The Bob Dylan the The Band 1974 Tour was a two-month concert tour in early 1974 that featured Bob Dylan, in his first real tour in eight years, performing with The Band, who as The Hawks had once been his little-known backing band. Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. ... The Band were an influential Canadian-American rock group of the 1960s and 1970s. ... January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... A concert comprises a performance, usually involving some degree of formality, and particularly a performance featuring music. ... Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. ... The Band were an influential Canadian-American rock group of the 1960s and 1970s. ...

History

Recorded on the 40-show January and February 1974 Dylan/Band reunion tour coming on the heels of Dylan’s hit album Planet Waves (also backed by The Band), this live set 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. Planet Waves (1974) is an album by Bob Dylan, and was recorded with The Band at Village Recorder in Los Angeles during three different sessions in November 1973. ...

The concert series that resulted in this album was one of the most in-demand tickets in rock music history; tickets were sold by mail-order only and promoter Bill Graham has claimed that there were mail-order requests for more than twelve million tickets, though only about a half-million seats were available for the shows. Cover of Bill Graham Presents Bill Graham (January 8, 1931–October 25, 1991) was a well-known concert promoter, beginning in the 1960s. ...

The 40-date, 21 city tour began on January 3, 1974 and ended on February 14, 1974. Dylan's first full-fledged tour since 1966, it received an enormous amount of coverage from the music press, and it would prove to be very profitable. Top-dollar tickets were $9.50, an extravagant sum in 1974, and the tour received 5.5 million pieces of mail, applying for up to four tickets each. According to Clinton Heylin, it's estimated that $92 million worth of checks and money orders were sent in by close to 4% of the American population. January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

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. Chicago Stadium was known as The Madhouse On Madison. The Chicago Stadium was a famed and historic indoor arena in Chicago, Illinois. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... Richard Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian musician and songwriter probably best known for his membership in The Band. ...

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." This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...

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. The term Watergate refers to a series of events, spanning from 1972 to 1974, that got its name from burglaries of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel complex in Washington, D.C.. Though then-President Nixon had endured two years of mounting political embarrassments, the...

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." McAfee Coliseum is a stadium located in Oakland, California that is used for football and baseball games. ... Oakland, founded in 1852, is the eighth-largest city in California and the county seat of Alameda County. ...

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. Sara Dylan (born Wilmington, Delaware, October 28, 1939), born as Shirley Marlin Noznisky and later known as Sara Lownds, was the first wife of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. ... Valentines Day postcard, c. ... Mr. ... Eric Garth Hudson (b. ...

Aftermath

The shows were received with great enthusiasm, but Dylan would later claim to have hated every minute, though most evidence suggests this to be an exaggerated claim. Regardless, Levon Helm echoed those sentiments, writing in his autobiography that "the tour was damn good for our pocketbooks, but it just wasn't a very passionate trip for any of us." Mark Lavon Helm, a. ...

The live album Before the Flood was released in June 1974, and contained a representative sample of the tour, drawn primarily from shows in New York City, Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles. A live album is a musical recording containing recorded concert performances. ... Before the Flood is the title of a 1974 live album by Bob Dylan and The Band. ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ... Oakland, founded in 1852, is the eighth-largest city in California and the county seat of Alameda County. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ...

Tour ticket sales proved to Dylan that his commercial prospects were still strong on the road. Furthermore, his critical status was once again growing after years of minimal activity; it would bound far higher with the next year's release of Blood on the Tracks. Blood on the Tracks is a 1975 album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. ...

Tour musicians

• Bob Dylan - acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals
• Rick Danko - bass, vocals
• Levon Helm - drums, vocals
• Garth Hudson - organ, piano, clavinet
• Richard Manuel - acoustic and electric pianos, organ, drums, vocals
• Robbie Robertson - lead guitar