the Band, released on June 20, 1974 on Asylum Records in the United States and

Island Records in the United Kingdom. It is the seventeenth album by Dylan and

the seventh by The Band, and documents their joint 1974 American tour. It

peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, reached number eight on the popular

album chart in the United Kingdom, and has been certified platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of America.

Content Dylan and his new record label Asylum

had planned professional recordings before the tour began, ten separate

sessions in total: three in New York at Madison Square Garden on January 30 and

31; two in Seattle,Washington, at the Center Coliseum on February 9; two in

Oakland, California, at the Alameda County Coliseum on February 11; and

three in Los Angeles on February 13 and 14. To compile the album, recordings

were taken from the final three shows at the Los Angeles Forum in Inglewood,

California, with only "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" from New York.

The title of the album is thought to derive from the novel Farn Mabul by

Yiddish writer Sholem Asch; Dylan had a personal relationship with Moses Asch,

son of Sholem and founder of Folkways Records, a record label hugely

influential in the folk music revival. Another theory is that the title refers

to the album arriving before the inevitable flood of bootlegs could

saturate the underground market. While Dylan and The Band had recorded

the studio album Planet Waves prior to the tour, few of its songs were

incorporated into the tour's setlist, and none are represented on Before the

Flood. After the double album release, Dylan signed a new contract with

Columbia Records in time for his next studio album, Blood on the Tracks, after

returning label president Goddard Lieberson made a determined campaign to

get Dylan back from Asylum. The Band continued to record on their own for

Capitol Records. Subsequent reissues were on the Columbia

imprint, and on March 31, 2009, a remastered digipak version of Before the

Flood was issued by Legacy Records, Columbia now part of Sony Music

Entertainment. Critical reception

In a contemporary review for Creem magazine, music critic Robert Christgau

felt that the Band followed Dylan in intensifying his old songs for the arena

venue and stated, "Without qualification, this is the craziest and

strongest rock and roll ever recorded. All analogous live albums fall flat." In

a less enthusiastic review, Rolling Stone magazine's Tom Nolan said Dylan's

vocal emphasis and the Band's busy arrangements make for an awkward listen,

although revamped versions of songs such as "It's All Right, Ma", "Like a Rolling

Stone", and "All Along the Watchtower" are successful and sound meaningful.

Before the Flood was voted the sixth best album of 1974 in The Village

Voice '​s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. Christgau, the poll's creator,

ranked it second on his own list. In a retrospective review, Greg Kot of

the Chicago Tribune called the album "epochal", while AllMusic's Stephen

Thomas Erlewine described it as "one of the best live albums of its time. Ever,

maybe." Greil Marcus commented, "Roaring with resentment and happiness, the music

touched rock and roll at its limits." By contrast, Dylan himself later disparaged

the tour, feeling that it was overblown. "I think I was just playing a role on

that tour, I was playing Bob Dylan and The Band were playing The Band. It was

all sort of mindless. The only thing people talked about was energy this,

energy that. The highest compliments were things like, 'Wow, lotta energy,

man.' It had become absurd." In a retrospective review, Scott Hreha of

PopMatters also felt that each act did not sound collaborative as on The

Basement Tapes and that the album "remains a worthy but inessential item

in Dylan's catalog—and both he and the Band have better live recordings

available, especially the several volumes in Dylan's Bootleg Series."

Track listing Sides one and four are performances by

Bob Dylan backed by The Band; side two and tracks four through six on side

three are by The Band; tracks one through three on side three by Dylan

alone. "Blowin' in the Wind" is a splice of two separate performances. All dates

from Los Angeles except as indicated. All songs written by Bob Dylan, except

where noted. Side one

Side two Side three

Side four Personnel

= Musicians= Bob Dylan – vocals, guitars, harmonica,

piano Robbie Robertson – electric guitar,

backing vocals Garth Hudson – organ, piano, clavinet

Levon Helm – vocals, drums Richard Manuel – vocals, piano, electric

piano, organ, drums Rick Danko – vocals, bass guitar

= Production= Rob Fraboni – recording engineer, mixing

engineer Phil Ramone – recording engineer

Nat Jeffrey – mixing engineer Barry Feinstein – photography, design

Village Recorders – mixing location Kendun Recorders – mastering location

Jeff Rosen, Steve Berkowitz – reissue producers

References External links

Before the Flood at Discogs