•
Rating:
A joint tour to boost their respective standings. For some time, indeed, Bob Dylan, the sacred monster of international music, was struggling against his own persona, of which he had become a prisoner. After the electric successes of "Bringing It All Back Home," "Highway 61 Revisited," and "Blonde On Blonde," and following the now-famous motorcycle accident, Dylan withdrew into private life, producing albums that somehow deviated from his myth: "John Wesley Harding" marked a return to certain acoustic sounds, while with the subsequent "Nashville Skyline" and "New Morning" (overlooking the fiascoes of "Self Portrait" and "Dylan"), country music began to make its way into Zimmerman's music. More than good records, but certainly having little to do with the Dylan venerated by throngs of fans: in fact, the acclaim for this new guise was certainly cooler compared to the past, and little or nothing remained of the poet who had entranced audiences.
The Band, on the other hand, followed a more linear path, although after the first albums, creativity began to wane: thus, in the fall of '73, Mr. Zimmerman and the group led by Robbie Robertson joined forces to record the songwriter's new album, the decent "Planet Waves", memorable for the presence of tracks like "Going, Going, Gone" and especially the two versions of "Forever Young": overall, however, only slightly more than a pretext for going on tour.
Punctually, at the dawn of the new year, the "Bob Dylan and The Band 1974 Tour" is announced, from which material for a double album is drawn: the LP version is perfect for understanding the show's division into its four parts. The first, with Dylan and The Band united to play pieces by the minstrel from Duluth, begins with the rowdy versions of bluesy tunes "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," then slows down with "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and the monumental "Ballad Of A Thin Man."
The second part features The Band alone presenting its classics, mostly taken from the first albums, which do not particularly differ from the (wonderful) studio versions; the third begins with Dylan solo on acoustic and continues with The Band playing other songs on their own (still drawn from the first three records of their career), including the always successful "The Weight." A grand finale on the second side of the last LP, in which the protagonists once again join forces for the last four classics taken from Zimmerman's repertoire: "All Along The Watchtower" and "Highway 61 Revisited" have explosive energy, while a "Like A Rolling Stone" enriched by the full sound of The Band yet rather faithful to the original serves as a prelude to the concluding "Blowin' In The Wind," adorned compared to the original acoustic version by the warm sound of the musicians involved.
Already together on the famous electric tour of 1966 and in the rich "The Basement Tapes," Dylan & The Band are a trademark on which to place sure reliance. Try it to believe it.
Loading comments slowly
