Bob Dylan & The Band

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02.14.1974/ Early Show, Set 1
Tracks: 14 / Total Time: 58:39


Bob Dylan - guitar, piano, vocals, harmonica
Robbie Robertson -guitar, vocals
Rick Danko - bass, fiddle, vocals
Richard Manuel - piano, vocals, drums
Garth Hudson - organ, clavinet, piano, synthesizer, saxophone
Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, vocals

Journey back to 1974 and Bob Dylan's return to the stage following a seven-and-a-half year touring hiatus. As Dylan and The Band made their way across North America during the first two months of that year, expectations were tremendous. The tour was the hottest ticket in town, so much so that the US post office had to set up extra mailboxes for ticket orders in many of the major cities. Over five million paid mail orders were reportedly sent in for the 650,000 tickets available over the course of the tour, making them the most in-demand ticket in the history of rock music. Forty concerts were performed in forty-three days, culminating in three performances at The Forum in Inglewood, California, where the bulk of the live album, Before The Flood, was recorded. From the start, a live album was planned; it was the first of Dylan's career and his new label (he left Columbia for David Geffen's Asylum label the previous year) had high expectations. These pressures were likely insignificant compared to Dylan knowing he must transcend his legendary status and the expectations of his audience which, despite his absence from touring, had only grown stronger in the intervening years.

Also contributing to the nearly rabid anticipation for this tour was Dylan teaming back up with The Band who, with the exception of drummer Levon Helm, had backed Dylan on the infamous tour of Europe in 1966 and played on the Basement Tapes. Indeed, with the exception of his first electric performance at Newport in 1965 and his guest appearance at the Concerts For Bangla Desh in 1970, The Band were the only group to back Dylan publicly up to this point in time. Through the bourgeoning underground network of bootleg recordings, Dylan and The Band's musical relationship had taken on a near mythical and legendary status, despite having never been released or even heard by the vast majority of fans at the time. Since Dylan's touring hiatus began in 1966, The Band had become one of the most respected and influential groups on the planet, having released a series of albums that remain some of the most compelling and distinctly original of the late 1960s. Performing less frequently, The Band were a considerable draw on their own by this point and with their 1971 Cahoots LP being their last to contain new original music (1973's Moondog Matinee was an album of covers), they too were faced with daunting expectations.

As the tour progressed, Dylan and The Band experimented with song selection and sequencing, consciously avoiding the standard opener/closer routine and instead mixing things up a bit within each set. Performing within a basic two set format, each set presented The Band performing both with and without Dylan; additionally, following the intermission, Dylan began each second set solo acoustic, something he hadn't attempted in quite some time. Once a few adjustments were made, the pacing and sequencing of the concerts worked well and stayed relatively consistent, giving both Dylan and The Band opportunities to perform together and alone. Revealing that Dylan was quite aware of audience expectations, he chose to perform a variety of his most revered songs, including quite a few from the 1966 tour set list, while avoiding recent material from Self Portrait and New Morning. With the notable exception of "Forever Young," Dylan even avoided material from Planet Waves, the new album recorded with The Band, released a few weeks into the tour. Instead, he returned to many of the songs that established his reputation in the first place, but as would become more prevalent in the years to come, he often revamped or rearranged them, bringing entirely new meanings to a lyric by emphasizing different words or occasionally by changing the lyrics altogether.

Dylan and The Band together on stage was an event to be celebrated and few left disappointed, but what one gets out of these performances has a lot to do with the baggage they bring to listening. The same applied to the audiences on this tour. While nearly everyone was celebrating the event itself, those with the fewest preconceptions had a greater chance of unhindered discovery, while those fixated on the 1966/67 era bootlegs of Dylan and The Band were destined to have their enjoyment hindered by comparison. Needless to say, Dylan had continued moving forward, even within the context of older songs, many of which had evolved or changed since their earlier incarnations.

On this final day of the tour, Dylan and The Band gave an afternoon and evening performance. With the exception of the opening song, which went unrecorded, here we present the entirety of Bill Graham's recording of the afternoon show exactly as it happened (the second set can be found here). Two prime examples of how Dylan had revamped older songs to fit his current state of mind were included in the opening six-song sequence, which features Dylan and The Band performing together. Both of these songs, "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And Ill Go Mine)" (the unrecorded song), and "It Ain't Me Babe," several songs later in the first set, now speak directly to Dylan's audience, declaring his independence from their expectations. The remainder of this first Dylan/Band sequence includes a revamped "Lay Lady Lay," two of his most enjoyable counter-culture/drug influenced songs, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35" (with humorous new lyrics), and his ultimate "us vs. them" song, "Ballad Of A Thin Man," the same version used on Before The Flood. On every one of these songs, The Band proves just how well they adapt to Dylan's idiosyncrasies, playing in a truly collective manner that is inspired and full of fire.

In the middle of each set, Dylan takes a break so that The Band can perform original material. On this final day of the tour, they open with the title song off their third album, "Stage Fright," with Rick Danko fronting the group on lead vocals. With the exception of a rather sedate, "I Shall Be Released," which features Richard Manuel singing the falsetto lead in a voice that is beginning to show the ravages of time, the remainder of this set focuses on material from their most beloved album, their self-titled sophomore effort. These are all highly engaging performances, from the classic "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "King Harvest" to the more obscure "When You Awake" and concluding with the percolating "Up On Cripple Creek." The Band has the innate ability to seem loose and relaxed, while playing in an incredibly tight manner. These are prime examples of that cohesiveness, with each member contributing to the collective whole, with little grandstanding or superfluous soloing. Instead the intensity is generated by the energetic piano playing of Manuel, the unparalleled flavoring of Garth Hudson's keyboard arsenal and Robertson's controlled biting leads - all weaving in and out of the supple rhythm section of Danko and Helm, who are superb here, both on their instruments and as lead vocalists.

To conclude the first set, Dylan returns and together these musicians deliver four more songs together, beginning with a fast and furious arrangement of "All Along The Watchtower" that was included on the Before The Flood album. With an obvious similarity to Jimi Hendrix's take on the song, this is The Band at their most blazing, including particularly wailing leads from Robertson. A radically revamped "Ballad Of Hollis Brown," one of Dylan's vintage topical songs is next. Practically unrecognizable compared to its original incarnation, this has been transformed into another blazing rocker, with Dylan growling out the vocals, Robertson interjecting biting leads all over the place and the collective group bearing down hard and heavy between the verses. They conclude the first set with an emotionally engaged vocal performance from Dylan on "Knockin On Heaven's Door."

At this moment in time, this tour would stand as one of the most successful ever and it certainly went a long way toward rejuvenating interest in both Dylan and The Band. In his second volume of Performing Artist books on the subject, Crawdaddy founder, Paul Williams, put this tour in context most succinctly when he stated, "The performances that resulted are not the among the best of his career; but they are frequently very moving and represent a crucial transition: Dylan's reclaiming of the stage after a long and stifling silence, his rediscovery and reassertion of himself as a performing artist.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

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Ramblin Jack Elliott - guitar, vocals
Bob Dylan was influenced by Ramblin Jack and it's Bob Dylan week over at the Wolfgang Concert Vault. This is one of this weeks featured downloads. Clink on link to play it.
Ramblin Jack was possibly the world's most legendary troubadour, Ramblin' Jack Elliott is one of the last surviving links to the great folk traditions of America. With a life spent traveling, performing, and recording, Elliot has endured as one of the most colorful and oddball characters in all of American music. Born in 1931 as Elliott Charles Adnopoz in Brooklyn, New York, he became enamored with westerns as a child, regularly attending rodeos, devouring books by cowboy novelist Will James, and listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. At the age of 14, Elliott ran away from home and hitchhiked to Washington, DC, where he discovered Colonel Jim Eskew's traveling rodeo. Landing a $2 a day job grooming animals, Elliott also learned to play guitar from the rodeo clowns before his worried parents finally caught up with him three months later and persuaded him to return home. He tried to appease his parents by returning to school, but continued to fantasize about the cowboy life. Following his high school graduation and between two failed attempts at college, he began performing around New York's Greenwich Village. In 1950, at the age of 19, Elliott discovered Woody Guthrie while listening to Oscar Brand's radio program, an event that would forever change his life. Determined to learn from him firsthand, Elliott paid a visit to Guthrie's home where he wound up living for two years, absorbing Guthrie's style of singing and his guitar technique. Over the course of the next several years, Elliott traveled and performed with Guthrie, meeting many left-wing artists along the way and becoming personal friends with many of the key Beat poets and writers, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
During the mid-1950s, Elliott relocated to England and became a hit in Europe before returning to New York City's Greenwich Village folk scene in 1957 and recording his debut album, Woody Guthrie's Blues, that same year. By the early 1960s, Elliott had developed into a fine flat-picking guitarist and his twangy, unapologetically aggressive style and cutting sense of humor made him one of the shining lights of the rapidly developing folk scene, although he never confined himself to the folk genre. Much like Guthrie had mentored Elliott, now Elliott was mentoring a new generation of folksingers, including a young Bob Dylan, who was another Guthrie disciple. Elliott not only encouraged Dylan but also helped shaped his repertoire, flat-picking, and vocal style at the time. Just as Elliott had once been dubbed "a poor man's Guthrie," Dylan, likewise, was identified as "a poor man's Elliott," before his own style began surfacing.
Over the course of the next half century, Elliott would continue traveling, performing and recording, influencing countless other musicians along the way. Many assume his title of "Ramblin' Jack" was in reference to his relentless traveling, but in actuality this was awarded to Elliott for his tendency toward stage banter. He would often ramble on through various topics and stories before arriving at a point during his song introductions. This made Ramblin' Jack Elliott's live performances far more engaging and considerably warmer than his studio recordings. Which brings us to this remarkable live performance recorded during the summer of 1963 at Ed Pearl's legendary Ash Grove, the West Coast epicenter of the folk and blues scene.
On a night that also included Bess Hawes and Frank Price, Ramblin' Jack Elliott begins his set with an engaging take on the traditional English folk song "The Cuckoo." Staying close to the instantly recognizable melody, he sings this classic tale of the roving gambler in his earnest, yet laid back manner. On the next two numbers he veers into vintage blues territory. This begins with a compelling rendition of Jimmie Cox's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out," a blues standard popularized by Bessie Smith, the preeminent female blues singer of the 1920s and 30s. Elliott's relaxed approach makes this song work exceedingly well in a folk-song context, and features some fine flat-picking. Here he sings from the perspective of a poverty-stricken ex-millionaire during the Prohibition era, reflecting on friendships that come and go and the fleeting nature of material wealth. Another interesting take on the blues follows, as Elliott performs his variation on Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Match Box Blues," a song also revamped by Carl Perkins into his rockabilly hit, "Matchbox." Elliott's version doesn't stray so far from the Jefferson's original and showcases his sharp, piercing vocal and fluid flat-picking.
Elliott next sings a song he hadn't performed for a while, "Boll Weevil," one of the traditional folk ballads on his live album recorded at the 2nd Fret in Philadelphia the previous year. Following a brief monologue about soon traveling to Scotland, Elliott pays tribute to Mississippi John Hurt, who taught him the next number, "Stackerlee." Known by many titles and recorded in hundreds of variations, Elliott sings the tale of Lee Shelton, the St. Louis "bad man" convicted of murdering Billy Lyons on Christmas Eve in 1895.
Obliging a request of an audience member, Elliott begins winding his set to a close with one of the more popular story-telling songs of the era, a cover of Jimmy Driftwood's country classic, "Tennessee Stud." Taking it nice and easy and performing all the verses, he leaves the Ash Grove audience shouting for more. He ends the performance with Woody Guthrie's "Talking Dustbowl Blues." On this talking blues, one can most clearly hear Elliott's strong influence on the young Bob Dylan. Amidst the superb flat-picking and Guthrie-esque lyrics, Elliott conjures up the plight of the Southern and Great Plains farmers who ventured west during droughts and the Great Depression.
Three incomplete fragments are included as outtake tracks at the end. These include the joyous "Sadie Brown," which features some of Elliott's infectious yodel inflected singing, the very tail end of a raucous "Fare Thee Well" and a humorous monologue about two Martians that is unfortunately truncated by the tape stock running out—but not before a few good laughs ensue.

My last trip of Summer 09

Well school starts this week, so I had to make a plan to do something before it does. I had plans to go to Mille Lacs Lake. I had not stayed there in many years. I remember going there on a family vacation as a kid and also camped there once when Sasha was a baby. What a beautiful place, the weather was perfect also. The lake was calmer then I had ever seen it. I did not have any luck at the casino except to get some good food there. Their seafood buffet was very good. Here are some pictures that I took. I really enjoyed being at Liberty Beach for sunset.