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DYLAN & THE BAND: "Before The Flood"

Original Released in 1974, June 20
US: 2LP Asylum AB 201 (later Columbia KC 37661)
UK: 2LP Island IDBD1
Recorded Live at the LA Forum,
between January 30 and February 14, 1974

Twelve million people applied for tickets for a forty-date tour, playing large arenas. Looking back, Dylan recalled that «it wasn't a tour where a bunch of guys get together and say let's go out and play. There was a great demand for that tour, and it had been building up, so we went out and did it. We were playin' three, four nights at Madison Square Garden, but what justified that? We hadn't made any records». He actually played one afternoon and two evening shows at Madison Square - it just must have seemed that way. Dylan had not toured since 1966 and it was now a different world; what had been adventure was now big business - «everybody had a piece of the action. The publicity people. The promoters. I had no control over what was going on». "Planet Waves" was slipped out about a third of the way through the tour, delayed by Dylan's change in title. He rarely played songs from it on stage. This led to disappointing sales of just over half a million, and Dylan returning to Columbia. This double live album - one of the first - was owed as a contractual obligation. It was been a subject of controversy among Dylan fans ever since. Rather than capture the ebb and flow of a live show, tracks were cherry-picked from four separate concerts. Even so, the album was brillantly programmed over four sides of vinyl, each with its own atmosphere, and it does convey the structure of eac show - Dylan with the Band, the Band solo, Dylan solo, the Band again and back together till the end of the show.

 On the front cover fans hold matches alight and aloft, while other shots of Barry Feinstein catch the six men onstage, intent and serious. A nightly highlight was Richard Manuel's hoarse, straining vocal on "I Shall Be Released" that is captured here on the Band's set. The critical dispute centres over the quality of the tour as a whole that was much the same from stadium to stadium. Dylan himself makes a comparison with Elvis, the 'sensitivity and power' of the Sun sessions as compared to the 'full-out' power of his 1969 TV comeback. There is an urgency and sense of rush here that makes this concert tour unmistakeable. For Michael Gray, «there is an over-speedy, breakneck quality here that does little justice to the lyrics» with Dylan simply throwing his head back and yelling, like a hound. Subtlety and nuance, forget 'em. Real fans have never liked it.

David Cavanagh revaluates the album: «it lacks the usual smugness shared by performer and audience of such affairs. This is feral, and Dylan is aggressive not cuddly. The verses are punched out... the four-man choruses are all but screamed. The next time people heard music this billious, it was being made by The Clash». He is backed upb by Tim Riley: «this is the nostalgia album that beat the oldies trap, a tour of 60s landmarks that made a glance backwards seem entirely contemporary». Paul Williams saw one of the concerts sampled here in real time and didn't enjoy watching a show from so far away - "about a mile in back of the singer's head" - is amazed how good it now sounds, and so well recorded, especially Levon's drums. It captures the moment when a great artist 'saw daylight. (Brian Hinton in "Bob Dylan Album File & Complete Discography")

TIMES TO REMEMBER 27

MAGGIE BELL: "Queen Of The Night"

Original released on LP Atlantic SD 7293

(US, April 1974)

Producer Jerry Wexler puts the earthy vocals of Maggie Bell in a beautiful setting here. She stretches John Prine's "Souvenirs" to the max with Steve Gadd ably assisting by splashing the drums as deep as Bell's vocals. Her uptempo version of J.J. Cale's "After Midnight" is more captivating than Eric Clapton's; she oozes that Etta James sexuality while Reggie Young throws some tasty guitar into the semi-calypso groove. Bell's identity is unique on much of the material, but a couple of tunes have her paying tribute to some of her sisters. The title track, "Queen of the Night," is drenched in gorgeous harmonies by the Sweet Inspirations and is pure Genya Ravan, but conversely, the cover of "A Woman Left Lonely," embraced totally by Janis Joplin on "Pearl", is a sweet vocal and totally alien to how Joplin ripped the song to shreds so wonderfully. It works on an entirely different level on "Queen of the Night" - Bell's voice is an instrument that slips into different styles on a moment's notice. She takes the fun but silly Ringo Starr/Vini Poncia number five hit from the same year and gives it some style, then turns around with Deadric Malone's "As the Years Go Passing By" and delivers another brand of quality sound. Cornell Dupree's fabulous guitar leads cook in the background - the frosting on the cake for "As the Years Go Passing By." Intense and beautiful, it is the real sleeper here. While Merry Clayton was singing backup on Ringo Starr's "Oh My My" and ex-Black Oak Arkansas Ruby Starr would track Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed," Bell broke through her Stone the Crows image to cover a range of ideas, giving even David Clayton Thomas some respectability, taking his original "Yesterday's Music" to new heights with a Bonnie Bramlett-style touch of gospel. From Will Jennings to Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen, Bell's "Queen of the Night" is a stunningly marvelous mix of blues, pop, soul, and Southern rock. "We Had It All" builds with a smoldering tension that gives Bell a platform for her inspired phrasings. Sager must've been over the top when she first heard this version of "The Other Side." This is music straight from the heart, which concludes with "Trade Winds," piano, drums, and Bell's voice tapering off like the end of a great set at some intimate nightclub. This is an extraordinary creation worth pulling out when you want to appreciate a fine wine like "Queen of the Night". (Joe Viglione in AllMusic)

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BOB DYLAN: "Planet Waves"

Original released on LP 

Asylum 7E-1003 (US) / Island ILPS 9261 (UK)

(1974, January 17) 

The Bob Dylan and The Band 1974 tour coincided with the release of "Planet Waves" and it also began a new era in Dylan's career that saw him reapproaching older material in increasingly experimental and altered ways, something Dylan is now utterly synonymous with, be it lovingly or to much chagrin. Newly signed to Asylum Records in the US and Island in the UK, Dylan's 14th studio LP was characterised by the return of The Band. Dylan so agonised over the arrangement for "Forever Young" that it's included twice - the slow version, at the closing of Side A, is wonderful. Recorded hastily, it's a strong set, although few predicted the sheer brilliance that was to follow over the next two years as Dylan unleashed first "Blood on the Tracks" then "Desire". The moral of the story: don't try to second guess Bob Dylan (in LongLiveVinyl)

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JOAN BAEZ CANTA EN ESPAÑOL

Original released on LP A&M SP-3614

(US, March 1974)

Despite her Latin heritage, Joan Baez probably wouldn't have been encouraged by her 1960s record label, the New York-based independent Vanguard, to sing an entire album in Spanish. At A&M Records, the Los Angeles firm co-founded by Herb Alpert that she joined in the early '70s, however, it would have been a different story, and it was A&M that released "Gracias a la Vida" ("Here's to Life") in 1974. Baez demonstrates an affinity for Mexican folk music on such obvious choices as "Cucurrucucu Paloma," but it's no surprise that, a year after the assassination of leading nueva canción folksinger Victor Jara in a military coup in Chile, an atrocity that shocked the American folk community, she has not backed away from her political commitments. There is "Guantanamera," a song that may have been a Top Ten U.S. hit for the Sandpipers in 1966, but that has political implications, as Pete Seeger has been reminding listeners for more than a decade. There is a Spanish version of "We Shall Not Be Moved" ("No Nos Moveran") with a lengthy spoken introduction. There are songs like "El Preso Numero Nueve" ("Prisoner Number Nine"; repeated from 1960's "Joan Baez") and "Esquinazo del Guerrillero" ("The Guerillas Serenade"). And, inevitably, there is a song of Jara's, "Te Recuerdo Amanda" ("I Remember You Amanda"), which the slain singer wrote for his mother. But then there is also "Dida," a wordless duet with Joni Mitchell. Throughout, Baez demonstrates her mastery of Spanish singing over authentic arrangements while attempting to stir up her Spanish-speaking listeners just as she does their English-speaking compatriots. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

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EDMUNDO ROS: "Caribbean Ros"

Original released on LP Decca PFS 4302

(UK, 1974)