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

The Millard recordings from Santa Monica are amazing and then the final night at the Warfield. They are my favourite 3.

 

The 1979 tour reached it's peak in San Diego, I think. Dylan sings like an exorcist commanding the power to Christ to purge you or else. The audience interaction feeds his energy. But the audience tapes are a chore to listen to. The four shows in Santa Monica come really close, and the tapes are enjoyable. The tour is a bit like the 1966 concerts in which each performance has something otherworldly going on apart from the previous performance. There is no bad show on the 1979 tour.

 

Very good recommendations. On the subject of Millard, I would also recommend the Universal Amphitheatre, LA, show from 7 June 1978. Not a "gospel" show but another great recording.

 

The first night at the Warfield is also a very good listen, especially if you are familiar with the "standard" performances of the set list. On the first night, Bob and the band are still working things out, and so there are some interesting little variations. An upgrade to the first show became available earlier this year, which made it even more listenable.

 

Thanks again for the notes RandPink. Very interesting, especially as I don't think I'll get to Stanford any time soon - that's even further away than Tulsa for me.

I think I'm right in saying that this was the Uher recorder that Ginsberg used, apparently purchased for $500 from a gift (or loan) of $600 from Bob himself. I'd say the recording of the "Berkeley" electric set is pretty good, given the evidence on the Live '65 Copyright Collection. It'd be interesting to hear how the recording of the acoustic set(s) turned out.




I wonder why Sony apparently didn't request the tapes to include them on the collection; they surely can't be any worse than some of those shows featured on the last couple of LPs of the '64 Copyright Collection. Maybe, like the JWH outtakes, they figured they would not leak. But "Berkeley electric" has been circulating for years, hasn't it? One has to assume that copies of the other tapes exist also...

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The BS13 thread is gaining momentum here:-

Bob Dylan: Bootleg Series Vol. 13

Are you still barred from it?

 

A few months ago, Dylan mentioned in an interview that he saw Sinatra in concert in Pittsburgh in July 1967. Why Pittsburgh? Surely he could have caught Sinatra closer to home. One thing we do know is that Dylan took the train from New York to Nashville for the JWH (and NS) sessions. Pittsburgh is between those two cities on the rail route, so it's possible he spent the night in Pittsburgh on the trip. Which also might indicate that he was travelling to Nashville (for some reason) as early as July 1967. It's all speculation, but I think a September session seems entirely possible. I would LOVE to know more about that. JWH is my favorite Dylan album.

Of course, maybe he just liked hang out in Pittsburgh. Who knows!

 

Yep. Still barred. It grates.

 

That's bad luck. So this thread will contain the outtakes of that one, I suppose.

 

Frank Sinatra Setlist at Civic Arena, Pittsburgh

 

Now we know who to thank for the "No Camera" policy at Dylan shows! LOL

 

wow - how did THAT happen ? Blasphemy ?

 

He does sing about visiting Pittsburgh at some point that year.

I come into Pittsburgh
At six-thirty flat
I found myself a vacant seat
An' I put down my hat
What's the matter, Molly, dear
What's the matter with your mound?
"What's it to ya, Moby Dick?
This is chicken town"
Lo and behold Lo and behold
Lookin' for my lo and behold,
Get me outta here, my dear man

 

Yes! That lyric could possibly refer to his attendance at the show, right? Although it's an absurd phrase, 'What's it to ya, Moby Dick? This is chicken town' even sounds like Sinatra stage banter. I wonder if that dates Lo and Behold, one of the earlier Basement originals, to July or after?

 

Maybe not. I shouldn't be on social media in the first place. I'm trying to taper off.

 

Thanks for the advice. The Nov 19 Santa Monica is great performance, great sound.

 

It is indeed, and it's just the tip of the pyramid. What's missing from old analog audience tapes is the impact of the sound. The volume in 1978-79 was so loud it was like splitting the atom. It vibrated through your body, shaking your bones and inhabiting your glands. At that volume each instrument has life, its own color and character. The music is so pure, so clean, it has presence. Dylan gave the loudest concerts in the 1970s, even louder than the heavy metal bands, and I have no doubt he gave the loudest concerts in 1965 and 1966. I wish he would still play that loud.

 

I keep coming back to your posts here, marveling that there are always new discoveries made which re-write the accepted history!

One puzzling thing about the acoustic sets is that Visions of Johanna (pretty much a newly-minted song) is played on 11 December but apparently not on 12 December. You'd think Bob would be wanting to play, and allow every audience to hear, his new comedy number. Given that he felt he couldn't alter the electric sets because he had a "new" drummer (I'd posit that Bobby Gregg, given his recent experience with Bob in the studio, and having had several concerts and soundchecks already under his belt with The Band, was hardly new by 11 December, but I'm open to being ridiculed for this strictly amateur observation) you'd imagine that Bob might want to vary his acoustic sets more than he did.

I suppose it's just possible that he didn't play "She Belongs To Me" at San Francisco, substituting it with "Visions of Johanna". Unlikely, I guess, but maybe he was limited by contract to playing only 7 acoustic songs and so started with "To Ramona".

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Finally got through all 18 discs of The Cutting Edge...took a very long time, but so totally rewarding. Question (and forgive me for missing the real action of this thread): Upon listening to the early versions of "Vision of Johanna", I was surprised to not hear Dylan call the song "Freeze Out" out any of the tapes. I love Blonde on Blonde and Sean Wilentz's account of its recording is a favorite of mine. According to Wilentz, Dylan announced the new composition with the words: "This is called 'Freeze Out" in the studio on November 30, 1965. I didn't hear it though on The Cutting Edge takes. Did I miss it?

 

No, you didn't: it's simply not there. The Cutting Edge Collector's Edition includes "every note recorded" (well, almost), but not every take announcement or snippet of conversation. Some of the missing snippets have, however, been thoughtfully assembled on Crawling On The Cutting Room Floor...

 

Aha! Thank you for clarifying! It's odd they kept some of that studio chatter in, and deleted that one.

 

They seem to have cleverly removed any/all profanity too

 

I'm up to Edinburgh now, and have been listening for a few months… Slowly, just taking it all in.

So as I'm listening to this electric half, I'm thinking to myself that this is a very nice audience, with a lot less rambunctiousness going on. And I was thinking how this must have pleased everyone in the band, finally. And then, after Rolling Stone, Bob says to the audience that they were the best one so far.

That made me smile.

 

Having now listened to all 36 CDs, I’ve only just made the connection between his set opener throughout the tour and his somewhat odd choice of set opener at the Isle of Wight. It was probably still taped to his guitar…

 

I was in Five Guys today having a burger and the Newport version of Maggie's Farm was playing. I was shocked.