Bob Dylan And The Band - Before The Flood

Featuring Bob Dylan And The Band

Numbered limited edition 180-gram 45 RPM double LP

Live 1974 set documents acclaimed reunion of Bob Dylan and The Band

Mobile Fidelity's reissue gives you a prime seat for the historic performances

Winner of a Gruvy Award, chosen by AnalogPlanet's editor, Michael Fremer, for vinyl records that are musically and sonically outstanding and are also well mastered and pressed. http://www.analogplanet.com/content/gruvy-awards

The live reunion of Bob Dylan and The Band during 1973-74 yielded one of the decade's most celebrated, dynamic, and astonishing tours. Captured on Before the Flood, the results portray the two artists' shared chemistry as well as Dylan's instinctive ability to challenge audiences, his group, and himself via inventive rearrangements of classics that simultaneously ward off nostalgia and renew with meaning. Said by noted critic Robert Christgau to be "at its best, [the] craziest and strongest rock and roll ever recorded," Before the Flood crackles with intensity, relevance, and unhinged performances.

Mastered on Mobile Fidelity's world-renowned mastering system and pressed at RTI, this restored analog version cracks wide open the ceiling previously obscuring many of the tonal details, revealing microdynamics, and vocal nuances on the recording. Distinguished with an immediately recognizable sound, The Band comes across in three-dimensional form, while Dylan takes center stage, feet from your listening chair. The two artists play like two souls in communion, a facet displayed here courtesy of the increased airiness, enhanced soundstage depth, and lifelike imaging.

There's so much new information here, this already-iconic album only gains in stature. As experienced on Mobile Fidelity, Before the Flood unquestionably takes its place as one of the ten-best concert releases ever made. Notes are rounded, Garth Hudson's organ claims a tube-like glow, Levon Helm's drumming possesses its own space, voices are perceptible all the way down the singers' throats, and Dylan's awe-inspiring phrasing resonates with palpable urgency. Audiophiles and Dylan fans, prepare to be astonished.

 

1. Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)

2. Lay Lady Lay

3. Rainy Day Women #12 & #35

4. Knockin' on Heaven's Door

5. It Ain't Me Babe

6. Ballad of a Thin Man

7. Up on Cripple Creek

8. I Shall Be Released

9. Endless Highway

10. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

11. Stage Fright

12. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

13. Just Like a Woman

14. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

15. The Shape I'm In

16. When You Awake

17. The Weight

18. All Along the Watchtower

19. Highway 61 Revisited

20. Like a Rolling Stone

21. Blowin' in the Wind

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