THIRD MAN RECORDS
ANNOUNCES VAULT PACKAGE #61:
BOB DYLAN’S THE 1974 LIVE RECORDINGS:
THE MISSING SONGS FROM BEFORE THE FLOOD
3xLP GREEN VINYL SET CHRONICLES DYLAN’S LEGENDARY 1974 TOUR WITH THE BAND AND INCLUDES A 1970s-STYLED SOUVENIR TOUR BOOK
WITH PHOTOS AND ARCHIVAL MATERIAL, PLUS A 7” OF “BLOWIN' IN THE WIND” B/W “MOST LIKELY YOU GO YOUR WAY (AND I’LL GO MINE)”
(LIVE 1974)
SUBSCRIBE BY JULY 31, 2024 AT MIDNIGHT CST TO RECEIVE THIS PACKAGE
In honor of the 15-year anniversary of the Vault, the longest continuously running vinyl subscription club in the world, Third Man Records in conjunction with Columbia Records / Legacy Recordings is proud to announce its 61st Vault package, Bob Dylan’s The 1974 Live Recordings: The Missing Songs From
Before The Flood. The box set chronicles Dylan’s legendary 1974 tour with The Band, a pivotal moment that saw them performing for their largest crowds to date.
With a variety of full show performances available to cull from in the compiling of Before The Flood it was natural that some songs, no matter how compelling and powerful, would not fit on the original 2xLP release in 1974. Pressed at Third Man Pressing in Detroit on three charming green LPs, this configuration is the only vinyl release of any of the archived 1974 live recordings.
As an added bonus, Third Man has designed a classic 1970’s-styled souvenir tour book. Comprising photos taken during this momentous tour and of-the-era graphics and archival material, this 8.5 x 11 inch, 20 page book is the perfect visual accompaniment to the moving, powerful audio it is paired with. To top it all off, included here is a 7-inch single featuring the inimitable “Blowin' In The Wind” as originally included on Before The Flood backed with an incendiary take of “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” recorded at Madison Square Garden on January 30th, 1974.
Bob Dylan’s 1974 Tour marked his first time touring live in eight years and reunited him with The Band - who had become widely renowned in their own right since backing the artist nearly a decade earlier. Booked into arenas for the first time ever, Bob Dylan and The Band performed 30 dates in 42 days (often playing two sets per day) before an average audience of 18,500 - helping set a new standard for what
rock concerts could look and sound like. And in front of those crowds, they brought an energy that Rolling Stone’s Ben Fong-Torres described as “searing and soaring, unified and precise…excellent in itself.” Music critic Robert Christgau compared the sound to Bob Dylan “running over his old songs like a truck.”
Tour ‘74 kicked off January 3, 1974, at Chicago Stadium - the largest indoor arena in the world at the time it was built - with a tense and combative rip through ultimate deep-cut “Hero Blues,” an acoustic- gone-electric outtake from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan sessions, that he had scarcely performed before
- or since. Additional rarities - like a wildly-reinvented “Ballad Of Hollis Brown,” “Song to Woody” (not performed since 1962) and Planet Waves outtake “Nobody ‘Cept You” - would be well received in the tour’s first nights. “We were booed off of every stage in Europe,” The Band’s Robbie Robertson recalled to Newsweek of their previous run together. “What happened tonight in Chicago is so reassuring for us.”
The reception wasn’t the only thing that had changed since Bob Dylan and The Band last toured together in 1966. Since then, The Band had released six LPs, played Woodstock and other famous stages, and recorded a series of historic sessions with Bob Dylan - from The Basement Tapes to Planet Waves. For his part, Bob Dylan had effectively retired from the road altogether following a 1966
motorcycle accident, yet was still “widely regarded as the most influential and significant star in the last 10 years of American popular music,” according to The New York Times.
Though they might not have known it at the time, Bob Dylan and The Band were at the vanguard of a new era. Tour ‘74 would help create the template for the major rock tour, and codify many of its shared experiences - from the sight of audiences holding up lighters en masse (as captured in the iconic cover image for Before The Flood), to the bright flash of the house lights during a show’s signal moment, in this
case their performance of “Like A Rolling Stone.” Likewise many songs performed live for the first time on Tour ‘74 - “All Along The Watchtower,” “Forever Young” and the show’s eventual opener-and-closer “Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)” - would take on a life of their own.
BOB DYLAN
THE 1974 LIVE RECORDINGS: THE MISSING SONGS FROM BEFORE THE FLOOD
TRACK LIST:
LP 1, 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
LP 1, 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
LP 2, 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*
LP 2, 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*
LP 3, 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*
LP 3, 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
7-inch single
Side A - Blowin’ In The Wind – 2/13-14/74, Inglewood, CA
Side B - Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – 1/30/74 New York City
All tracks previously unreleased except for “Blowin’ In The Wind”
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano with The Band
Robbie Robertson: guitar
Garth Hudson: organ, piano, clavinet, accordion
Richard Manuel: piano, electric piano, organ, drums
Rick Danko: bass guitar
Levon Helm: drums
* Bob Dylan only
I’m not a Bob Dylan fan but I am always excited about getting new vault packages. Especially ones with so many deep cuts.
What surprises me still are the negitive comments, the whole point of the vault is diversity and exploring new music . im so very excited for this vault and because of the last vault i was introduced to WITCH and ive loved them so much ive purchesed their earlier records. Thats what Jack White is all about, all of his music is different and sometimes you may not love it but its always unique. Please keep surprising us , haters gonna hate!!
This is gonna be a great one!
The vault isnt for everyone. Its not cheap and you have to have an open mind and a little faith. Im excited to hear most of these songs for the first time ever!
While I never much liked “Before The Flood” (obvious song choices, Bob screaming all the songs with The Band) to me this one is essential, mainly for the second LP and Side 1 of the third, because he did songs solo that he hadn’t done since Gerde’s Folk City and they are fresh since it was early on in the tour. I hope someday we get some of the ‘78 tour (or better yet the REHERSALS!) officially on vinyl.
I can’t wait to get this package! I love the non-Jack Vaults every bit as much as the Jack related ones.
Are we just out of White Stripes/JW/Racontuers/Dead Weather material to throw a Vault package together? If so, please let us know so we can adjust our buying habits accordingly. If there was even a tie back to Jack, I would be more excited about stuff like this. If the tie back is, Jack met Bob Dylan once, that is just not cutting it for me. I really hope we can unearth some new JW material in the next Vault but I am not holding my breath.
Cancelled my auto subscription…
This shit is getting ridiculous… is this the third man records vault? So far this year we’ve had Elvis, a consortment of acts including a single Hack White album from 10 year ago in the Blue Room, and now a second Dillon vault offering…
Tell me, is this one going to end up on Apple Music too?
This is utter nonsense.
I’ve got an idea, how bout you give those of us with over 30 vaults an opportunity to swap for a previous package we may have missed. You know, from the era when the vault was actually Hack White music
This is quickly becoming a vault of obscure bullshit… like carol fuckin king… what is that shit
Whoever compiled this track list was very determined to include a healthy selection of rare, overlooked songs that highlight Dylan’s roots. Hero Blues, Song To Woody, To Ramona, Mama Youve Been on my Mind… these are sacred discoveries when digging in to those magical early years of Dylan. It will be a blessing to be able to listen to him play these raritirs with the Band, maybe the only group of guys he trusted to tread the sacred grounds of these songs with.
Insane package and awesome selection of tracks in prime Dylan/the band era. Cant wait to get this in my hands. Gonna be an essential vault package for sure