An intense and incredible collaborative process can be heard between Bob Dylan and The Band whenever they take the stage. It is why we can sit in excitement for the release of The 1974 Live Recordings. Hundreds of scrubbed-up songs from a tour like no other. Two hours of solid rock from Boston, January 14, 1974. What a treat for the ears these performances are. A scrubbed-up collection of their best works together is to die for and soon the floodgates will open. For now, we can pass the time with the likes of Boston, Montreal, for they give us an insight into what official releases should find and offer. Riotous openers, loud and boisterous instrumental efforts heard within and a sense of sincerity to the performance.
What a blend it is, and while the live tapes are not the reason for this passionate display, we are certainly better off having a recording of this performance. Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 opens this one up with powerful expectations. Smooth guitar work and confident vocal performances. This is what the best of Dylan and The Band can offer. A well-moved Lay Lady Lay performance is planted early on and the sense of Planet Waves promotion is lost. Most of the songs within this performance are more of a chance to revisit the spoils of his 1960s period. A few pieces reliant on The Band, like Stage Fright, are heard. But this performance is more an experiment in what those great instrumentalists could do with songs nearing a decade of influence. All those hits are pulled apart and a new direction is found from The Band. Their inclusion is the making of this show.
It helps too Dylan is in as fine a form as can be, of course. Nearly a decade without touring and there is a sense of stage reinvention taking place. That much can be expected, but not at the same time. He could not return to the pre-1966 image which had guided his touring efforts. A new style was needed to match his turn of musical output, and for that The Band is crucial. It is the major difference to essentials like Ballad of a Thin Man, which here loses its slight barroom crawl and instead inflicts the stylish instrumentals of the 1970s. Dylan is a man with one foot through the door of contemporary music but the bags of the previous decade must be incorporated somehow. For our benefit, for the strength of the music and the interest of the artist. A big triple to always manage, but Boston, Montreal get the balance right.
Later performances of All Along the Watchtower and Just Like a Woman are given the same treatment. Ultimately a show of his hits, not a contemporary lick in sight bar two. But this is the switch Dylan would make in later years. He is not the man he was in the 1970s, and is not perceived now as he was then. His taxing reverence of today gives him the creative licence to play what he likes. For Boston, Montreal, there is a sense of trying to win over attendees who had forked out high prices at the time. It works, a nineteen-track set filled to the brim with quality instrumentals, slick performances and an intensity which would guide the very best moments of this tour.
