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

he became "Bob". also voiced changes a lot thru the years.....I mean 1966 blonde on blonde voice compared to Nashville skyline honey twang couple years later was another massive shift....then the hoarse hard rain to super nasal street legal.....its always changing

 

Regarding Blonde and Blonde and the 1966 tour, it's hard to believe heroin did
not influence how the songs were written and performed. But Dylan's mind was
always way out there making associations between seemingly unrelated things.
In this case it's more than just writing nonsense verse and then singing it with
an emotion that invests it with a seeming purpose. I don't know what the truth
is. But I believe Alderson is sincere and truthful when he says Dylan wasn't
doing heroin, insofar as he knows.

On another matter, I prefer the acoustic sets from 1965 before Dylan became
exhausted and sped up. I prefer listening to Dylan over listening to drugged-
dragged Dylan. His singing is compelling and vital throughout the 1966 tour, no
question, but the 1965 sets offer other virtues.

There are three official vinyl releases from 1966: Sydney, Manchester, and the
first Royal Albert Hall. One must own them all if one doesn't own the CD box-set.

 

Heroin or not, I'll always take 1965 as the zenith of Bob's career: BIABH, H61R and those concerts.

It was the zeitgeist of zeitgeist.

 

That's the spirit. More posts like this one, please.

 

I find it fascinating that they recorded all of these shows.

Does anyone know why they recorded them all? Was there some kind of live album project planned (or released? I'm not super familiar with his core catalog). If anyone knows the story I'd be interested to know.

 

Latest publicity for Clinton's book from Route Publishing:-

Bob Dylan 1966 London Press Conference

 

I'm probably odd man out. I'll collect every studio recording I can of Bob's but I'm not as maniacal over the live material.

I'm pretty happy with having the Albert Hall gig from this collection. I just don't have the kind of time to listen to 36 shows of this or any tour.

Give me a collection of the best performances of every song played on a tour and I'll be happy.

 

I feel ya - a 36 disc set of anyone is going to be somewhat daunting. And when they include bootleg recordings along with the kitchen sink, you know you're going to have highs and lows.

My issue with your approach is that you're forced to delegate a decision of which is the "best performance" to some third party. How often, when listening to the box sets in the Bootleg Series, have you read someone saying "this may well be my favorite performance of XXX"? For example, there are some real revelations in the More Blood set.

What I do find a little confusing is this mix and match approach to releasing archive material. The 36 disc set, and the forthcoming Rolling Thunder set, are not under the banner of the Bootleg Series. I find that a little inconsistent.

 

What's all this talk about Dylan on heroin in '66? Is there anything at all to support this because I've never heard this. There's that story from a few years back about his addiction from the early '60s but nothing about any heroin addiction in '66.

 

I find it completely consistent. The bootleg series is more of a curated animal. Big Blue was a gift due to copyright considerations and the time period and material being iconic, but even that set had a two and six disc version for the masses.

The 36 disc 1966 set and the forthcoming 14 disc set from the Rolling Thunder Revue take a more kitchen sink approach -- which is something that the Bootleg Series releases has never been and has never set out to be. The series has obviously expanded in scope over the years, but they've remained amazingly focused.

To me, it makes perfect sense that these two live blocks were released without the 'bootleg series' banner. Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things since the end result for the listener is the same.

 

Thanks for reposting this. I'd lost track of it.

 

I don't know the answer. I'm asking the same question. Perhaps his biographers
have something to say about it, there are so many. The suspicion has been around
for a long time, in print and as gossip, but Alderson says no.

What addiction from the early '60s are you referring to?

 

It is a different series. The copyright dump series. The main inconsistency being that we are not getting all of the 1975 tour that is available

Tim

 

I think it's been pretty well known for many years. There was a Mojo special probably when the Live 1966 album (90s) came out with lots of eye witness reports.

 

With Dylan on this tour the "on the edge" feel is part of the performance. Dylan was of course somewhat on the edge but it is also conscious I think.

Tim

 

There was that unearthed '66 interview where Bob mentioned overcoming a $12/day (or something like that) heroin addiction. I assumed that was during his early days in NY but it could have been later.

 

I thought that was about drinking. About being a drunk.

Or maybe he was having some fun with the interviewer, spinning another
cobweb in the legend.

 

There's references to it in Scaduto's 1972 book, specifically his interviews with Van Ronk - about Dylan's dabblings in the stuff c. 1965-1966 period.

As for the 1966 UK/European tour, the only reported/corroborated incidence of Dylan actually using 'junk' was during his hang-out with John Lennon on May 26-May 27 - the last date of the tour. It made Dylan very ill, and the effects are pretty obvious when listening to the May 27th concert (the contrast to the tight-knit 26th show is startling); the acoustic set is okay and dreamlike, even transcendent in places, but it is a vocal train-wreck during the electric set, as Dylan's vocal cords are no longer cooperating.

We covered some of this the first-time around, though, earlier in the thread a few years back. #1895 But the code-word (Lennon's words) was 'junk'. D.A. Pennebaker also corroborates the events of May 27 and the substances used (in Spitz' 1989 book).

I guess it was Dylan's way of having a tour blowout.

 

Thanks for looking up the details and putting the matter into perspective.

 

My reconstruction diagram of Alderson's sound system. Comments?
Based on various interviews with Richard Alderson among others one posted here by "notesfrom".

 

Impressive work Mr. Echo!

Did you send this to Richard for any comment, I wonder?

 

I sent this to him, but all he told me was that the Klipsch speakers were painted black (they were natural wood in the version I had sent him), so I corrected that. Other than that he said he did not remember the exact specifics of the set-up. Maybe he is keeping the information for his own book.

 

Nice graphic! I'd err on the side of there only being 4 Klipsch La Scala loudspeakers. Alderson said he had built Dylan's sound system as a 'scaled down' version of Harry Belafonte's, and that Dylan's could have stood to be louder than it was on the '66 tour, so I'd conjecture that Belafonte's had the six loudspeakers.

I believe the guitar amps were Fender 'blackface' Showman piggybacks. Maybe Danko had a Bassman head. Garth's organ is probably amplified through one of those Fenders with a mic running into the Altec? Just guessing, though. Alderson said every player had a mic (or a line out?).

Here was the pre-Alderson onstage Fender amp array - from Symphony Hall in Newark, NJ on October 2, 1965.



And Paris, 1966, showing one of the Fender amps, and what looks like a mic'd Fender speaker to the left of Jones:



In the 12-minute Alderson tour recordings film you can see some of the Fender amp speakers located here and there in the back row and their amp-heads detached from them. So Alderson's stage setup is different from what we see in the New Jersey '65 pictures, including the use of monitors.

The stage for the Paris Olympia show:

 

P.S. Garth is also playing through a Leslie speaker. Whether it's also running through a Fender amp or is being mic'd directly is another question. If you do get in touch with Alderson, please ask him what amps were they using - 'Fender Showman's? Bassman for Rick?'. Is Garth using an amp or just the Leslie speaker? Were any of the amps or instrument speakers modified for line outputs?

Here is Garth with the large Leslie speaker console behind his organ in a NJ '65 picture. Not sure what the smaller box in front of the organ is - maybe a primitive monitor? Pictures of Garth on these tours ('65-'66) are kind of rare for whatever reason.



Hammond B3 organ and Leslie speaker:


At Manchester, Free Trade Hall, in '66, the Leslie speaker is turned around facing away from the general audience. There is a mystery box on top of the Leslie that has distinctive slits. One of the tilt-back monitors (with 'handle with care' writing on the side) is in the foreground in front of the Leslie. And one of the Fender speakers is practically part of the rear-guard viewership - in front of the man with the glasses. Someone got to hear one of the instruments quite well besides the smashing drums! And it looks like the head of the Fender amp is to the left of the speaker, maybe resting on the drum riser, near Dylan's left knee.



Back of a vintage Leslie cabinet:


At the Royal Albert Hall, the Leslie speaker is again facing with its back out, sitting next to Mickey Jones' cymbal and mic stand.