Judas, 1966, England

Bob Dylan- The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert



Everyone's seen some sort of Dylan biograph, be it "No Direction Home", "Don't Look Back", or "I'm Not There". And everyone remembers that show, mid 60's, Dylan in full suit all knocked up on drugs. Everyone remembers that guy yelling "Judas! I'm never listening to you again!" to which Dylan replied, "I don't believe you... you're a liar".

Well this is where it happened. Recorded on May 17, 1966 at Manchester's "Free Trade Hall", and released as the Bootleg Series:4.

This is one of those live recordings that puts you right in the audience. The mix is spot on, the audience, ambiance, banter, and Dylan being Dylan. The set starts acoustically, with Dylan going through songs like Visions of Johanna, Mr. Tambourine Man, Baby Blue, and the lengthy Desolation Row, which he nails. This is intimate. You can hear his faintest breaths before exploding into orchestral harmonica solos and winding back down to talking his poetry.

This is a man trying to make peace with his audience. As soon as he picked up the electric guitar, his world became a whirlwind of heckling, chaos, and pointed fingers. He picks up the acoustic guitar because as much as he likes to present himself as the indifferent rockstar, he does care for his fans. Fans fight for his affection, and he fights for theirs. Its a strange relationship not really existing anywhere else in the musical world. And honestly, it hasn't changed much even in his live shows today.

The second set revs up with his backup band The Hawks (later renamed as The Band, you might have heard of them). Applause and boos all combine into this strange noise, happy but angry, approving but discontent. After each perfectly executed song, you can hear people get whatever it is off their chests. You can't make out most of what their yelling at him, but the tone is not friendly. But it doesn't sound like he minds, as he mentions them only in reply to the Judas comment.

But hell does the man play a rock and roll set. Sometimes I think I like this live version of "Tom Thumb's Blues" more than the studio. He howls! When he sings "I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough", he means it, seriously, and you can hear that he means it. His voice pierces through the organ, guitar, bass. I have this image of him just looking up at the ceiling as he sings and makes the whole theater shake. He sounds drunk, he sounds excited, he sounds confused... he sounds like the man we love. He fucking sounds great.

If you're a Dylan fan this is a must. This is Dylan's last tour before his hiatus, where he only began touring again in '74, and in a lot of ways, he became a different man. This show is the end of what Dylan created, before moving on to his other curiosities.

Reminisce my friends, reminisce..

love, Amir