Bob Dylan-Planet Waves (1974)

1974 was the year of the most spectacular, anticipated, and talked-about comeback in modern music history: Bob Dylan's. If it's difficult to study and analyze the reasons that might drive a great artist to remain out of the public eye for eight years (except for sporadic appearances), it's even more challenging to decipher the reasons for his return. Nostalgia? A desire to regain his leading role? The egocentric sense typical of great divas? Money? Dylan's withdrawal following his accident in mid-1966 has been studied in previous years. Bob's charisma, never inclined to explain or justify his actions, lends itself to all sorts of interpretations; therefore, the 1974 tour generated a flood of commentary, which he allowed to continue without offering any explanations. Dylan scholars reached complex but logical conclusions. Bob Dylan had been sending money to Israel under his father Abraham Zimmerman's name. His Semitic sensibilities, his Jewish roots, seemed more than enough to justify such an act. When the Arab-Israeli War broke out in October 1973, the Jewish people once again rallied around "their" cause. The need for money to finance a war, however short and triumphant it might be, as in this case, was urgent. When Bob Dylan announced his return to the road on December 12th, with a tour of twenty-one cities in the United States, the shock of the event was compounded by the prevailing political climate. The $350 million in profits was a significant sum, both for Dylan and for any cause. Leaving aside the political factor, Bob would generate a wave of news between the end of 1973 and the beginning of 1974. Dylan left his record company, CBS, and David Geffen (named "executive of the year") signed him to his label, Asylum Records. CBS's "Revenge" consisted of quickly releasing a self-titled album, "Dylan", featuring outtakes from other albums. Despite this, the LP went gold. Meanwhile, Dylan was recording his new album, "Planet Waves", with The Band. Released three years after his previous album, "New Morning", it was recorded in the studio as a cohesive work (Dylan had released a "Greatest Hits" LP and the soundtrack to the film "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" during that period). Later in 1974, another LP, a double live recording from the "Before the Flood" tour, was released. However, in August 1974, Bob claimed he had made a mistake signing with Asylum Records, prompting CBS to quickly make him an offer, which he accepted. Bob was returning "home" with another contract and more millions. The negotiations between 1972 and 1973, which had given the impression of a Dylan overly concerned with money, and the two sudden changes, from CBS to Asylum and from Asylum back to CBS, brought Dylan's likely motives for money back into the spotlight. Throughout the tour that began in January 1974, there was speculation that the money Americans paid to see him wasn't being used to buy bullets used to kill Arabs at the hands of Jews in the Far East. These claims were never confirmed. And in the end, the only certainty was the enormous success of Bob Dylan on that triumphant tour.