Disappointing live double-album from the great one
Like most of his other live work "Before the Flood" lacks the light and shade of the studio albums - everything is at one volume (loud) and flatly sung. The performances of The Band, however, are excellent and give this album the lift it needs. If you want to hear a better Dylan live album then you might want consider "Hard Rain", which came out a few years later.

I saw the tour
I caught the show in Charlotte NC in January 1974, purely by luck as someone offered a ticket on the UNC student radio station at face value, something like $8-9. (Yes, young people, major concerts used to be reasonably priced.) It turned out to be on the center aisle, row W. Bill Graham walked by a couple of times during the show. It was unbelievable, so great, I had no idea walking in how staggering it would be.

But on to Before the Flood. A huge disappointment to me at the time, it sounds somewhat better in hindsight. Dylan oversings, especially on what would be the first side on vinyl. He didn't overdo every vocal when I saw him (and I have a boot of the concert to remind me) but he pretty much does here. On the other hand, the Band is great particularly Garth Hudson. The versions of Stage Fright and the Weight are particularly strong and Garth makes a mighty effort to save Ballad of a Thin Man with his organ/synth work.

The fourth side, from Watchtower on, is really good. Dylan, Robbie, the Band are really rocking and tear it down.

Don't start here for either Dylan or the Band, but it's worthwhile with the exception of the opening numbers.

Before The Flood by Bob Dylan
I ordered the CD for my husbands birthday and I am pleased to say, the product arrived in plenty of time and well in tact. I will certainly do business with this company again. Thank you...

A solid Live Set with Only a Couple if Disappoinments.
The very first time I listened to this was back when it was first release in 1974. My brother had purchased the cassette tape and I use to borrow it from him. It was my first experience listening to either Dylan or The Band live and was blown away. I thought "How can anyone top this for a live album?" Over the years I had pretty much forgotten about it until I had the opportunity to purchase the double CD last year. With great anticipation I started listening and came away a little underwhelmed. Not that it is a bad set, it isn't. In fact it's quite good. But there are a couple of things that can make this a little disappointing.

1. Regarding The Band's two sets: I also own both Rock of Ages & The Last Waltz. Both are better sets for The Band, with Rock of Ages being the best. On "Before the Flood" some of the songs really sound like the group just weren't on the same page. When you compare both "The Weight" & "The Shape I'm In", two of my favorites, they just do not compare with the versions from Rock of Ages.

2. Dylan also seemed out of place with The Band at first. The first three songs, "Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)", "Lay, Lady, Lay", and "Rainy Day Woman" have a below-average sound to them.

But as we hit song #4, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" the music does start to blend. As we move through CD #1 we're treated to some classic music by both, with a great version of Robbie Robertson's "Stage Fright" to finish off the CD.

CD #2 starts of with Classic acoustic Dylan, as we hear "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", "Just Like a Woman", and "It's All Right, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." It's here we get a little bogged down by the second Band set. As mentioned previously, "The Shape I'm In" & "The Weight" are not up to other live versions of the songs. But hold on to your hat, Dylan comes back on and we get the best song of the night, "All Along The Watchtower" and it JUST rocks. If I have only one complaint about it, it's too short. I would have loved an extended guitar solo at the end but we get only about 32 bars. Great, just not enough. It's followed by solid versions of "Highway 61 Revisited" & "Like a Rolling Stone." And as an encore we hear "Blowin In The Wind" and it does not disappoint.

One other issue I have here, and it's been mentioned in previous reviews, is the fact that they made this a double CD. There really isn't any reason that it could not have fit on one CD, except to be able to price it higher. I mean we're only talking 21 songs and most are only a few minutes long. When it was first released it was a double-album but was able to be out on one cassette tape. I guess greed still is alive in the music business.

But overall, I am happy with this purchase. I still pull it out and listen to it now and then. I would recommend it to any Dylan & Band fans, at least to round out your collections.

Far from the best Dylan live document.
This was the first Dylan live album I owned. Listening to it again, I'm reminded how grim his live catalog was in the days before the Bootleg Series. Dylan himself is in great form here, and certainly is an entertaining vocalist. His selection of classic songs is a little unimaginative - especially compared to the huge reach of his Endless Tour setlists - but satisfying. These songs, overexposed as they are, are hard to get tired of.

Dylan's solo acoustic bit is unquestionably the high point - he's in top form vocally and accompanies himself with rockier-than-usual rhythm guitar, which makes for near-definitive live versions of Don't Think Twice and It's Alright Ma.

But The Band - *his* band, the band he rode with to rock'n'roll glory on the 1966 tour - disappoint. They're in soft-rock AOR form here, loose and ragged but with no sharp edges. Guitar sound is uniformly bland and unappealing, and their vocals are surprisingly sloppy. I can't say I'm a big fan of their material in general, but I enjoy the studio recordings well enough. Live, though, they sound like the Canadian answer to Chicago, and that we don't need.

This approach extends to their songs with Dylan, which occasionally succeed brilliantly (Most Likely You Go Your Way, Highway 61 Revisited) but occasionally misfire (Like a Rolling Stone, the synth on Thin Man). Mostly they're somewhere in the middle - but compare these performances to the performances on Live '66 or Live '75 and there's simply no contest.

The poor mixes and unsatisfying miking bear responsibility as well. The bootleg series recordings are immediate and engorged with sound, and have a raw power that this distant and muddy sounding record just doesn't.