Record Details - RecordDB

Record ID 1170

Artist Bob Dylan

Title Live 1966

Field / Genre Rock

Year Recorded 1966

Label Columbia

Pressing Aus

Rating ****

Discs 2

Media CD

Date Bought 15 Feb 1999

Cost ¤36.00

Cover Name —

Review Bob Dylan's transformation from folksinger to rock 'n' roll poet in the mid-sixties horrified many of his early fans. Traditionalists saw his use of loud amplified instruments as a corruption of folk music's purity. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan hit the road with an electric band, confronting his listeners face to face with his new rock oriented sound. Bootleg recordings of these incendiary performances have circulated among collectors for decades. Now the most famous of these bootlegs, known as the "Royal Albert Hall" show (even though it comes from the May 17, 1966 performance in Manchester, England and not the later show at the London venue) has finally been officially released. Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert documents one of the most fascinating and electrifying concert battles in music history.On the first disc of the two CD set, Dylan plays solo, armed with only an acoustic guitar and harmonica. Perhaps because he still carries the tools of a folksinger, the audience responds to Dylan's seven song acoustic set with respectful silence and warm, enthusiastic applause. One listen to the lyrics, however, and it is clear that Dylan is well past the protest songs of his folk music roots. Like the work of the Beat poets, "Visions of Johanna" and "Desolation Row" pile one surrealistic image on top of another to present a world full of absurdity and madness. Dylan's performance too is otherworldly. His rough ghost of a voice sounds as if it is coming from out of a dream. But Dylan is obviously tuned into every word as he twists and turns the meaning of his prose by emphasizing different aspects of each syllable. The halting tenderness of "Just Like a Woman" is breathtaking and the harmonica solos in "Mr. Tambourine Man" are so hypnotic that Dylan seems to lose himself in their simple beauty as they spiral around his simple but effective guitar strumming. Asthe first half of the show ends, it appears that Dylan's masterful performance has captivated the skeptics in the audience.The sound of electric guitars tuning up opens disc two and warns that the second set is an altogether different story. A distant voice and boot-stomp count in the beat before Dylan and his backing musicians called the Hawks, later named the Band, explode into the opening number, the previously unreleased "Tell Me, Momma." The sound is loud and dense, with Robbie Robertson's splintering guitar riffs and Garth Hudson's hurdy-gurdy keyboards giving the roar a playfully ominous texture, as Dylan shouts like a madman and asks, "Tell me, Momma. What's wrong with you? This tiiiime?" The crowd hesitates a moment before applauding as if stunned by the assault. Dylan quickly plays a melody on his harmonica and introduces the next song, saying, "That was "I Don't Believe You." It used to go like that, now it goes like this." A searing rocked-up version of a tune from his folk days follows, coming across like a psychedelic, acid-dosed versionof Buddy Holly.The battlelines are drawn. From now on, angry audience members greet each song with shouts and slow rhythmic handclapping to show their disapproval. Yet somehow, Dylan rises to the challenge and puts the protesters in their place every time. At one point, in order to quell the disruptive clapping, Dylan mumbles nonsense into the microphone until people quiet down in order to hear what he's saying. Once the noise subsides, he clearly implores, ". . . if you only wouldn't clap so hard." You gotta hand it to Bob. Who else carries out crowd control with such finesse and humor?The music itself is also a response to the hostility in the air. "Ballad of a Thin Man" is more menacing than ever. In the charged atmosphere, its chorus, "You know there's something happening he explains....<hr/>The most famous bootleg in rock history, with the possible exception of Dylan's own Basement Tapes, finally makes its official appearance 32 years after the event, and nearly 30 years after it started circulating in the underground. Although often identified as a Royal Albert Hall show, this May 17, 1966, concert, in which Dylan played electric material in front of a British audience, was actually recorded in Manchester (hence the unwieldy title with quotes around "Royal Albert Hall"). Even those who've owned this recording for many a year might be tempted by this official package, as it has been expanded into a two-CD set that not only includes the eight electric rock songs from the original bootleg, but also the seven solo acoustic performances that comprised the first half of the show. It's all in very good fidelity, about as good as any copies you could find through unofficial sources. More importantly, the electric half in particular is an important document of rock history. It captures the point at which Dylan was at his most controversial and hard rocking as he blazes through mid-'60s classics such as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Ballad of a Thin Man," radical electric arrangements of songs that had originally been recorded acoustically ("One Too Many Mornings," "I Don't Believe You"), and the hard rocker "Tell Me, Momma," which Dylan never recorded in the studio. The acoustic disc is not as epochal, but on par with the electric half in the quality of material and performance. On top of everything else there's a 56-page booklet with a fine essay by Dylan's friend Tony Glover (a notable folk musician in his own right). It's not just an interesting adjunct to Dylan's '60s discography; it's as worthy of attention as anything else he recorded during that decade.—Richie Unterberger

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