Review by Martin Monkman
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With the possible exception of The Basement Tapes, Bob Dylan's concert of May 17, 1966 at the Manchester Free Trade Hall is the single most frequently bootlegged recording in history. In the space of 14 months, Dylan had "gone electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, introduced rock & roll instrumentation on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home and then toured with The Hawks (later called The Band). All of this had raised the hackles of Dylan's early supporters, who saw his move from neo-traditional folk music as a sell-out. The concert, and indeed the entire tour, was marked by varying degrees of protest from the audience, which brought out the best in the confrontational Dylan. The Manchester show-by virtue of being recorded and bootlegged (usually mistakenly labelled as being from a later Royal Albert Hall concert) and because of the legendary "Judas!" cry from the audience-attained mythical status, and was proclaimed to be a watershed event not only in the annals of rock music, but in the history of 20th century art.
Given the status of the recording, the "authorized release" this autumn
was a feverishly anticipated event. And since the release, critics have
been falling all over themselves to come up with the best adjectives and
adverbs to describe the album. But it's only rock & roll, so does it
justify all this hyperbolic praise? In a word, yes. Unequivocally, this
is one of the greatest live albums ever made, a brilliant portrait of a
great artist at the very pinnacle of his achievement.
The concert is presented on album as two CDs, the first containing Dylan's solo acoustic opening set, and the second CD showcasing the controversial electric set. The audience appears to be behind Dylan during the first half, sitting quietly (listening attentively? or just politely?). He makes his way through a selection of songs that avoids the "greatest hits" of his folk singer period: there is no "Blowing In The Wind" or even "Chimes of Freedom". Instead Dylan challenges the audience with songs from his more recent "electric" albums; all seven songs appear on the 1965-66 triumvirate of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and the then brand new Blonde On Blonde (which was released the day before). All the songs are brilliantly performed; while some critics have gone so far as to characterize the renditions as "definitive", I have to differ. They are different enough from the versions that appear on the studio albums to take on a life and validity of their own, but they do not in any way negate the studio recordings.
The second set is when the sparks really fly. Dylan is a man on a mission, investing songs new and old with a passion that can't be heard on earlier renditions of the same songs. The bitterness of "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" can be tasted; it's not for naught that Dylan introduces the song by saying "It used to be like that, and now it goes like this." The hostility that Dylan met from (former) fans is very much in evidence, and seems to drive Dylan and The Hawks to another level of playing.
The performance ends with "Ballad Of A Thin Man" and "Like A Rolling Stone", two of Dylan's most vitriolic songs. I've always heard them as being diatribes against The Establishment, tangible evidence of the disdain that the youth of the day had for people who "didn't get it". But in the context of this concert performance, it's the audience who becomes Mr. Jones.
A note on how this release differs from the bootlegs: I've seen myriad different bootleg versions, some more complete than others, and of widely varying sonic quality. This authorized release puts them all to shame, with excellent sound and great packaging.
Live 1966 is surely one of the greatest live albums ever made (I can
think of a handful of others that might be equals in terms of musical performance),
and it's an important document in the canon of one of the most important
artists (of any ilk) of the 20th century.
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© 1998 Martin Monkman