The Great Resurrection (Mainstream Soundboard Masters MSBR-67A/B)
Boston Gardens, Boston, MA – January 14th, 1974 (afternoon show)
Disc 1: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, Lay Lady Lay, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, It Ain’t Me Babe, I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met), Ballad Of A Thin Man, Stage Fright, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, King Harvest, This Wheel’s On Fire, I Shall Be Released, Up On Cripple Creek, All Along The Watchtower, Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Disc 2: Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, Gates Of Eden, Just Like A Woman, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), Rag Mama Rag*, When You Awake*, The Shape I’m In*, The Weight*, Forever Young*, Something There Is About You*, Like A Rolling Stone*, Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)*
The Great Resurrection is a two-source mix. The first two thirds of the show comes from a pristine clear, wonderfully balanced, punchy and lively PA recording. The audience is a little low in the mix but is audible between numbers. The rest of the recording switches to the audience recording, picking up with The Band’s second set of the show at “Rag Mama Rag” and is a very good to excellent clear recording that compliments the soundboard very well to deliver a complete performance. The audience tape is also used to patch a hole at the beginning of “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, the beginning of the second set.
The concert is outstanding. The playing is fresh and enthusiastic with a lot of charm pouring out. It sounds to me that Dylan’s acoustic set in the middle, “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright”, “Gates Of Eden”, “Just Like A Woman”, and “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” are the real highlight of the set. But the full band versions of “Ballad Of Hollis Brown” and “All Along The Watchtower” are very moving. The Band sound very enthusiastic and energetic, a far contrast to their tour in 1976 where they sound like old men. I wish that Garth Hudson would have been utilized more on this tour, but what is here is fantastic.
The PA tape has been circulating since the day of the show. Dylan And The Band Return (2039A/B, 2040A/B) contains the full Dylan segment on vinyl. The first CD release of the complete soundboard set (including The Band’s) was on Love Songs For America on Swingin’ Pig (TSP-CD-055-2). The problem with the Swingin’ Pig release was excessive noise reduction since the tape was noisy. This Mainstream release sounds much closer to the master and is very enjoyable. The Great Resurrection was released on June 6th, 2005 and they also issued at the same time a 3CDR set called Complete Boston Concerts which has the audience recording of the evening show. (GS)
