My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg 1966: Genuine Live 1966 (box set)

Scorpio put out the 8 CD set entitled Genuine Live 66 in 2000 (following in their tradition of sticking titles to Sony music.)  It gives us a fantastic view into one of the best  (if not THE best) rock tours ever done.

The Bootlegs included in the box set are: 
“A Phoenix in April” – Sydney, Australia
“The Children’s Crusade” – Melbourne & Adelaide
“While The Establishment Burns” –  Dublin, Copenhagen, & Edinburgh
“A Nightly Ritual”– Liverpool, Glasgow, Sheffield, & Birmingham
“The Genuine RAH Concerts” Manchester & London
(In addition, some sets included two bonus discs of the Bristol show entitled Away From The Past)

The Bob Dylan World Tour 1966 was a concert tour from February to May 1966. Dylan’s 1966 World Tour was notable as the first tour where Dylan employed an electric band backing him, following his “going electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The musicians Dylan employed as his backing band were known as The Hawks; they subsequently became famous as The Band. The 1966 tour was filmed by director D. A. Pennebaker. Pennebaker’s footage was edited by Dylan and Howard Alk to produce a little-seen film, Eat the Document, an anarchic account of the tour. Drummer Mickey Jones also filmed the tour with an 8mmhome movie camera. Many of the 1966 tour concerts were recorded by Columbia Records. These recordings produced one official album, the so-called “Royal Albert Hall” concert, and also many unofficial bootleg recordings of the tour. This box set is the definitive audio documentation of this tour.

Highlights: Too many to single out, this is a true treasure chest!

Other entries in this series:

My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1962: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan Outtakes
My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1969: The Dylan / Cash Sessions
My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1973: The Pat Garrett sessions
My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1983: Infidels outtakes (Rough cuts)
My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1989: The Oh Mercy Outtakes
My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1995: Prague 3 nights in March
My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 2011: Funen Village Denmark June 27
My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 2012: The Day of Wine and Roses, Barolo, Italy July 16
My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 2014: Gothenburg Sweden July 15

A Phoenix In April (disc 1 and 2):
Sydney, Australia  1966

“The Sydney show is a raw and powerful soundboard recording. It is surprisingly quite for being an analog recording from such an early show. Dylan is talkative between a few of the first songs of each set in the slow, stoned voice that typified this tour.”
– read more at Bobsboots

The Children’s Crusade (disc 3):

“As with most performances of this tour, Dylan sings the first 6 songs solo with the acoustic guitar. For this show he uses a borrowed guitar, as his had been broken. When compared to the Sydney show, this performance is more laid back. This recording has a higher analogue tape white noise floor level, but the windscreen is effective at this show, and there are few mic pops. She Belongs To Mecuts in after the song has begun The band kicks in for electrified versions of the final 3. The overall sound on this recording is quite good. All members of what would be The Band are now in place, except for Levon Helm. On this show, Mickey Jones plays drums. Dylan introduces Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues with a fanciful story about a Mexican Painter, and two girls begin screaming wildly at the prospect of their idol singing their favorite song. “
– read more at Bobsboots

While The Establishment Burns (disc 4):

“Six of the seven songs that were recorded at the Adelphi Theatre have been available to vinyl LP boot collectors for many years. They first appeared on CD in 1988 as ‘Dublin May,5 1966’. They are not quite the quality as some of the other shows, but they are still very good. As it was an incomplete recording, Scorpio has rounded out the disc with some of the wildest performances of the tour. Great quality as well. These 3 songs are the only known surviving board recordings of their respective shows except for ABC’s I Don’t Believe You, which was officially released on Biograph.. These push the listening time to 65 minutes. There have been rumours since the 1960s of an unreleased Dylan song by the title of While The Establishment Burns. It was also the name of a fairly rare 1970 bootleg LP release. “
– get more info at Bobsboots

A Nigtly Ritual (disc 5 and 6):

“If not the best sounding recording, Liverpool is as good a performance of the electric set as you will find on the tour. Perhaps inspired by playing the hometown of the Fab Four, the band is tight and powerful. Dylan’s vocals, Robbie’s lead guitar playing and Garth’s erie B-3 all seem truly inspired. This board tape is of a remarkable effort. The first track was used as a demo of the song by Dwarf music. The second track appeared on a 1966 single, and on the official CBSCD Masterpieces. Dylan starts his now famous mumbling ruse before the introduction of Leopard Skin PillBox Hat, as the blue collar audience becomes a little loud with their heckling. Ballad Of A Thin Man is the highlight of the night. Glasgow is interesting tracks of songs that Bob was working on that were recorded for use in the film Eat The Document. The sound quality is amazing. The Sheffield show is perhaps the best of the tour. The quality is incredible, and the performance can move you to tears”
– read more at Bobsboots

The Genuine RAH concerts (disc 7 and 8):

“The Manchester show is moot now with the release of the official album, but this actually has a slightly softer, more polished sound. This CD is most likely the correct order and venues of what has traditionally been a very confusing and inaccurate account of the performances in the bootleg community. These represent clean, quiet recordings… although they have been available to collectors for so long that it’s almost hard to get excited about them. If you’re new to collecting, by all means, this is required material … and in as good a quality as you are likely to find.

…At the final tracck of disc one, we magically switch to a pristine tape source. We get to hear a rarity on the tour… Bob introduces The Band. Then he kicks into the highlight of disc one… a painfully slow Like A Rolling Stone in which Bob spits words at the crowd with venom, and drags them into eternity. “
– Bobsboots

– Hallgeir