A second serving of the terrifying The 1974 Live Recordings behemoth is now out there. There was reason behind Bob Dylan appearing on the cover of the Release Radar, Spotify’s new music playlist, after all. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue was not even in the shuffled collection of contemporary artists when glancing at the mangled mix of Hozier, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Charli XCX. Dig deeper. Search for it yourself. Another exemplary track lifted from the huge compilation set for release next month. The calendar is marked. A day off work is in place. What more could be wanted than sitting and listening to hours and hours of live recordings? If the quality is as good as the two singles promise, then dedicated Dylan fans are in for a treat.
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, in isolation, is a remarkable listen. It is likely to have the same effect when paired with the rest of the show. Those elongated notes of “blue” are masterful, the acoustic guitar work has a crisp warmth to it which wraps itself around the song with a protective layer. A beautiful performance of the Bringing it All Back Home song. No less should be expected of Dylan in this period. His tour with The Band and the vocal changes heard throughout this is a complete contrast to the middling Planet Waves. A lower octave and a firmer grasp of the principles of the song are heard in this version, a piece which captures the extravagant level of expectation resting on the tour. A heavy burden to shoulder but it led to a period of Dylan which we may never hear again.
For Dylan on this tour had something to prove. You can hear it in the cagey vocal turn he provides It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. This is an intensity all artists can provide themselves. A sense of stepping up and meeting the broad, high expectations of an audience. Not everyone will be pleased. We all have our unique appraisal of what qualifies a great performance, but the scratches of sheer brilliance can be heard on this recording. Jealousy for the past is formed. We will never hear Dylan perform these songs that way in person. All we can do is fume at our desks, listening to beautiful recordings of great songs as the sun starts peeking out from behind an abandoned clock tower. It is the ideal way to listen. Find your clock tower.
The pressure is on even now. Dylan may be decades removed from this tour but a chance for his team to revisit it and the hundreds of recordings they got implies the very best have been chosen. Robbie Robertson and The Band provided continuing, ample coverage of Dylan’s discography for this tour and much of the joy comes from the extra layers they add. Incredible players backing a monumental voice. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue is a live wire recording, a shocking display of a creative returning to a place he knows best. But the time it took Dylan to return to touring, the chance of him being rickety or needing to brush the cobwebs off, adds a rare line of adrenalin to this wonderful performance.
Planet Waves “middling”? It’s a wondrous collection of songs and performances, full of subtlety noticeably absent from the big bucks ’74 tour, during which Bob basically threw his head back and shouted his way through each number.