Back on the road with the Band

The tour was promoted by Bill Graham, and demand for tickets was enormous, with millions of mail-order requests for the available seats. It followed the release of Planet Waves, recorded with the Band and issued on Asylum, his first studio album with them. On stage the music was loud and urgent, with Dylan pushing his older songs hard and the Band playing sets of their own between his. Before the Flood, drawn largely from the final shows in Los Angeles, came out later in 1974. The tour proved he could still fill arenas after eight years away. Before the year was out he had returned to Columbia and recorded Blood on the Tracks, often counted among his finest albums.