Sunday, June 11, 2017

Live 1966 "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" The Bootleg Series Vol. 4

Released October 13, 1998
On May 17, 1966, exhausted and weary after a grueling tour through Europe, Bob Dylan performed before a hostile audience in Manchester, England.  He performed a solo acoustic set and was then joined by the Hawks for the electric portion of the show. On that night a spectator famously cried "Judas" when Dylan begin to play "Like A Rolling Stone."  Feeling betrayed at Bob's embrace of electric music and abandonment of politically driven songs, fans were divided.  Determined to go his own way, Dylan extolled his band "to play fucking louder" as the boos continued.  A performance of historic importance in the frenzy of the mid 1960s, an unforgettable confrontation between artistic expression and audience expectation.

Acoustic Set:

She Belongs To Me
Fourth Time Around
Visions of Johanna
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Desolation Row
Just Like A Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man

The acoustic set is subdued.  Filmed by the same crew that followed Dylan around on Don't Look Back, he sits slouched over as he strums his guitar.  Dylan's performance lacks the passion he brought to them in the studio, here the effect is more hypnotic. He seems to be serving as his own opening act - or expressing his exhaustion with the folk format. 

I wouldn't single out any highlights from the solo set, except that three of the songs were yet to be released: "Fourth Time Around," Visions of Johanna," and "Just Like A Woman." All was prologue to the explosive electric set.

Electric Set:

Tell Me, Momma
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met)
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Leopard-Skin Pillbox-Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballad of a Thin Man
Like a Rolling Stone

The second set begins with Dylan's foot stomping as the band launches into "Tell Me, Momma," a song he never recorded for official release.  Dylan slurs the lyrics, sort of Ginsburg meets Jerry Lee Lewis, but the energy of the band gets infectious.  The lazy harmonica intro to "She Acts Like We Never Met" gives way to a psychedelic jam.  An even heavier version of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down," displays how far Dylan had come since his debut album.  Garth Hudson's swirling organ on "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and Robbie Robertson's guitar perfectly matches the surreal imagery of the lyrics. 

"Leopard-Skin Pillbox-Hat" goes in a more bluesy direction, much more in the style of Blonde on Blonde.  "One Too Many Mornings" gets a drastic reinterpretation as well, the drowsy musings from the original give way to an epic lament on longing.  "Ballad of Thin Man" is even more blistering than the version on Highway 61 Revisited, as the film shows, Dylan took the negative vibes from the audience and threw it back at them. "Like A Rolling Stone" closes out the concert in one of the best live versions, with Dylan almost breaking his voice as the concert ended. Before leaving he offered a monotone, "Thank you," to the crowd.

The Manchester show is historically relevant for many reasons. The year 1966 witnessed rock and roll evolving into not just a cultural force, but an art form. Performers like Dylan, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys were refusing to give the public what they wanted, they were going into their own individualistic directions.  After completing the tour Dylan would vanish from public view for several years, but continued to record music. 

A highlight of the Bootleg Series, "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" would be complimented by the release of The Real Royal Albert Hall Concert released in 2016, the concert Dylan performed a few days later in London.

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