1974 is an important year in the life of Bob Dylan.
I’ve put together a list of the ten best songs recorded (studio or live) this year. One rule applies: it has to be officially released in some form. I’ve nominated 25 songs & I challenge everyone reading this to set up their own “Bob Dylan – Top 10 songs recorded in 1974”. Feel free to ignore my nominated songs list and please use the comments section to share lists & thoughts.
…and by the way lists are fun.
Relevant albums
Before The Flood Released June 20, 1974 Recorded February 13–14, 1974, in Los Angeles,
except track 4: January 30, 1974, in New York
Blood On The TracksReleased January 20, 1975
Recorded September 16–19, 1974, at A&R Recording in New York,
New York and December 27–30, 1974, at Sound 80 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
BiographReleased November 7, 1985 Recorded November 1961-August 1981
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3
(Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991Released March 26, 1991 Recorded November 1961 – March 1989
Blood on the Tracks – New York Sessions source: Original test pressingRecorded 16 September – 8 October, 1974 Bootleg
Bob Dylan’s second recording session for Blood On The Tracks continued on September 17, 1974. Another important day in the studio.
Here are some quotes, facts & music….
We cut the entire album in one day like that. Now that blew my mind. I was 19-years-old and trying to learn how to make art. The style of the time was set by guys I was working with like Paul Simon, who would take weeks recording a guitar part only to throw it away. I thought that was the way one was supposed to do it: one note at a time and a year to make an album. Dylan cut the whole thing in six hours on a Monday night. I was confused. It was like the floor, barely built under my young soul, was being ripped apart, board by board. Then Dylan came back in on Tuesday, and recorded most of the album again.
~Glenn Berger (Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks: The Untold Story)
Albums involved:
ALBUM
Release date
CODE
Blood On The Tracks
1975-01-17
BOTT
Biograph
1985-11-07
BIO
Blood On The Tracks – Test pressing
Nov 74
BOTT-TP
Jerry Maguire – Soundtrack
1996-12-10
JMS
Studio A, A & R Recording, New York City, New York September 17, 1974, 7 pm-01am
Produced by Bob Dylan
Engineers: Phil Ramone & Glenn Berger (“Phil & Lenn”)
You’re A Big Girl Now
You’re A Big Girl Now –BIO & BOTT-TP You’re A Big Girl Now was pain personified, that pain remaining red raw when he cut the exquisite New York version originally intended for the album (only released ten years later, on Biograph).
~Clinton Heylin (from “Still On The Road”) – Dylan complains in the Biograph notes about “stupid and misleading jerks” (i.e. critics) who have suggested this song is “about my wife”.
~Paul Williams (Performing Artist 1974-86)
Tangled Up In Blue
Unidentified Song
Blues
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Shelter From The Storm – JMS This first run-through on the seventeenth has no bass accompaniment, possibly because he was showing Brown the song. Taking a pause to work on other songs, he only returned to ‘Shelter’ later the same evening, wisely deciding the sixth verse added very little to the song.
~Clinton Heylin (from “Still On The Road”)
Shelter From The Storm
Buckets Of Rain
Tangled Up In Blue
Buckets Of Rain
Shelter From The Storm
Shelter From The Storm
Shelter From The Storm – BOTT & BOTT-TP That word-perfect fifth take survived all the reconfigurations the album underwent, emerging as on of it’s real highlights. And though Dylan went on to perform it a number of different ways – almost always effectively – the nature of the song remained fixed. ~Clinton Heylin (from “Still On The Road”)
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go – BOTT & BOTT-TP
