Bob Dylan: The 1966 Live Recordings - Sony 36-CD box-set - November 11th 2016

No, not Manchester. This:
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone (1966) - Video Dailymotion »

 

Right. Thanks Ray.

 

Of course, not every acoustic set was a Sheffield. Though I'll have to listen again chronologically, I'm a bit doubtful of the idea that Dylan became more acoustically "disengaged" as the tour wore on. I think more likely, his inspiration varied from show to show, and throughout the tour some sets might find him more engaged than others - or even within a set, his focus might waver.
Or as Paul Cable said of 'Moonshiner': "he seems to put everything he has into a song on one occasion, then you hear another version on a different tape and by comparison he chucks the whole thing away."

 

I was thinking of things like the first minute of the 'Rolling Stone' track in Glasgow, or the first 40 seconds of 'Baby Let Me Follow You Down' in Sheffield - these don't sound like Alderson changing the balance, they sound more like entirely different sources, and my guess was separate camera recordings.

 

I'm of the opinion that these are just the Alderson tapes with him fiddling with the sliders.

When you're filming a concert, and you know you have high quality board audio being captured, why would you bother with a second audio source? Although we've determined that Pennebaker's cameras were capable of recording sound, it doesn't appear that he used them for that purpose on this film (hence the appearance of a sound recordist at the press conferences). Did they even HAVE a second Nagra? (I don't believe so)

For "LARS" at Glasgow, my guess is that Alderson was adjusting the sliders to better capture the audience derision (a good documentarian at work!) There's a similar adjustment being made during "She Belongs to Me" at Dublin that almost gives the impression of an alternate tape source being used, but again, I think Alderson is adjusting on the fly.

Just my opinion, of course.

Being that Sheffield was multi-tracked, that one may be a whole 'nother ball game, since we know there are two tape sources.

 

Thanks, I'll take a listen.

 

I wonder if Bob ever took his high school girlfriend out curling. That's the big sport in Hibbing. From today's Hibbing news:



The Curl Mesabi Classic event, slated to start tonight, is the biggest United States curling event on the Olympic curling circuit. This year the event hosts 30 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams

It’s the perfect opportunity to see some top-of-the-line curling. Admission is free, and the full bar and restaurant will be open to the public.

“This is a great opportunity — the Iron Range hosts the largest curling tour event on the circuit in the U.S.,” Drobnick said. “I encourage people to come on up and watch some world-class curling and get to meet some of these great athletes.

“They’re all very — they love the Iron Range hospitality,” he added.

 

I'd be surprised if Bob hasn't curled one out at some point.

 

I put the key words in bold print, "Free and Full Bar". You cannot beat having a few beers and watching men (and some women) run around on the ice with brooms and blocks of stone. Far more preferable to putting on the tuxedo in Stockholm and having to listen to speeches without any buzz.

 

Good review on Pitchfork today.

One takeaway, though, and perhaps the perpetual Dylan hot take, is that the dude actually is an amazing singer, lingering sensuously on every syllable during the quiet acoustic sets and occupying every bit of smarter-than-thou word-play and put-downs when the electric guitars come out. ​

 

With all that iron around, full bar seems a certainty.

 

9.3 is a fantastic score from P4K

 

Listening to Sheffield 5-16 this morning. The acoustic set has long been one of my favorites as I've had the "unofficial" version of it prior to the release of this box.... A shame CBS couldn't capture the electric half nicely, but the Alderson board recording sounds damn good I must say.

 

Wow!Bob shows great enjoyment /delight in singing Just Like Tom Thumb 's Blues in Dublin. Great singer/great version.

 

Finally got around to getting my pal, who was at the Leicester gig that night, to listen to the CD. He had sat behind Dylan, in on-stage seating, and his memories of the show itself have eroded into an image of Dylan's very skinny legs during the first half, and the ferocity of the drummer's playing in the second half. He remembers some shouting and unruliness from the audience out front, but having only ever been to a Rolling Stones show prior to this, he naively thought such goings-on were normal, and indeed that this was remarkably restrained compared to the mayhem that had greeted Jagger and co. As to the music itself, very little has been retained in my pal's memory. Mr Tambourine Man of course, but he'd remembered it as being an ensemble arrangement, rather than solo. As soon as he heard the CD however, the solo rendition re-established itself very vividly, especially the way Dylan's head bobbed to and fro against the spotlight, seen from the rear, during the harmonica break. He also had a strong recollection of Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat, which he said was his favourite number of the second half. He doesn't remember Dylan talking to the audience at all, except for introducing this song, and how everyone laughed. His one disappointment was the absence of Positively 4th Street, which he was certain had opened the electric set. Well, it has been 50 years... Other memories - Richard Manuel vacating the piano stool for Ballad of a Thin Man and sitting on one of the on-stage seats just to the right of my pal, and accepting a cigarette from a young lad sitting in the neighbouring seat. Robbie Robertson saying something like "That's out" or "That's flat" to Dylan at one point between songs, and Dylan merely shrugging his shoulders and strumming the intro to the next song. Also, Mickey Jones chatting to a bunch of guys from the audience at the end of the show as he took down his kit. Overall, my pal was quite touched at hearing this music again after so long, but the understandable lack of clarity in his memory puts into perspective for me some of the other so-called vivid recollections we have come to rely upon when discussing these concerts. It was all so very long ago.

 

Fantastic post; thank you! At last my (rhetorical) question regarding the whereabouts and activities of Richard Manuel during "Ballad of a Thin Man" has been answered. One more piece of the jigsaw is now in place.

 

Isn't that the one on the b-side of I Want You?
Seems like the beginning was chopped off. It that the way the single was ?

 

Taken from the Liverpool concert

 

Oh ok sorry. So was the single version lobbed off at the beginning?

 

5:36 in my Band Box set. Longer in the actual release, more audience. It seems to me better mastered in the Band boxset.

 

You know what the say about the 60's - if you can remember, you weren't really there.

 

I don't know if this has been pointed out, but in the Sheffield 5-16 "Ballad of a Thin Man," does Dylan specfically mention "Mr. Jones" by first name? At 2:42 it sounds like he says "but you know Bob that something's happening...." Unless I am mis-hearing it....

 

He definitely says "Mr. Jones" throughout the song. At the moment you mentioned, he says "You know by that that something is happening".

Bob had a lot of variations for the "something is happening" line.

 

Gotta ask.
Who else made music that sounded like this in 1966?
No one I know of. What an unusual sound this must have been to concertgoers.

 

I know he says "Mr. Jones" throughout of course... but I was hearing "you know Bob that something is happening." - I'll have to re-listen to it.