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Your support makes all the difference.Justly considered one of the performance milestones of his career, Bob Dylan's 31 October 1964 concert at New York's Philharmonic Hall captures the young prince of folk at the height of his solo powers, brimful of bonhomie as he sets about stretching the form to breaking-point.
This concert long ago became one of the cornerstones of the Dylan bootleg industry, partly because the quality of the performance was matched by that of the recording itself, thanks to Columbia's decision to tape the show for a proposed live album. The biggest successes of Dylan's running-partner Joan Baez, the label noted, had been her In Concert albums of 1962 and 1964 - both of which reached the Top 10 - and Columbia was itching to follow suit with its own star. The trouble was, he was moving faster than expected, and Columbia's plans couldn't keep pace with his ambitions. A Bob Dylan in Concert album planned for the previous year had already been shelved in favour of The Times They Are A-Changin', and with his recent Another Side of Bob Dylan album indicating a shift to more introspective, personal concerns, time was fast running out if they wanted to capitalise on the folk-protest boom.
But this opportunity would also be sidelined by history. Within weeks, Dylan would be in the studio with a band, recording the rock songs that would make up the first side of Bringing It All Back Home; within a year, he would have released both that album and Highway 61 Revisited, and become a bona fide pop star. An in-concert album of acoustic folk material at that point would have seriously misrepresented him, and so it too was shelved.
Some indication of his imminent change of direction is present here in the abstract tone of new material such as "Mr Tambourine Man", "Gates of Eden" and "It's Alright Ma", which sit somewhat uneasily alongside the more strident protest songs such as "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". Not that he seems at all uncomfortable with them: indeed, Dylan's attitude throughout is bubbly and assured, with plenty of the light-spirited banter that long ago disappeared from his shows. "Don't let that scare you, it's just Hallowe'en," he says after one song. "I have my Bob Dylan mask on."
His jokey manner helps lighten what might otherwise have been a typically po-faced guest spot from Joan Baez, the pair mocking their own uncertain harmonies on "Mama You Been on My Mind".
Within a year Baez, too, would be left behind with the protest songs, as Dylan's star went supernova. Perhaps that's why this album has such a valedictory air, a fond farewell to old friends - audience, Baez, and songs alike - before he struck out for uncharted territory. Listening to Live 1964 is like perching on the cusp of history.
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