The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 Bob Dylan Live 1966 The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert
| The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert |
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| Live album by Bob Dylan | ||||
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Publication |
1998 |
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| Label (s) | Columbia Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
15th |
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running time |
1:35:18 |
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Jeff Rosen |
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Location (s) |
Free Trade Hall , Manchester , UK (May 17, 1966) |
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The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 Bob Dylan Live 1966 The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert is a live album by Bob Dylan . It was produced by Jeff Rosen and regularly released on October 13, 1998. All compositions on it are by Bob Dylan, with one exception: the composition Baby, Let Me Follow You Down, already included on his first album Bob Dylan (1962), allegedly goes back to Reverend Gary Davis , published by him under the title Baby, Let me lay it on you . On the 1962 album, Dylan ascribes the song to Eric Von Schmidt (“Ric Von Schmidt”), the lyrics are by Bob Dylan.
Beginning
On July 24th and 25th, 1965, Bob Dylan , who until then had always been on stage without a teammate, appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport for the first time accompanied by a band, the Butterfield Blues Band . The legend continues to this day that he was booed there when he picked up the electric guitar. Rather, it is true that the audience reacted angrily to the performance, which consisted of only three songs - the band hadn't rehearsed more - and Dylan had to play the encore solo with the acoustic guitar.
Also on the subsequent tour, which began on August 28, 1965 at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York and - repeatedly interrupted for recordings for the album Blonde on Blonde - over 76 concerts in nine months on three continents ( North America , Australia , Europe ) until May 27, 1966 (at the Royal Albert Hall in London ), Dylan was accompanied by a band, the Hawks , initially with the line-up Robbie Robertson , Al Kooper , Harvey Brooks and Levon Helm , which soon followed The Band should become famous, although the musicians of Dylan were never introduced as a band, but remained relatively anonymous. The dramaturgical sequence of the concerts was repeated every evening like a ritual : In the first part, Bob Dylan, with muffled applause, was alone on stage without an accompanying band in the usual acoustic version; Restlessness, heckling and aggression from the audience waiting impatiently in the second part, in anticipation of the scandal every evening (the predetermined two-part sequence of the concerts had long been known to the visitors), in which he, supported by the Hawks, heard the electric version.
Everywhere a part of the audience reacted with rejection of the exuberant lust and unbridled joy in playing with which the band played the electrically amplified songs. Dylan has been accused of acting and moving like Mick Jagger and dancing with his band like a rock 'n' roll band . Purists saw a break with traditional folk and Dylan a traitor. The audience had not expected ordinary, loud and dirty rock'n'roll, but idealistic protest songs against exploitation, oppression and war.
The concert
A recording of the concert on May 17, 1966 in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester was published as a bootleg under various titles in late 1970 / early 1971 . On June 3, 1971 the music critic Dave Marsh reviewed the concert in the music magazine Creem and stated with admiration: “It is the most supremely elegant piece of rock 'n' roll music I've ever heard… The extreme subtlety of the music is so closely interwoven with its majesty that they appear as one and the same. "
The recording became famous under the misleading and false name “Royal Albert Hall — May 27, 1966” mainly because it documents a verbal argument between the audience and the singer in an extraordinarily vivid and acoustically clear manner. Some of the concert-goers reacted predictably irritated, annoyed and upset about the electrically amplified songs. The audience in Manchester expressed their protest attitude through restlessness, nervousness, rhythmic clapping and heckling.
Dylan provoked the audience, hardly a song that was performed as the fans expected: Desolation Row and Visions of Johanna , carried on record by a new rock 'n' roll sound, become epics of a newly created psychedelic Folk - also Mr. Tambourine Man, a Dylan composition made famous by the Byrds as a pop number.
In the electric second half of the concert, Dylan took some of his earlier songs and put them in a new context. The once nice I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) , in which a young folk singer is primarily confused, becomes an expression of pain, anger and contempt. One Too Many Mornings, a short, intimate folk piece, is now the ultimate embodiment of a rock song, and Rick Danko doesn't sing, he screams the end of the chorus with Dylan .
In the course of the evening, the expressions of displeasure that Dylan and his band had already experienced during their performances in the USA and Australia increased . Finally, from the auditorium, the interjection “ Judas !” Can be heard from quite a few in the audience, demonstratively applauding. New interjections, repeated applause from the audience. Then another interjection, hardly to be heard on the recording: “I'm never listening to you again, ever!” Dylan's laconic answer: “I don't believe you”, then after a long pause: “You're a liar ”And on, turning to the band:“ Play it fucking loud! ”Then the song Like A Rolling Stone, provocatively slow, but played very loudly as Dylan asked for (this scene can be seen in Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home - Bob Dylan from 2005).
It was the last song that evening; There was no other encore, just a short "Thank you!", then Dylan left the stage with the band. In parts of the English music press there was talk of punk at the time, which is more understandable in retrospect.
Bob Dylan's serious motorcycle accident on July 29, 1966 ended this creative phase.
publication
On October 13, 1998, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 Bob Dylan Live 1966 The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert was officially released on Sony / Columbia Records . This is an important document in the history of music; because it marks the point in time when political folk in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and rock 'n' roll merged into a mass movement ("The birth of modern rock as we know it" - Q Magazine ), and it marks Dylan's final Rise to rock legend. Otherwise the tour had not only negative aspects; just think of the demonstrative alliance with other rock greats of that day, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones . The record company kept the original and incorrect name of the bootleg pressing (Royal Albert Hall) , probably for tactical reasons, but correctly put it in quotation marks.
On November 11, 2016, another release was released as part of a 36-CD box under the title The 1966 Live Recordings with all known recordings of the tour; partly TV recordings, official recordings from CBS for a planned live album, supplemented by private concert recordings (bootlegs).
Track list CD 1 (acoustic)
- She Belongs to Me (3:27)
- Fourth Time Around (4:37)
- Visions of Johanna (8:08)
- It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (5:45)
- Desolation Row (11:31)
- Just Like a Woman (5:52)
- Mr. Tambourine Man (8:53)
Track list CD 2 (electric)
- Tell Me, Momma (5:10)
- I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (6:07)
- Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (3:46)
- Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (6:50)
- Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat (4:50)
- One Too Many Mornings (4:22)
- Ballad of a Thin Man (7:55)
- Like a Rolling Stone (8:01)
Web links
- No Direction Home - Documentation by Martin Scorsese
- Bob Dylan - Live 1966 (The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert) at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Olaf Benzinger: Bob Dylan - The history of his music . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-423-24548-7 , pp. 261ff.
