Bob Dylan announced details of a new box set called ‘The 1974 Live Recordings’ – a compilation of his arena performances across the year. The project is a new 431-track collection of his performances with The Band, which is set to be released across 27 discs on September 20th.
The deluxe box set features 417 previously-unreleased performances, as well as newly-mixed recordings and liner notes written by journalist and critic Elizabeth Nelson. A press release read: “Booked into arenas for the first time ever, Bob Dylan and The Band performed 30 dates in 42 days (often playing two sets per day) before an average audience of 18,500 – helping set a new standard for what rock concerts could look and sound like. Though they might not have known it at the time, Bob Dylan and The Band were at the vanguard of a new era. Tour ‘74 would help create the template for the major rock tour, and codify many of its shared experiences – from the sight of audiences holding up lighters en masse, to the bright flash of the house lights during a show’s signal moment, in this case their performance of ‘Like A Rolling Stone’.
Third Man Records has also announced the upcoming release of ‘The 1974 Live Recordings – The Missing Songs From Before the Flood’, a 3-LP set culled from the same recordings, featuring hand-selected versions of every song Bob Dylan recorded that was not included on the original 1974 live album.
In honor of the box set announcement, a never-before-released version of ‘Forever Young’ – recorded live in Seattle on February 9, 1974 – has been released. Check it out – here.
Pre-order ‘The 1974 Live Recordings’ box set – here.
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