The Tour '74 That Coulda Been

1974-01-17, Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC

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One of many fascinating artifacts in the Bob Dylan Center’s recent book Mixing Up the Medicine was this piece of paper Dylan wrote listing potential songs he and The Band could play on the 1974 tour.

Since it’s hard to read at times, I’ve done my best to type them all out, using the same wording Bob himself used. I’ve gone a step further too, and bolded the songs he never actually played on the tour. Those are the most interesting, a window into an alternate-reality Tour ‘74 that never happened.

Talking New York
Song to Woody
—
Blowin’ in the Wind
Girl of the North Country
Masters of War
BD’s Blues
Hard Rain
Don’t Think Twice

Tomorrow Is Long Time
Hero Blues (Band)
Davy Moore
—
Times-Changing / G-d on Side
Boots of Spanish Leather
Hattie Carrol
—
All I Really Want To Do
(Spanish Harlem Incident)
Ramona
Mama You Been On My Mind
Ballad in Plain D

I’ll pause there. This first batch is all songs from his solo-acoustic era, so I’m assuming most he was considering doing solo-acoustic on this tour as well. He notes “(Band)” next to “Hero Blues.” Perhaps he was originally thinking of doing it acoustically, then had the idea to give it that full electric arrangement we’ve discussed. It does make you wonder what a Band-driven “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” or “Who Killed Davey Moore” would have sounded like.

Two songs from that list jump out at me. Amazing he was considering playing “Spanish Harlem Incident” in any capacity. The only time he ever played that live was at the Halloween 1964 show immortalized on the sixth Bootleg Series. And this one, for reasons I’ll explain in a bit, was likely conceived as a full-Band take. Even wilder than “Spanish Harlem” though: He was considering playing “Ballad in Plain D,” a song he never played live and eventually disclaimed for being too mean-spirited (“I must have been a real schmuck to write that.”). Guess he was still okay with it in 1974.

Note too that he’s grouping the songs by album. I imagine him literally flipping through a stack of his own records while writing this list. He scans the self-titled debut, decides the only two songs he’ll consider are the two he wrote himself. Then he moves on to Freewheelin’; six contenders there. Or perhaps he’s paging through his recently-published lyrics book Writings and Drawings, since the trio after the Freewheelin’ six is all non-album outtakes that appear in there (“Tomorrow,” “Hero Blues,” “Davey Moore”). Either way, he’s clearly going diligently through his discography, imagining which of his old songs he might be able to still perform convincingly on his first tour in eight years.

It gets even more interesting with the second batch of songs. These are all from Dylan’s gone-electric era, and presumably mostly songs he was considering doing with The Band (other than the acoustic second half of Bringing It All Back Home).

She Belongs to Me
(Subterranean Homesick Blues)
Love Minus Zero
Mr. Tambourine Man
Gates of Eden
It’s All Right Me
Baby Blue
(115h Dream)
—
(Like a Rolling Stone)
(Lot to Laugh-Train to Cry)
(Tom Thumb)
(Positively 4th St.)
—
Just Like a Woman
4th Time Around
—
(I Shall Be Released)
(Tears of Rage)
(Tiny Mont)
(Lay Lady Lay)
(Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You)
Country Pie
—
(Sign on the Window)
(One More Weekend)
(Man in Me)
(3 Angels)
(Watch River Flow)

Note which are in parentheses and which are not. I suspect anything in parentheses he was considering doing full-band, and the rest are solo. Because this lines up with how he performed the songs here he did play.

The further down you go in that list, the more tantalizing the possibilities. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” almost got its live debut! So did “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream,” “Tears of Rage,” “Tiny Montgomery,” and a whole bunch of New Morning songs. Can you imagine what these Tour ’74 sets would be like if he was playing songs like “Sign on the Window” and “Three Angels”? He considered it, apparently. Likely rehearsed them too; Robbie Robertson told reporters they’d rehearsed 80 different songs. Barely half that number would get played on the tour itself.

Just for fun, I’ve made up a hypothetical Tour ’74 setlist made up entirely of songs Dylan wrote on that sheet but never played. I’ve arranged it like the actual shows, and followed his notes’ guidance for what would be acoustic and what would be electric. Note that, going back to that first list, our parentheses hypothesis means “Spanish Harlem Incident” woulda been full-Band. Wow.

Imagine, if you will, this never-performed show from Tour ’74:

Bob Dylan & Band:
Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You
Tiny Montgomery
One More Weekend
The Man in Me
Spanish Harlem Incident
Subterranean Homesick Blues

[The Band set 1]

Bob Dylan & Band:
Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
Three Angels
Tears of Rage

[Intermission]

Bob Dylan solo acoustic:
Bob Dylan’s Blues
Country Pie
Boots of Spanish Leather
Who Killed Davey Moore?
Tomorrow Is a Long Time

[The Band set 2]

Bob Dylan & Band:
Sign on the Window
Positively 4th Street
Watching the River Flow
I Shall Be Released

This is not, alas, the set that got played at today’s show in Charlotte—the first city of the tour to only get a single show. Contemporary newspaper reports say the show sold out in three days, which given the demand in other cities honestly seems slow. From Stephen Pickering’s Approximately Bob Dylan, here was the scene inside the hall:

Charlotte's Coliseum is small, very small, brightly lit, with wooden seats (metal arm-rests painted orange) in the balconies and mezzanine, and metal folding chairs on the main floor. Thus far, the audience's age is below twenty-five—and the Southern accents are often melodious. From behind the stage hang two handmade banners: a brown one reading, "Everybody must get stoned"; a blue one, with yellow lettering, saying, "To Woody Guthrie, Bob and the wild blue yonder.” The stage is small: an electric guitar rests on a console along with a shiny brass spittoon…a young audience; those over twenty-five are varied, and there is one old man with a long white beard and shoulder-length hair. The audience cheers and laughs as two frisbees sail about and security police don't know what to do. Boos erupt when someone won't throw one frisbee when it's caught.

No new songs for the tour, and it’s not the best-sounding tape either. Personally, I’ll probably go back to imagining to that other tape I made up. That “Three Angels” into “Tears of Rage” segue is fire.

1974-01-17, Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC

Previously on Tour ‘74 (or click here for the full series):