The final show of the 1966 world tour. Thankfully the entire acoustic half has emerged on acetate. CBS in fact recorded both nights at the Royal Albert Hall for a possible live album. Before performing “Visions of Johanna,” Dylan launches into a verbal attack on those critics who accuse him of writing drug songs, informing them the next song, “is not a drurg [sic} song. It’s just vulgar to think so.” But the highlight of this, the final 1966 acoustic set is a six-and-a-half minute “Just Like a Woman,” Dylan veering in and out of control of his phrasing. During the electric set, tempers, both on and offrhe stage, become frayed. Before “I Don’t Believe You,” Dylan announces, “I get accused of dismissing my old songs. That’s not true. I luuurve my old songs.” At the time critics are divided as to the merits of the two London shows. Ray Coleman, in Disc and Music Echo, felt that Dylan, “insults his own talents … [with} a shamble of noise.” The London Times reviewer, writing up the first London show, much preferred the acoustic set, entitling his article, “The Better Half of Dylan.” After Dylan· s motorcycle accident, though, the shows will quickly achieve mythic status.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Royal Albert Hall London, England 27 May 1966
Musicians:
Bob Dylan (vocal & electric guitar)
Robbie Robertson (electric guitar)
Garth Hudson (organ), Rick Danko (bass)
Richard Manuel (piano)
Mickey Jones (drums)
The last three songs of the May 27 acoustic set at Royal Albert Hall are good enough to stand next to the best work of any twentieth century artist (performer, painter, poet, mathematician… )
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973)
In circulation from this show are three acoustic songs and three electric songs, part of the widely bootlegged Gelston acetates. Before “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” someone shouts something at Dylan, and he threatens, “Come up here and say that”” The offer is not taken up. Before a nine-minute “Like a Rolling Stone,” which Dylan dedicates to the Taj Mahal, he introduces the Hawks for the first and only time on the tour.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
It’s now also released officially in The 1966 Live Recordings Box-set (disc 30).
CBS records this concert. A PA recording of the acoustic half of the show is subsequently widely bootlegged. The extant tape features “Visions of Johanna,” “Fourth Time Around,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” “Desolation Row,” “Just Like a Woman,” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” (but not “She Belongs to Me,” presumably performed). Although the acoustic set seems to be well received, the audience is hostile throughout the electric set. One review of the show is headlined “Night of the Big Let Down.” According to Robbie Robertson, some of the audience were even holding up placards saying “Stop the War.” A recording of “I Don’t Believe You” from the electric set is eventually released on the Biograph set, incorrectly assigned to Belfast.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Mark Lavon “Levon” Helm , was an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band.
Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, and creative drumming style highlighted on many of The Band’s recordings, such as “The Weight”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, “Ophelia” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.
The Band – Atlantic City (written by Bruce Springsteen), from “The Road” TV series (1995), shot 8/5/94 in Rockford, IL:
May 21: Bob Dylan Like A Rolling Stone, Newcastle, England 1966 (video)
And the gobsmacking footage of his performance in Newcastle a couple of days later, included entire on the No Direction Home DVD, proves no less maelstromic. Here we can see he is visibly speeding out of his brains and probably more than a little miffed that the Mr. Jones puffing on his pipe in the front row thinks he’s attending a poetry recital.
~Clinton Heylin (Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973)
–
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
)
)
)