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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Richard--W, Sep 27, 2016.

  1. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Yesterday into today (actually now it's a day later anyway...) I listened to both Royal Albert Hall sets.

    First of all, hearing the acoustic set from the CBS tapes is wonderful. What a sound. Bob fills the hall.

    Bob's first night is such a wonderful performance. His best? No. Especially for the electric set, I think Manchester still is the better one. Like A Rolling Stone misses that dramatic hit for the intro too! But overall, everyone on stage is firing on all cylinders. And after all this time, they are a well-oiled machine. This would have been a great way to end the tour.

    But it wasn't quite the end.

    Before I moved onto the second show, I listened to 18 minutes of Bob in the car with John Lennon. I've only heard an edited version previously. Bob is clearly out of his mind here. It'd be such a hilarious caricature if it wasn't so sad and dangerous. He really was a smashed idol, and it's scary and embarrassing. It's a weird enough situation where Lennon is the most lucid and straight man. And he seems terribly uncomfortable. To be fair, Bob doesn't seem too comfortable himself. I think this is key listening before putting on the final RAH show. This is the Bob Dylan who takes the stage. A man who can barely even handle a 20 minute car ride is about to put on a most splendid train wreck of a concert!

    I exaggerate of course. The show is hardly a train wreck. But it's clearly a different beast compared to anything else from the tour. The acoustic set seems to be moving at a totally different speed. It lasts almost an hour, longer than usual by a decent amount. His singing veers all too close to the stereotypical parody. But the electric set is where the madness truly comes alive. He is so uninhibited in responding to the audience. He clearly knew better, or else he would have done it before. It's a dangerous confrontation, made all the more sad yet comical by the fact that he is too fried to offer anything clever, reasonable, or even coherent. But, he keeps making it clear that this is his last show. Without the benefit of hindsight, it sounds like a frighteningly prophetical epitaph. Surely, he was killing himself alive, and who's to say that he didn't think, in that moment at least, that it could well be his last show forever. His actual song performances are emotional, but almost always below par. The rest of the musicians are the ones doing the heavy lifting, holding both the songs and the singer up for dear life. I've had the last track, that long Like A Rolling Stone, for a while now. Hearing it now, they stretch the song out as if to allow Bob his final bows. For another artist, this could be a moment of triumph.

    And with that, I do believe I have concluded my journey along Bob's 1966 tour. Yes, I still have the audience recordings to listen to, but given the quality, I doubt I'll be giving them as active a listen, let alone any in depth write-ups. It's been a hell of a ride. I had the added bonus of listening to the final RAH after being up all night. Perhaps it brought me ever so slightly closer to his state of being. This will also be a listening session that I will long recall, as I spent my time listening going through my new neighborhood, eating breakfast, wandering streets, waiting to do a final inspection of and then later a closing for my own place. At one point, I passed a tea shop, and noticed Bob's name on a poster in the window. It turned out to be a poster advertising the Forest Hills Stadium shows from this past summer. If I had gotten this place earlier, I would have been able to have walked to that concert. It was a funny little moment though, being reminded of the stately Sinatra-loving Dylan while hearing this young madman prattle on about rock n roll and... Frankie? Was he talking about Sinatra? I can't be sure if he even knew quite what he meant...
     
  2. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident Thread Starter

    The 1966 concerts are not the sort of thing one can walk away from, revolution_vanderbilt. You'll be back in the box, I guarantee it.
     
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  3. voles

    voles Forum Lurker

    Location:
    UK
    I am very grateful to Mr Cable and his curious artifact of the pre-internet age. It left a big impression on me.

    Most excitingly, the writer seemed to be flouting the law to write about this contraband and of course made me gleefully complicit with him. It was this book more than anything else that fostered my unjustified sense of entitlement to hear and most especially acquire it ALL.

    It was this book that made me aware of the of the Basement Tapes, though Cable seemed to have little idea of the amount that had actually been recorded. Many of his observations seem very strange in retrospect. I recall with some amusement that he scoffed at the notion of Dylan finding religion and suggested that Mr Dylan was drunk when he performed his 'Sign on the Cross'.

    Of course I had no idea how much there was out there and it was a terrible long time before Columbia/Sony realised the commercial possibilities - or was it Mr Dylan?.
     
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  4. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Oh I'm sure I will. But I'm starting to burn out, and I think after 4.5 hours of audiences tapes, I will be ready to put it aside for a while
     
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  5. Thank you Hominy.
     
  6. subtr

    subtr Forum Resident

    I thought that. One day later, after listening to only Leonard Cohen, I'm back in 1966 again, right from the start (soundboard only).
     
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  7. voles

    voles Forum Lurker

    Location:
    UK
    I am very grateful to Mr Cable and his curious artifact of the pre-internet age. It left a big impression on me.

    Most excitingly, the writer seemed to be flouting the law to write about this contraband and of course made me gleefully complicit with him. It was this book more than anything else that fostered my unjustified sense of entitlement to hear and most especially acquire it ALL.

    It was this book that made me first aware of the of the Basement Tapes, though Cable seemed to have little idea of the scope and breadth of what had actually been recorded. Many of his observations seem very strange in retrospect. He wrote somewhat contemptuously of there being suggestions of 'country and western' music being included and I recall with some amusement that he scoffed at the notion of Dylan finding religion and said that Mr Dylan seemed drunk when he performed his 'Sign on the Cross'. That's how I remember it anyway.

    Of course I had no idea how much there was out there and it was a terrible long time before Columbia/Sony realised the commercial possibilities - or was it Mr Dylan?.
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2016
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  8. Percy Song

    Percy Song A Hoity-Toity, High-End Client

    Agreed, wholeheartedly; Roger has an engaging, perceptive, observant and technically competent style, coupled with exactly the right amount of humour and criticism. Surely he is the best of the (bad phrase, here) "regular Dylan writers" who has yet to publish a book.

    I stopped subscribing to ISIS a few years ago and I've only read the first installment (covering the BIABH sessions) of his multi-part essay therein about The Cutting Edge Collector's Edition, but just one of the insightful sentences within his comment on Disc 1, Track 1 (Love Minus Zero/NoLimit Take 1) has you reaching again for that disc to discover that you might have missed something on first listen:-

    "Dylan’s guitar is slightly out of tune, but the way his voice surprises you by dropping down on the word “flowers”, just that, reassures you that you probably didn’t waste your money buying this absurdly comprehensive collection."

    You cannot do anything but smile and nod your head in agreement. And it just gets better after that. The site must return; I need to read the other parts!

    It's a minor tragedy he wasn't approached to write the liner notes for The Cutting Edge; he might have won a (deserved) award for them.
     
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  9. Percy Song

    Percy Song A Hoity-Toity, High-End Client

    She was blonde. In "Testimony", Robbie makes a point that he and Edie had a "thing" going for a while ....:)

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Percy Song

    Percy Song A Hoity-Toity, High-End Client



    "The Robbie Mix"....! :D

    I'm no expert, and my hearing is shot, but I certainly have a preference for the original monos on the vinyl medium - I grew up with the UK mono album (which, as we know from Roger, is not a unique mix as such). The most recent stereo CDs sound very sweet to me, and the SH treatment of the BoB songs on the latest Audio Fidelity "Greatest Hits" and "Greatest Hits Vol II" reissues is, of course, wonderful.

    You're right; Alan Fraser has a lot to answer for. My wallet would be considerably more upholstered if it were not for "Searching For A Gem".

    I was dead lucky in my acquisition of the Nonbreakable Canada Mono. An erstwhile colleague (who happens to be a Canadian himself) remembered my obsession and found one for me only charging me shipping ($19 to UK). That's what friends are for, I reckon. It's not in the best shape, but it sits nicely next to (ahem..) a CD-R of the best rip you'll ever hear.

    My most recent vinyl acquisition, the mint UK "Robbie Mix", has some unusual, hitherto unrecorded by SFAG (must get around to reporting it to Alan), matrix prefixes in the dead wax on sides B and C. Yes, folks, without an 8x Agfa-Loupe you'll never get the full Blonde on Blonde story.

    [​IMG]


    Nearest to the camera is the unique France Mono inner gatefold. I rather like the unique France mono mix, too. Middle is the Canada mono which only ever had the 9 photo layout. Top is a late UK revised ("Non-Robbie") stereo mix with the revised post-Claudia 7 photo layout.
     
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  11. onlyconnect

    onlyconnect The prose and the passion

    Location:
    Winchester, UK
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  12. Captain Caveman

    Captain Caveman Well-Known Member

    The MFSL BoB is my go-to
     
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  13. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident Thread Starter

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  14. hodgo

    hodgo Tea Making Gort (Yorkshire Branch) Staff

    Location:
    East Yorkshire
    I've had a weeks break from the box, so today I start with Bristol, It's a real shame there are only two acoustic tracks from the soundboard because Bob sounds in fine fettle throughout.

    For those of you like me who have no desire to listen to the audience recordings on a regular basis, I've created a hybrid CD with only the soundboard songs from both sets, I've also created some artwork to go along with it, which I've included for anyone else wishing to do the same.

    See links below.............


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]
     
  15. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Nicely done. I've done the same, only without a label or cover art.
     
  16. Tuck1977

    Tuck1977 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I'm in for a good night Bobby & the band have arrived from amazon, tonight they are going to be playing their set from the RAH through my turntable.
     
  17. Paul W

    Paul W Senior Member

    Has anyone compared the CBS release of this compilation to their bootleg copies? It seems to me that the track lengths of the official releases are shorter, in most cases, than the boots. Have the official tracks been edited or did the bootleggers possibly use "slowed down" tapes?
     
  18. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    They could release a Spring and Autumn archival box each year and not saturate the market, since it's different product, even with the same artist. The fans that are willing to buy these boxes are around, I'd venture to say, and waiting for these boxes to hit land. But there's only one way to test those unsaturated waters.

    And that's why there were only ten footprints left in the sawdust and dirt of the stage that night, instead of the usual twelve: they were carrying him.
     
  19. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    I'm going to make damned sure no one sees or hears me listening to those audience tapes aloud while reading the liner notes in the booklet.

    'You bought 36 CDs of this stuff!?!?!'...

    'Yeah, doesn't it sound great?'
     
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  20. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    She may have been but the reason for Blonde On Blonde as I stated earlier is the first letter of each word spells BOB. Could have been anything.
     
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  21. hodgo

    hodgo Tea Making Gort (Yorkshire Branch) Staff

    Location:
    East Yorkshire
    Leicester is playing now, as I sit listening to the first disc it strikes me that what I'm enjoying most about this box are the acoustic sets. Bob really is engaged in the performances which surprises me because I always assumed that he probably couldn't wait to get the acoustic portion out of the way so he could get to the electric set, however hearing all these different shows makes me realise that wasn't the case at all, in fact he was equally engaged in both sets.
     
  22. Wayfaring Stranger

    Wayfaring Stranger Forum Resident

    Location:
    York uk
    There's probably another thread somewhere that deals with the late 60's release of Blonde on Blonde as two separate single vinyl LPs in Continental Europe. I'm not sure exactly when they came out, but I often saw copies when I was travelling around Holland and Germany in the mid-1980s. As far as I recall, the sleeves featured the head and shoulders half of the full length cover on the front with the different corresponding reverse black and white montage from each disc on the back. I'm sure I remember the Claudia pic on one of them. I never heard the music therein so I've no idea what mixes were used, but I do have the three volumes of Greatest Hits from Germany from around that time, and all the stereo Blonde on Blonde tracks on them have elongated endings compared to the versions I was familiar with from the original album. They also have photos mostly from the '66 tour on the covers of course (I guiltily added that as a vain attempt to acknowledge the real subject matter of this splendid thread!)
     
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  23. subtr

    subtr Forum Resident

    For the audience tapes a few small sections have been cut, though nothing significant. For Sydney and the soundboard Melbourne some silences between songs have been cut, but 'actual sound' (if you want to call it that - tuning, shuffling about) has been retained.

    Manchester is the same as the BS4, which is not 'complete' in terms of in-between song material. I've not checked the RAH stuff, but I'm certain this set runs at the right speed, whether what we had before, some (all?) of which was a rip from vinyl, ran at the right speed I don't know.

    I'm fairly sure that the material we had available before (at least the soundboard stuff) is all here. Hope that helps!

    I made a post with some more info, earlier on (which I don't blame you for missing).

    Bob Dylan: The 1966 Live Recordings - Sony 36-CD box-set - November 11 »
     
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  24. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I'm still chugging along behind everyone, listening to the shows chronologically, so I had to avert my eyes here, but I'll certainly come back and carefully read this post when I finally get to the RAH shows, which may not be for another week or so...:sigh:
     
  25. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Thanks again for sharing some of your exceptional collection with us, as well as so much of your detailed knowledge. The Blonde on Blonde mystique still burns brightly, and I believe it will endure.
     
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