tough Mama -- (1/3/74 - Chicago)
2. Maggie's Farm -- (2/14/74 - Evening Show, Inglewood, CA)
3. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues -- (2/13/74 - Inglewood, CA)
SIDE C:
1. Song To Woody -- (1/6/74 - Evening Show, Philadelphia) *
2. Nobody 'Cept You -- (1/3/74 - Chicago) *
3. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll -- (1/3/74 - Chicago) *
4. Love Minus Zero / No Limit -- (1/4/74 - Chicago) *
5. To Ramona -- (1/6/74 - Afternoon Show, Philadelphia) *
SIDE D:
1. Girl From The North Country -- (1/9/74 - Toronto) *
2. Mr. Tambourine Man -- (1/6/74 - Evening Show, Philadelphia) *
3. Mama, You've Been On My Mind -- (1/6/74 - Afternoon Show, Philadelphia) *
4. Wedding Song -- (1/15/74 - Largo, MD) *
SIDE E:
1. Gates of Eden -- (1/31/74 - Evening Show, New York City) *
2. She Belongs To Me -- (2/11/74 - Afternoon Show, Oakland) *
3. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue -- (2/14/74 - Afternoon Show, Inglewood, CA) *
4. The Times They Are A-Changin' -- (2/14/74 - Evening Show, Inglewood, CA) *
SIDE F:
1. Ballad of Hollis Brown -- (1/26/74 - Afternoon Show, Houston)
2. One Too Many Mornings -- (1/16/74 - Largo, MD)
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry -- (1/9/74 - Toronto)
4. Forever Young -- (2/13/74 - Inglewood, CA)
* -- Bob Dylan solo
Bob Dylan & The Band "Blowin' In The Wind" (Third Man single TMR-993) 2024
a. Blowin' In The Wind -- (2/13-2/17/74 - Inglewood, CA)
b. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) -- (1/30/74 - New York City)
Reviews of other Third Man Vault packages
The 61st Vault package featured a 3-LP live album by Bob Dylan and The Band, recorded in 1974 during the same tour utilized for the 1974 double-album Before The Flood. The package's 7-inch single contains two additional live tracks from that tour. The 3 LP's and the single were all pressed in green vinyl. The 3-LP set was packaged in a gatefold cover. The set also contains a 15-page booklet with photos from the tour, and new liner notes by Elizabeth Nelson.
Dylan's 1974 tour reunited him with The Band nearly a decade after their notorious European tour which took place in 1965 and '66, during which Dylan infuriated folk purists by going electric. Man...those people hadn't heard nothin' yet. By 1974, Dylan had taken several years off from touring, after he was injured in a motorcycle accident. And the times had certainly a-changed since 1966. Arena rock -- something that was nearly unimaginable in '66 -- had become all the rage in the age of Led Zeppelin. Meanwhile, The Band (consisting of Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Levon Helm) had recorded six studio albums of their own, and had become roots rock heroes in their own right. So, when Dylan got back into the touring game in '74, he was expected to adapt to a much-evolved concert dynamic. When Dylan and The Band performed 39 shows in 21 cities in January and February of that year, The Band tended to play at their most intense, and Dylan often sounded like he was struggling and straining to keep up with them, and to be heard above them by the arena-sized crowds.
If you've listened to Before The Flood, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The Bob Dylan you hear on that album usually does not resemble the folk troubadour of the '60's; it's more often Bob Dylan the '70's arena rocker, putting the musical pedal to the metal, whether his voice could handle it or not. His hurried, anxious vocal delivery seemed to add a new level of anger and hostility to his well-known songs, paving the way for later artists like the Clash to sing protest songs in a more agitated fashion.
50 years later, in 2024, Columbia Records issued a mammoth 27-CD, 431-track collection of Dylan's songs drawn from all of the professionally recorded shows from the '74 tour. Unlike Before The Flood, this gargantuan set, titled The 1974 Live Recordings, did not contain any of The Band's songs, as the purpose of the set's release was to maintain Sony's ownership of its copyrighted Dylan material. I'm not going to pretend to have listened to that entire monstrosity of a box set, or even pretend to have any intention of ever doing so. But this Vault version of The 1974 Live Recordings gives us a more concise sampling of the collected material, offering 26 of the live tracks from '74 on three vinyl LP's and one 7-inch vinyl single. To differentiate this 3-LP set from the CD box set, the Third Man Vault edition is titled The 1974 Live Recordings: The Missing Songs From Before the Flood, and points out that all of its tracks were previously unreleased before 2024.
Sides A, B, and F of the 3-LP set feature recordings of Dylan performing with backing by The Band, selected from various dates on the tour. The Band's instrumentation gives Dylan's songs a big dose of rock-and-roll energy, sometimes with a harder edge than you might expect from the legendary roots rockers. Their playing seemed to have spurred Dylan on to perform with higher speed and voice volume than we usually expect from him. The opening cut "Something There Is About You", from the then-new Planet Waves album, instrumentally resembles The Band's "The Weight". For "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", The Band added an electric blues-rocking intensity that was almost on the level of early Zeppelin. The murder ballad "Ballad of Hollis Brown" was also turned into a more rugged rocker, as were Dylan's well-known folk numbers "Maggie's Farm" and "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". The country ballad "One Too Many Mornings" is served well by The Band, and would have been even better if one of the Band members had taken the lead vocal. (Of course, then it would not have been included here). "I Don't Believe You" and "It Takes A Lot To Laugh" are provided with just the right grooves by The Band. The Planet Waves selection "Forever Young" (no relation to the later Rod Stewart hit) is based on the slow version, as opposed to the faster one, but still...it sounds like Dylan felt some pressure to perform it with a bit more speed in this setting.
One of many surprising song selections used during this tour was "Hero Blues", which had been a rare outtake from Dylan's Freewheelin' second album. Why did he dust off a long-lost rarity such as this? Were his fans discovering it on YouTube, or maybe as a CD bonus track? In 1974, certainly not! Dylan was always a much-bootlegged artist; after all, the man has now issued 17 volumes of his Official Bootleg Series. Dylan's decision to include that 1962 deep cut in a 1974 concert set list was a reflection of his awareness of the bootlegs of his work which were circulating, during the earliest known days of rock's bootleg industry. In concert, "Hero Blues" was given a raw and heavy blues-rock treatment by Dylan and The Band.
The tracks on Sides C, D, and E were solo performances by Dylan, also selected from various dates on the tour. These performances are more reminiscent of the Dylan of the '60's, when he was not feeling pressure to sing above The Band's instrumentation. Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and harmonica, Dylan sang most of these tracks in a tone which sounded less nervous but no less impassioned than the tracks on the other three sides, and his voice sounded much like it did during the previous decade. The solo cuts on Side E, recorded at later dates than the ones on the other two sides, are the ones where Dylan sounded noticeably more excitable, playing his acoustic folk tunes at a faster pace. (His manner of singing on the Band-backed numbers during this tour is generally thought to have affected his singing voice forever after). Except for the Planet Waves selection "Wedding Song" and the Planet Waves outtake "Nobody 'Cept You", the song selection on these tracks are also drawn from his pre-1966 repertoire, including "Song To Woody" from his 1962 debut album, and the 1964 outtake "Mama, You've Been On My Mind", the studio version of which was not officially released until 1991. In my opinion, these three sides represent the better half of this 3-record set. Although the three sides of tracks recorded with The Band are quite good and possess some historical significance, they mainly serve as an extension of Before The Flood. But these three sides of tracks recorded solo by Dylan possibly capture him at one of the last periods of time in which he still sounded this much like he did in his early days -- and they capture him in essential form, as well.
The 7-inch single contained two more live cuts performed by Dylan and The Band during the 1974 tour. The A-side features the same version of "Blowin' In The Wind" that was included on Before The Flood, which splices the first two verses from the February 13th performance of the song together with the last verse from the February 14th performance. It sounds like one seamless track. Dylan's arena rock vocal makes him sound more frustrated than ever while he sings the protest song's lyrics; meanwhile, The Band gives the song a country-rock instrumental treatment. The B-side features a performance of "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)", taken from an earlier show than the version included on Before The Flood. During this rendition, Dylan's vocal tone is less snappy than it was on the Before The Flood version, but The Band's playing sounds even faster and more furious here than it did on that version -- which had already considerably sped up the tempo and increased the energy level from the 1966 studio version.
Another note for fellow vinyl aficionados: the practice of engraving text in the dead wax, or the runout grooves between the sticker and the last track’s grooves, is present on the two vinyl items in this Vault package. The 7-inch single has "No more" carved in Side A, and "Asylum" carved in Side B. The LP set has the first names of the musicians carved in the different sides: “Rick” is carved in Side A, “Robbie” is carved in Side B, “Richard” is carved in Side C, “Levon” is carved in Side D, "Garth" is carved in Side E, and -- last but not least -- "Bob" is carved in Side F.
Bob Dylan & The Band “The 1974 Live Recordings: The Missing Songs from Before the Flood” (Third Man TMR-989) 2024
Track Listing:
SIDE A:
1. Something There Is About You -- (1/30/74 - New York City)
2. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat -- (1/3/74 - Chicago)
3. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) -- (1/15/74 - Largo, MD)
4. Hero Blues (1/4/74 - Chicago)
Side B:
1. Tough Mama -- (1/3/74 - Chicago)
2. Maggie's Farm -- (2/14/74 - Evening Show, Inglewood, CA)
3. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues -- (2/13/74 - Inglewood, CA)
SIDE C:
1. Song To Woody -- (1/6/74 - Evening Show, Philadelphia) *
2. Nobody 'Cept You -- (1/3/74 - Chicago) *
3. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll -- (1/3/74 - Chicago) *
4. Love Minus Zero / No Limit -- (1/4/74 - Chicago) *
5. To Ramona -- (1/6/74 - Afternoon Show, Philadelphia) *
SIDE D:
1. Girl From The North Country -- (1/9/74 - Toronto) *
2. Mr. Tambourine Man -- (1/6/74 - Evening Show, Philadelphia) *
3. Mama, You've Been On My Mind -- (1/6/74 - Afternoon Show, Philadelphia) *
4. Wedding Song -- (1/15/74 - Largo, MD) *
SIDE E:
1. Gates of Eden -- (1/31/74 - Evening Show, New York City) *
2. She Belongs To Me -- (2/11/74 - Afternoon Show, Oakland) *
3. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue -- (2/14/74 - Afternoon Show, Inglewood, CA) *
4. The Times They Are A-Changin' -- (2/14/74 - Evening Show, Inglewood, CA) *
SIDE F:
1. Ballad of Hollis Brown -- (1/26/74 - Afternoon Show, Houston)
2. One Too Many Mornings -- (1/16/74 - Largo, MD)
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry -- (1/9/74 - Toronto)
4. Forever Young -- (2/13/74 - Inglewood, CA)
* -- Bob Dylan solo
Bob Dylan & The Band "Blowin' In The Wind" (Third Man single TMR-993) 2024
a. Blowin' In The Wind -- (2/13-2/17/74 - Inglewood, CA)
b. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) -- (1/30/74 - New York City)
Reviews of other Third Man Vault packages
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