When Bob Dylan ‘Flew Too Close to the Sun’ and Came Out a Rock God
In retrospect, Bob Dylan likened his 1974 reunion tour with The Band to Elvis Presley’s “Fat Elvis” period. It was powerful, sure, but it was nostalgia; creatively unsatisfying. And a cash grab. Ultimately, it showed him the way he didn’t want to go forward, as he recalled in 2004 in Chronicles, Vol.1.
Still, 1974 was a landmark year in rock ’n’ roll, and it was Bob Dylan and the Band who kicked it off in January, playing 40 shows during their six-week trek together—a groundbreaking feat in and of itself—often putting on matinee and evening arena shows to satisfy demand.
If, during his Thin Wild Mercury music period in the mid-1960s, Dylan had given songwriting and new vocabulary, and had created the look and attitude of the modern rock star, in 1974 he updated all of that for a new era, for good measure adding a tour that presaged the bloated, arena-filling tours that would become, and remain, a staple of the music business.