Before The Flood
by Bob Dylan & The Band
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Bob Dylan & The Band bestography
Before The Flood is ranked 2nd best out of 4 albums by Bob Dylan & The Band on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Bob Dylan & The Band is The Basement Tapes which is ranked number 1164 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,505.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Before The Flood on YouTube
Before The Flood track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Before The Flood rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Sandrof1969 | Top 40 Music Albums of 1974 | 20/40 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Hayden | Top 100 Music Albums of 1974 | 35/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  sssvnnn | Top 100 Music Albums of 1974 | 68/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 83 Music Albums of 1974 | 34/83 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | Top 34 Music Albums of 1974 | 2/34 | 5 |
| 2026 |  Repo | Top 97 Music Albums of 1974 | 85/97 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Graeme2 | Top 82 Music Albums of 1974 | 51/82 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 97 Music Albums of 1974 | 56/97 | 2 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Sounds End Of Year List 1974 | 7/21 | - |
| 2026 | Romanelli | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 27/100 | 15 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 106 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 241 | |||
Before The Flood collection
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Before The Flood ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 108 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 02/05/2026 12:50 | robertoveltri | 904 | 79/100 |
| ! | 01/24/2026 09:51 | Gedi | 367 | 83/100 |
| ! | 12/30/2025 10:21 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,656 | 70/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.3/100, a mean average of 78.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.5.
Before The Flood favourites
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Forum mentions
Liedzeit 07/15/2026 16:08 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) Romanelli 02/11/2023 16:14 in What album are you listening to right now? Romanelli 08/29/2022 21:19 in What album are you listening to right now?Before The Flood comments
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An enjoyable live album. The Band certainly don't have that sense of energy that they had when they backed Dylan as the Hawks in the mid sixties, still, if you're a fan of both Dylan and the Band, you can't help but enjoy the record. Nothing special, but a lot of fun.
Brandon8 04/02/2016 00:32 | #163128
This album was a disappointment for me. The song selection was great but the performances not so much. Dylan's yells his songs and the song quality isn't where it should be.
I saw this tour and have to say the show was great. Being a huge Dylan and Band fan this was my first opportunity to see either of them live and together no less. A great time was had by all and I was stoked to get the record. What a let down and I lay that at the feet of Garth Hudson. The keyboard sound he choose just sounds cheesy. Maybe it just didn't transfer well to record or maybe it was the way this album was produced. That's all I hear though when I listen to this set, the keyboards.
This was not as good as I thought it would be, but necessary I think to enable the Last Waltz to be as good as it is. Great songs just not performed as well as they could have been. Perhaps the Band were sick of being backup to Dylan by this point, which is why his cameo at the end of the Last Waltz works better then this live recording of one great artist and one great band nearing the end.
A very good live album from a tour that had historical significance. Generally I prefer the Dylan tracks and think the show seems to drag when he walks away and lets The Band go on their own songs. It seems to accentuate how much better they are when they rely on Dylan.
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