It was released in the US by and in the UK by on January 17, 1974. The album was originally scheduled to appear several weeks earlier, coinciding with the beginning of the highly anticipated . The release was delayed when Dylan decided to change its originally reported title, Ceremonies Of The Horsemen (a reference to his 1965 song "Love Minus Zero/No Limit").
Written on the right side of the cover image is the phrase, "Cast-iron songs torch ballads," apparently signalling Dylan's own conception of the album. The initial release also included an insert which reportedly set out excerpts from Dylan's personal journals.
Planet Waves was Bob Dylan's first #1 album in the US, while reaching #7 in the UK.
In the summer of 1973, , lead guitarist of , relocated to , California, not far from Dylan's residence. According to Robertson, the idea of collaborating with Dylan evolved from a conversation that took place sometime after July 28, when played to hundreds of thousands of people at in upstate New York. After much discussion about that experience, the idea of touring again "seemed to really make sense," says Robertson.
"It was a good idea, a kind of step into the past...
The other guys in the Band came out [to Malibu] and we went right to work."
Dylan had not toured since 1966, when accompanied him as The Hawks. Since then, he had played with on a number of occasions, including a New Year's concert in 1971/1972; audience.
When Dylan joined for test run at Robertson's home in September of 1973, he was satisfied by the results, enough to proceed with touring plans.
"We sat down and played for four hours and ran over an incredible number of tunes," recalls Robertson. "Bob would ask us to play certain tunes of ours, and then we would do the same, then we'd think of some that we would particularly like to do.
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It made logical business sense to tour behind some newly released material, but it's unclear whether or not this was the to compose new material for album sessions scheduled in November. Dylan already had three songs ("Forever Young," "Nobody 'Cept You," and "Never Say Goodbye") which he had demoed in June, and when he returned to Malibu after twenty days in New York, he had six more.
On Friday, November 2nd, Dylan and held a session at Village Recorder Studio A in recalls the proceedings as fairly relaxed and informal, an opportunity "to get set up and to get a feel for the studio.
" Drummer was not even present, as he was still in transit, on his way to Los Angeles from the East Coast. Nevertheless, the session was devoted to all three songs demoed in June, and Dylan and succeeded in recording complete takes of "Forever Young" and "Nobody 'Cept You" as well as the master take for "Never Say Goodbye."
When Dylan and reconvened at Village Recorded the following Monday, with now present, they made another attempt at "Nobody 'Cept You.
" Robertson abandoned the wah-wah pedal used during the November 2nd session, and a satisfactory take was completed and marked for possible inclusion. Master takes for "You Angel You" and "Going, Going, Gone" were also completed.
"Forever Young" occupied a portion of the Monday session, and the results would not meet Dylan's satisfaction.
He would return to it for three more sessions, as it would prove to be the most difficult song to record.
The next day, on November 6th, Dylan and recorded master takes for three more songs: "Hazel," "Something There Is About You," and "Tough Mama."
They reconvened two days later, on November 8th, performing three takes of "Going, Going, Gone" before recording "On A Night Like This.
" Attempts at the former would not replace the master take from the 5th, but a master take of the latter was successfully recorded. The session would then end with "Forever Young."
After several false starts, Dylan and executed what would ultimately be one of two master takes for "Forever Young.
" However, Dylan nearly rejected the performance after hearing some disparaging criticism from one particular visitor.
"We only did one [complete] take of the slow version of 'Forever Young,'" recalls Fraboni. "This take was so riveting, it was so powerful, so immediate, I couldn't get over it.
When everyone came in nobody really said anything. I rewound the tape and of the room. There was no outward discussion.
Everybody just left. There was just [a friend] and I sitting there. I was so overwhelmed I said, 'Let's go for a walk.
' We went for a walk and came back and I said, 'Let's go listen to that again.' We were like one minute or two into it, I was so mesmerized by it again I didn't even notice that Bob had come into the room..
.So when we were assembling the master reel I was getting ready to put that [take] on the master reel. I didn't even ask.
And Bob said, 'What're you doing with that? We're not gonna use that.' And I jumped up and said, 'What do you mean you're not gonna use that?
You're crazy! Why?' Well, during the recording.
..[Dylan's childhood friend] Lou Kemp and this girl came by and she had made a crack to him, 'C'mon, Bob, what!
Are you getting mushy in your old age?' It was based on her comment that he wanted to leave [that version] off the record."
Fraboni would defend the recording, and when he refused to relent, Dylan reconsidered and allowed him to include it on the album.
On November 9th, Dylan held what he intended to be the final session for the album. From Fraboni's perspective, Dylan already had a perfect take of "Forever Young" from the previous day, but Dylan still attempted a different, acoustic arrangement, which was ultimately rejected. Dylan would tell Fraboni that afternoon, "I've been carrying this song around in my head for five years and I never wrote it down and now I come to record it I just can't decide how to do it.
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The last song recorded on the 9th was a new composition titled "Wedding Song," which Dylan had completed over the course of the sessions. "Nobody 'Cept You" was originally planned as the album's closing number, but without a satisfactory performance, it would be omitted and replaced by "Wedding Song."
Though there was enough material to fill an album, Dylan decided to hold one more session.
On the 14th, was called back to record two songs. The first was another arrangement of "Forever Young," this time with Robertson on mandolin and Danko on fiddle. This new version of "Forever Young" would create the second of two master takes for the song, and both of them would be included on the album.
played the piano while we were mixing [the album]. All of a sudden, he came in and said, 'I'd like to try 'Dirge' on the piano.'.
..We put up a tape and he said to Robbie, 'Maybe you could play guitar on this.
' They did it once, Bob playing piano and singing, and Robbie playing acoustic guitar. The second time was the take."
collection of songs.
" As a whole, they deal with domestic themes with a few tracks seeming like straightforward love songs, However, as 's Tim Riley notes, many of the songs take on darker overtones, with lyrics suggesting "death ('Dirge'), suicide ('Gone, Gone, Gone,' a song that doesn't toy around with the idea), and the Unlike the "settled-in homilies" of and , Planet Waves is "rounded out with more than one shade of romance: subterfuge, suspicion, self-hate ('Dirge,' 'Tough Mama'), and memory ('Something There Is About You') counter lighthearted celebration ('On A Many critics gave the performances on Planet Waves plenty of attention, perhaps more than the songs themselves. Dylan and had performed on numerous occasions, most notably on tour in 1966 and during the "Basement Tape" sessions of 1967, but at the time of Planet Wave's release, very few of these performances were officially released.
" 's windup pitch to 'Going, Going, Going' is a wonder of pinpoint ensemble playing," writes Riley.
"Robertson makes his guitar entrance choke as if a noose had suddenly tightened around its neck, and you get the feeling these guys could shadow Dylan in their sleep." Riley also writes that "'Tough Mama' is the track that exemplifies the best playing on Planet Waves, and a pitch of writing that shows Dylan can still challenge himself." Clinton Heylin also singled out Dylan's performances, noting that "Tough Mama" featured "one of his raunchiest vocals.
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Arguably the most celebrated song on Planet Waves, "Forever Young" was originally written for his children, and a demo this. As described by Heylin, the song is "an attempt to write something hymnal and heartfelt that spoke of the father in him." Though two different versions were released on the album, most critics and listeners defer to the "beautiful slow waltz of a performance" recorded on November 8th as the primary recording.
"His most twisted song since the accident," writes Heylin, "'Dirge' represents a quite astonishing catharsis on Dylan's part. As the narrator expresses an underlying hatred for 'the need that was expressed' by her presence, he encapsulates all the ambivalence this popular artist felt for both muse and audience." Many critics also singled out Dylan's piano playing in praising the recording.
The closing number on Planet Waves is "Wedding Song," and over the years, a number of critics have called it autobiographical. "It begins with the narrator attempting to convince his lady love that he loves her 'more than life itself,'" writes Heylin. "However, the focus begins to turn when he informs her, 'we can't regain what went down in the flood,' suggesting that their search for a new Eden was always doomed to failure.
By the sixth verse we have come to the crux of the song - the singer's protestation that he does not wish to 'remake the world at large,' because he loves her 'more than all of that.'" Many critics have dismissed such claims of autobiographical content, making "Wedding Song" one of the more debated numbers on The one original song left on the cutting room floor was also one of the oldest. Originally demoed in June, "Nobody 'Cept You" was a simple, straightforward song where the narrator pledges his love and devotion to the object of his affection.
Dylan had considered closing Planet Waves with "Nobody 'Cept You" before dropping it altogether. During the live tour with , he performed it during his solo acoustic sets, and though it was dropped from the rotation after a few weeks, it was a concert highlight for many fans. A recording of "Nobody 'Cept You" taken from the Friday, November 2nd session, was issued on .
During the first session held on November 2nd, Dylan and the four present members of jammed on an instrumental, titled "Crosswind Jamboree." They also covered the traditional folk standard, "House of the Rising Sun," which Dylan had recorded on his self-titled debut. Considering Fraboni's comments regarding the first session, it's possible both recordings were merely warm-ups.
Planet Waves was Dylan's first 'proper' album in three and a half years. With a planned tour to follow (his first since 1966 and backed by the same band that supported him on that legendary tour), the media coverage was enormous. planned on releasing Planet Waves the same day the tour began, but an album title release date back two weeks.
Planet Waves would ship gold, topping 's album charts on the basis of advance orders, but by the end of 1974, it sold a modest 600,000 copies, selling only 100,000 units after those initial orders were made. The figures were a surprise considering the enormous success of the tour; it would generate $92 million in ticket sales from roughly ten million purchasers.
The critical reception was generally positive, if a bit muted.
The consensus was ultimately strong enough to secure Planet Waves at #18 on 's Critics Poll for 1974. "In a time when all the most prestigious music, even what passes for funk, is coated with silicone grease, Dylan is telling us to take that grease and jam it," wrote critic . "Sure he's domestic, but his version of conjugal love is anything but smug, and this comes through in both the lyrics and the sound of the record itself.
Blissful, sometimes, but sometimes it sounds like stray cat music - scrawny, cocky, and yowling up the stairs."
Ellen Willis of wrote, "Planet Waves is unlike all other Dylan albums: it is openly personal..
.I think the subject of Planet Waves is what it appears to be - Dylan's aesthetic and practical dilemma, and his immense emotional debt to Sara."
Though most of Planet Waves was played on the tour (including a solo, acoustic rendition of the outtake, "Nobody 'Cept You"), as the tour progressed, songs from Planet Waves were removed from the setlist.
By the end of the tour, only "Forever Young" would remain.
In the meantime, Dylan and would professionally record many of the shows as they planned their next release. Only "Forever Young," "Hazel," and "Tough Mama" have been performed in recent years.
All songs written by Bob Dylan.
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