Live At The Royal Albert Hall 1966 (The Bootleg Series Vol.4) - Bob Dylan

...much but you struggle to live for long periods without it and just outright need to hear the music. And hearing a new version or new bootleg of his material is a high that is surely better than any drug can offer.

Dylan is widely hailed as a genius for the songs he has written and the social change he has influenced, but there are quite a lot of people who say other people are better performing his material. This shows a lack of understanding ...
...himself. This feature in Dylan's live ability becomes very important to understand when listening to the 1966 bootleg performance. Perhaps you can only truly appreciate what is happening in the audience if you have sat before Dylan and experienced him. But you can get a very good idea without knowing first hand such is the power of the 1966 recording.

I kept putting off buying this album because I thought it was going to be 'special' ... more

'The Royal Albert Hall' bootleg became the most talked about, sought after and significant bootleg in the history of music. So much so that is was effectively legalised and turned into an official release by Columbia and released in a rather wonderful package in 1998. This is one of the most written about and discussed albums to ever be laid down on tape. Personally never had I read and thought so much about an album that I hadn't actually bought. In the past the album and the event it captures has been the sole focus for discussion on such top end television programmes as Newsnight on the BBC. It seems every Bob Dylan fan loves the album, and they hail it as one of the greatest albums ever. With all this in mind when I finally decided the time had come to actually buy it I ordered it with very high expectations indeed!

Once you have been bitten by Bob Dylan's music you can never really walk away. Whilst in these days of heavy and clean production Dylan is extremely rough and thus can appear hard to get into it can and probably will happen if you are open minded about music. Though I'm only 18 and have no job or real income, I have managed to already purchase about three quarters of the entire Bob Dylan catalogue, which is a lot of albums! I've also seen the great man in concert; an experience that marked a whole turning point in my life such was the electric and genuinely magical atmosphere. Though I don't think I'd ever steal to feed my addiction to Dylan it is in many respects like a drug addiction. At times it's hard to explain exactly why you crave it so much but you struggle to live for long periods without it and just outright need to hear the music. And hearing a new version or new bootleg of his material is a high that is surely better than any drug can offer.

Dylan is widely hailed as a genius for the songs he has written and the social change he has influenced, but there are quite a lot of people who say other people are better performing his material. This shows a lack of understanding on the same level as believing the earth is the center of the universe, flat and the moon is made of cheese! Whilst others may have a more trained and nicer sounding voice than Dylan, none can put even nearly as much expression and meaning into words with their voice alone than Dylan. Something adorable about Dylan is the fact that he never does the same thing twice, even performing his songs on tour you'll never find two nights he sings the same song in the exact same way. He's also criticised for his guitar playing style, yet albums such as 'Bob Dylan' and later 'World Gone Wrong' are testaments that this man can sit alone with just his guitar and harmonica and he can make beautiful music and play with more ability to add feeling to the music than a lot of full time out and out guitarists could. Albums are less meaningful than seeing Dylan in concert though. He notoriously performed badly at times in past decades, and he preached during his born again phase. But Bob Dylan on form - as he was in 1966 and as he was at Sheffield in 2000 that I witnessed - is quite possibly the most powerful performer to walk this earth. He fills every inch of the room and you feel his charisma everywhere. His voice is an unbelievable experience, always tuneful but beyond that it acts like a drill straight from his mouth right through your skull and into your brain. He plants his songs in your head with remarkable precision, and still he keeps hold of his noble view that everyone should trust themselves and not worship people like himself. This feature in Dylan's live ability becomes very important to understand when listening to the 1966 bootleg performance. Perhaps you can only truly appreciate what is happening in the audience if you have sat before Dylan and experienced him. But you can get a very good idea without knowing first hand such is the power of the 1966 recording.

I kept putting off buying this album because I thought it was going to be 'special' and I spent about two years potentially building myself up for a massive disappointment. Surely nothing could live up to all the hype this album had received? Well let me set this out for you.

...Actual name of album:
"The Bootleg Series Vol.4 - Bob Dylan Live 1966."
Subtitle: "The 'Royal Albert Hall' Concert"

Venue: Manchester Free Trade Hall, May 1966

...Background...

Bob Dylan had shot to fame for taking Folk music to the front of international consciousness. From the early unique styled Folk album 'Bob Dylan' Dylan had in fact constantly been shifting his direction. He became the most respected protest songwriter of the time and his songs became anthems for the peace and love movement. With the socially conscious, politically motivating messages Bob Dylan had won the respect of not just society as a whole but also of the intellectual elite. Come 1966 however and something was different. Bob Dylan was a different Bob Dylan to the one who had won over all that respect.

He had become a modern day prophet, there were people hanging to his words as if he was the new messiah, really and truly bigger and better than Jesus Christ. And it is my opinion, though there are many different opinions on this, that it was because people were treating him like a prophet that Bob Dylan decided he was going to shake them like they've never been shook before. Dylan stopped writing protest songs and used his exceptional talent to write more introspective songs and also explore different levels of consciousness, like the allegedly LSD influenced song 'Mr Tambourine Man.'

What's more is Dylan set off on his world tour with not just new material that he knew the traditional folk audiences wouldn't like, but with an inner-vision he knew full well they wouldn't like. His vision it seems was to change the face of popular music, to make popular music respectable, literate and intelligent (something many of today's acts seem to forget). Good writing didn't have to be confined to the intellectual elite, nor a crowd of set-in-their-ways folkies. He set out to play to everyone and not just the elites, for he had come to realise that though the elites talked the right language they were in fact part of the problem not the solution. Dylan was determined to take the whole world on, and above all he was determined he was going to win. Above that though it becomes clear throughout the performance that Dylan was also out to force people to think for themselves and not just follow him because he was Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan received a hostile reception across the globe, but he was at the end of the tour and it looked like he'd overcome the old order and had begun to set up a new one. The old order folkies were generally diehards who felt an outrage that this folk artist should have fallen to what they saw as the opposite to folk, rock music. From his country boy clothing Dylan had also started to dress in a unique yet distinctly rock star manner. The new order fans managed to see past the principles and follow Dylan's vision, they were more willing to embrace the new Mod culture and Dylan's rock music. The tour fatefully came to the North of England! Manchester Free Trade Hall to be precise. For it was there that the notorious 'Royal Albert Hall' concert took place. It became known as the 'Royal Albert Hall' concert due to a simple mislabeling of the bootleg that didn't surface until about four or five years later. Although there are also suggestions it was done on purpose for romantic effect as the actual Royal Albert Hall concerts were the last in the tour and last before Dylan's retirement. I wasn't around at the time but I imagine that was a fascinating and confusing time for the Dylan fan. He had confronted them in a very aggressive manner after winning their respect, then he had one particularly hostile gig towards the end of his tour and he went home. Once home he had a mysterious motorcycle accident that many claim never happened, in which he broke his neck and retired for about 18 months. So far the world had seen two Bob Dylan's coming forth from Robert Allan Zimmerman, upon return from the retirement the world meets a third Bob Dylan. But it's the second Bob Dylan who plays on this double CD, and it's he who needs explaining.

A man who had won over the world with his acoustic folk beginnings in which the words were far above the music in any given mix, set about a transformation. He teamed up with a class rock band, The Hawks (later renamed as, and herein-after: The Band) and Dylan himself put the acoustic down plugged in an electric guitar and changed from singing softly to at times screaming in what we recognise only today as rock style.

So in May 1966 Bob Dylan kicked off his Manchester concert nearing the end of his world splitting world tour.

...Disc 1 ... The Acoustic Set...

1 - She Belongs to Me
2 - Fourth Time Around
3 - Visions of Johanna
4 - It?s All Over Now, Baby Blue
5 - Desolation Row
6 - Just Like a Woman
7 - Mr Tambourine Man

After literally years of anticipation and excitement about getting this album upon the first play I was slightly disappointed by the Acoustic set, not musically but in terms of the lack of event. That was on the first play though, boy how things have changed since! Before hearing what becomes of the concert in the second half you don't really appreciate what is happening in the first half. Upon first listen it appears it is a very beautiful acoustic set, lovely music but nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the forth-coming event that you are anticipating. However once you hear the whole thing the more and more you play it the more and more you can feel that the tension started mounting long before Bob Dylan walks out with an electric guitar strapped to him and rock band behind him.

'She Belongs to Me' gets the concert under way and what it instantly confirms to me is that Bob Dylan has arrived on stage. What I mean by that is that when an artist goes out onto a stage after a long, grueling tour in which he's been booed, jeered and received hostile receptions you could fully understand a nervous start. But there is no nervous start, far from it! Dylan is alone on stage with the potentially hostile audience before him and he feels fine. Dylan's guitar playing and in particular his voice are from the very start crystal clear and utterly strong. Bob Dylan went out there sure that his inner-vision was right and worth fighting for. To me his confident start to a concert he knew would certainly be hostile (as he'd done a world tour of hostile gigs before hand, so knew the score) shows that Bob Dylan was out there to do battle and to win.

If anyone ever doubted Bob Dylan's ability with the guitar and Harmonica this first set in the concert is sufficiently superb to blow any criticism out of the water. This is the legend at his strongest. A quick retune of the guitar and Dylan quickly moves on to 'Fourth Time Around' which opens with and finishes with quite a nice Harmonica solo. There are times on this that the guitar is perhaps just a little quiet in the mix, it's really Dylan's voice that provides the tune here.

The music is excellent; the only comment I can offer is on one slight fault on the disc towards the end of 'Visions of Johanna'. When listening in headphone you notice the levels suddenly change so that the guitar seems slightly less cleanly played and Dylan to be a little less close and also there is an increase in audience ambiance. This is explained in the liner notes as a tape running out mid song and the other tape that was recording being a different format, and rather than scrap the whole song they fused the two together. So at lest they explain it, and it isn't a major thing, you may not even notice it if you aren't as obsessive as I am! 'Visions of Johanna' is a beautiful and sad song. Again Dylan's voice is very much the driving force for this song, it sounds a little gritty at times which is reassuring because at times in this concert Dylan sings so softly that you struggle to believe it's him singing! A sad but sadly short Harmonica riff breaks up verses. It's a long song yet you tend to get captivated in the story and so there is no chance of it becoming in anyway boring.

By this stage the crowd is receiving the set well, there are no noises of disapproval. Yet clearly some if not many of those politely clapping must have been disappointed that Dylan was now singing songs that weren't designed to stop wars and topple tyrants but were about feelings and emotions, and haven forgive him even love! But at least he was stood alone on stage, just him an acoustic guitar and a harmonica that was at least a little comfort for the old order folkies. Interestingly his harmonica playing - incidentally some of the best I've ever heard in a live concert - appears to me to become more and more violent. I'm not sure if it's an over active imagination but it certainly appears to me as if he is playing the harmonica in fitting with the type of music of the second set towards the end of the first set, but the audience doesn't seem overly alarmed. The harmonica at the end of 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' seems to be a good example of this; it sounds great but seems to be far more aggressive than the guitar underneath it. This is another excellent song that Dylan's voice drives home with its enchanting rhyme. The guitar is constantly strong but it is certainly the Harmonica that stands out most.

Just after that extraordinary harmonica comes a nice applause but Dylan doesn't wait for it to end he just carries on into the next song 'Desolation Row'. To me it seems almost as if Dylan is saying "you won't be so happy soon, so don't be so happy now" or perhaps a more significant explanation is that Bob Dylan is purposely playing his 'next song' whilst the audience are still applauding his last. I may be reading too much into things but we all know Bob Dylan is an exceptional artist, who knows what little tricks he plays on us with hidden underlying meanings. His impatience to get the next song started is Dylan's way of telling the audience to keep up with him and not linger on the past, perhaps not but maybe so. Dylan audibly coughs at the start of the divine acoustic 'Desolation Row' significant? I'm afraid I'm going to say so! Dylan was a well experienced performer by now, it seems odd that he should have coughed down the microphone and not turned away. This could have been the first sign of a slight nervousness from Dylan, or even contempt for the audience. This performance of 'Desolation Row' is probably my favourite ever, surpassing both the album version and even the 'MTV Unplugged' version though that too is excellent in leagues beyond mere excellence. It just seems so perfectly performed. The words are so sharply crystal clear. Dylan is often accused of slurring the odd word and singing so that the none Bob trained ear can't understand what is said, but on this song and generally on this album you really hear every single word he sings. His voice is in surprisingly excellent condition to say he's at the end of a world tour. The guitar is played with style and consistency. His harmonica on this song incidentally is quite unusual, like a waltzing riff, followed by a slightly more aggressive attack on the guitar; it's a joy to listen to. Finally, there is another change in tape towards the end of 'Desolation Row' but that is even less noticeable than the first, it is also the last that occurs as far as I have been able to tell and as far as the Liner notes say. A large applause is received for this excellent performance, well deserved too.

'Just Like a Woman' comes along and slows the already slow paced acoustic set down to a pace that in some ways makes you see why there were people out there outraged by the altogether differently paced second set. It's slow and it's soft, the guitar trickles under Dylan like the sun shining on to a distant stream as you sit on the grass at the top of a heavenly valley. Even Dylan's trademark abrupt harmonica is calm and tranquil, as for his voice.. this may be the first time you've ever read this about Dylan's voice but it is distinctly delicate and soft. In particular on the line "but she breaks just like a little girl." There isn't any trademark roughness and grit in this performance, in fact it is a tender and careful performance apart from two breaths of air on his closing Harmonica solo that accidentally find their way to the microphone, not the most noticeable of faults all the same. It's a peaceful affair but the line "ain't it clear that I just don't fit" springs to mind as a pointer for what is to come.

The set closer 'Mr Tambourine Man' starts at a slightly faster pace. But it isn't the pace that is remarkable, it's the way Bob Dylan sings this surrealistic song, clearly it wouldn't be a favourite with the audience due to its lack of harsh reality. From the last song the delicate voice crumbles a little but still sounds clear. It's the way he sings the line "there is no place I'm going to" that is utterly remarkable. That line and only that line Dylan appears to spit out at the audience. He appears to throw the line right in their faces in a very confrontational and one may say obnoxious manner. Had this been in the second set I feel sure the audience would have gone absolutely ballistic at Dylan, as it is he gets away with it, but he emphasises the line so much that the audience must have picked up and started wondering why he was throwing it at them. His Harmonica is played (with the very odd and occasional random note as if to remind us who he is!) aggressively to end the set and the audience appears to receive the first set well. Dylan delivered it with confidence and true ability, he didn't talk to the audience and he seemed a little impatient with them. The clapping is faded out on the disc which is a shame as I'd like to hear it's actual length compared to that of the end of the show, which is played in full length and is another remarkable feature I'll come to!

From the recording and I dare say even from being there in the audience on the night it is hard to judge the emotions Dylan was going through. On the one hand he appears to be eager to avoid giving the audience any sense of security but on the other hand his singing and music throughout the set bar the odd burst of harmonica and one line seem soft and pleasing. If it wasn't for the songs themselves not being full appreciated by some in the audience you could say that Dylan was a crowd pleaser in the first set. Yet underneath it all and with the second set in mind you find yourself re-listening to the first set and picking up small but definite indications that Dylan was in quite a chest beating mood. What the first set does show though is that no matter what new style he was to unveil he'd always remain in love with his Acoustic roots at the same time. Perhaps he wanted those in the audience to realise this, but they appear to have preferred to believe when he left the stage at the end of the first set he was forever walking away on the Acoustic style he had made his own.

...Disc 2 ... The Electric Set...

1 - Tell Me, Momma
2 - I Don't Believe You
3 - Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
4 - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
5 - Leopard-Skin Pill Box Hat
6 - One Too Many Mornings
7 - Ballad of a Thin Man
8 - Like a Rolling Stone

So the intermission music fades away and random notes are heard as Bob Dylan and The Band plug in their electric instruments and get ready, interestingly the audience is silent. Having been to quite a few gigs it seems odd for a well-received artist of one set to come out to the same audience to give them more and yet they remain silent. The reason is because now the phony war is over, this is no longer Bob Dylan throwing certain lines at them aggressively and playing his Harmonica in a threatening manner. Bob Dylan is back on stage and this time he means business, he's out for the kill. He stands with an electric guitar strapped to him, which was probably considered the mortal enemy of folk music at the time. Not only did the mod dressed hero stand with the offending instrument but also he'd brought some friends with him, a rock band!

They rip into the opener 'Tell Me, Momma' which must have sent a bolt through the audience. Not long ago they were sat listening to a slow and very delicate sounding 'Just Like a Woman' but no longer! All of a sudden all out rock music kicks in and flies at high velocity from the stage into their faces. The volume level change is unbelievable even listening to it on a mixed and prepared CD, to have been there the sudden change in volume alone, never mind structure of songs, must have been enough to make the audience feel as if they were being hit by a tidal wave. The choice of such a rocker to open the second set shows that a lack of wanting in terms of easing the audience into the new style. It's almost like he wanted to shock them as much as he possibly could, unnerve them and knock them off balance. From the delicate voice Bob Dylan comes out and from the offset of the second set he rips into a rock music style of singing that must have left old older folkie hardcore nuts furious! The man they had proclaimed king was throwing in their faces the exact thing he knew full well they wouldn?t like! The event has well and truly kicked off! The song is delivered excellently and The Band (The Hawks as they were on the night) are in fine form sounding close and together yet with a certain loose wildcard edge at the same time. As the song ends in a fast and dramatic bout the audience claps yet you get the impression that it is less people making more noise than in the first set when everyone uniformly praised their hero with only a slight element of wariness. As the clapping subsides the truth reveals itself, for the first time during the concert you hear the audience in a state of unrest, people are commenting to each other. The progressive fans may well be saying "oh my gawd, we're witnessing the future here today" whereas the folkies may well be saying "oh my gawd, we're witnessing the death of our king here today" who knows!

Then another odd event happens, for the first time in the concert Dylan introduces one of his songs, 'I Don't Believe You'. But he does so in an almost sarcastic sounding voice and what he says acts as a red-hot poker in the ribs of the audience. "This is called 'I Don't Believe You' it used to go like 'that' now it goes like 'this.'" The audience is here for the first time shown to be split down the middle (though it appears more are on the conservative folkie side). Those who are there accepting Dylan's new vision for music and who appreciate Bob Dylan is a person not a mere figurehead are heard to laugh at his comments, others are heard to mutter to one another in an uneasy and no doubt disapproving nature. The song kicks in and whilst you are still musing over the bizarre events of the gap between music you suddenly realise you are in the middle of listening to a remarkable piece of music with 'that' violent Harmonica back in the picture, ripping through the air like a sharp knife. What I love most about this song though are firstly the parts were the band stick to one bouncy beat for sadly short periods of time, but I really do mean bouncy - it is wonderful. And secondly the divine organ playing of Garth Hudson which is excellent throughout but I love particularly in this song.

Now the show is really on! In the liner notes it suggests Dylan's previous comment to the audience was in a "wryly conciliatory" manner. Perhaps they are right, and his voice wasn't as I read it sarcastic, it's believable. However what I do question about that suggestion is the conciliatory part, I see the comment as inflammatory! Bob Dylan knew from all his previous gigs there would be people who wouldn't like it, he's also an ultra-intelligent man, and he knew full well that poking the audience like that would annoy some of those old order folkies in it, he knew he was challenging them to a fight. And it worked, it incited the audience, oh how it wound them up!

'Baby, Let Me Follow You Down' is the next in the set list for Bob Dylan and The Band, the applause of the few dies down to once again reveal an uncomfortable muttering but they decide to start the song without silence. But they don't get far into the start of the song until a major event takes place. Had events later not got even more out of hand this event would itself have made a well worthy special event to make the bootleg ultra sought after. It is a very British event too, and one which some may not immediately understand perhaps not even the American Bob Dylan and from Canada The Band! The weapon employed by the Manchester audience was the slow handclap. One of the ultimate signs of disapproval and a confrontational one at that. The slow handclap has been seen many times in Britain and it remains today the ultimate audience weapon. Whilst often it seems when an audience really disapproves of what they are witnessing they simply get up and leave as had happened on a small scale at previous concerts, the slow handclap means the audience stays yet shows the same level of disapproval. What's more is it is the audience who are fighting back. Therefore it was here at Manchester that Bob Dylan finally had a true fight on his hands. It had been a tough tour yes, but here the audience decided they were going to have their say until the bitter end.

The music stops as the slow hand clap kicks in. When I first heard this I was completely blown away, and to be truthful I still am every time I play it. You can't see Bob Dylan and The Band of course, but you certainly can picture them as they stop playing and stand in silence. They must have been looking bemused if not shocked as they stood there upon the stage and realised the audience was fighting them for control of the Hall. Their tactics on the world tour had been simple: 'blow them way.' They railroaded audiences with unbelievable volume and power, and that had been slowly but surely winning them the war. But now for the first time - and very significantly - their music was silenced by the actions of the audience. It's at this very point in the concert that the old order takes control and starts to win the battle with Dylan's new order. The confidence he had in his inner-vision is now under heavy attack and for perhaps the first time he is stopped and made to think, stopped and poked back in the ribs as he had just minutes before poked the audience in the ribs. This is a remarkable battle; war for control of the Hall, and the Hall was symbolic of a whole world of music and even social-conscience. The fires begins to rage and emotions begin to run high. Realising that he is losing control of the war Bob Dylan ends his pause of uncertainty and this time he plays and plays over the slow hand claps and jeers he preservers until at last The Band blast into action to give their master the supporting fire that he needs to silence the dissenters.

They play and they play loud, it seems they are determined to make sure no-one can hear anything but the song. It turns out to be a rather fine performance too, with lovely organ and guitar. Interestingly this is the only song to be from the first album, which was entirely acoustic solo folk music. So it was a sure poke in the eye for those who adored that body of work to experience perhaps one of their favourite old songs in the Dylan new order manner, fast and loud!

There is little pause in-between songs as 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' kicks in, so the new order few manage to maintain a clap that almost sounds as if Dylan is back in control of the Hall. Again this is an excellently performed song. What's important I think is there is a quite heavy (for the time and context) guitar solo in the middle of the song, and as it start Bob shouts in a manner that you would expect from a Rock singer in years to come but which I doubt the Folkies had experience before. And Bob sings this song in an enthusiastic and loud manner.

The song ends and the new order few seem to be losing control to the folkies again. The clapping dies to reveal at first the odd shout and murmurings and then 'it' returns to haunt Dylan, the slow handclap! All this occurs as Dylan tries to introduce his next song, he starts "this is call... this called yes" and you can't hear what he says after that because of the audience and Dylan is once again silenced by the slow handclap. The old order folkies are once again battling with Dylan for control of the Hall. Then there is finally silence in the Hall, though it may seem quite quick to come on the recording just imagine what it would be like for Dylan on stage waiting for the silence, they must have been the longest 10 seconds of his career! "This is er this is called yes I see you've got your brand-new Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat" and the guitar begins whilst there is clear shouting in the audience. Dylan stops playing again the old order is fighting harder than he must have experienced ever before. There is a cheer as Dylan stops, not sure what he does or if the audience cheers as it silences him. The slow hand clap returns at a level never heard before, Dylan fiddles with his guitar and you can hear him talking to The Band as the audience continue their clap. I haven't worked out what he is saying yet, it's too low and if you turn it right up the audience deafen you, but I feel certain he is talking to The Band perhaps making plans for retaliation.

The slow handclap shows no sign of stopping; in fact it appears to be growing. And so like a lightening bolt out of nowhere with such a jolt it makes the recording listener jump never mind those thinking they'd won over the Hall, Dylan and The Band blast into 'Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat.' It's very fast and it's very loud, very very loud! Dylan almost screams and I can picture strings being snapped on guitars during the performance and Mickey Jones on drums I can picture putting his head through one of his drums and his fists and feet through others! It's a powerful performance, shorter than those to come in latter years but in the context it was played perhaps the most powerful it's ever been performed. It was a strike at the audience I have no doubt about it, Dylan was throwing his new order vision right into the old order faces, he was carpet bombing the hall with his new music.

The song ends and the few clap once again but now the shouting and murmuring is at an unbelievable level and is growing, and a slow foot stamp joins the slow handclap it seems. So it looks as if the folkies in the audience really are going to be the winners of this almighty war, they just won't give in. Once again they are silencing Bob Dylan, the king of the intellectual elite a position that is literally impossible to get to but that one man arrived at somehow. Now though it seemed that his reign was over he was on this night to be executed and cut into bits. But Bob Dylan wasn't prepared to give in, he wasn't prepared to just give the audience what they wanted, oh no he was fighting to the death, it was all or nothing. And so this time Bob Dylan is the one who rather than blast the audience with volume sets about silencing the opposition to the cause. He beings talking to them, I think he talks in an incoherent manner or simply makes noises as if he's talking rather than the audience noise distorting his voice. He carries on with this talking so that nobody can hear what it is he's saying and he doesn't give in he keeps on talking. He does so until the hand clapping, foot stomping, shouting and jeering audience is silenced in order to hear what it is he is saying, not knowing it was in fact a trick to silence the resistance! And as the Hall becomes quiet Dylan delivers a killer punch line on the end of a mumbled incoherent sentence, "if you only just wouldn't clap so hard." This receives a massive cheer from the so far cautious new order supporters of Dylan's vision, and it silences the dissenters so that the next song can begin. It is also a clever trick to play on them because it highlights an underlying artistic principle that was at the base of Dylan's new music. What he was saying was that those dissenters were making this protest without giving the music a chance, without listening to what his new style was all about, yet he would carry on performing it and wouldn't give in and and wouldn't give in and please the audience for the sake of it. He was there to talk until they listened. They were being closed minded and bloody minded too and this is the point at which Bob Dylan no longer looks like a mighty artist about to be toppled but a mighty artist about to become even more mighty!

So the way is clear and 'One Too Many Mornings' is played, not the most outrageous use of electric instruments and perhaps backing up Dylan's comment that the old order folkies should give the new style a chance before objecting. Rick Danko the Bass player contributes some 'background' vocals on this performance that sound good but perhaps could do with being just a little higher in the mix.

After the song as a guitar is retuned the slow hand clapping and shouting returns as if to remind Dylan that he may have control again but the fight isn't over. Bob Dylan now moves over to the Piano to play 'Ballad of a Thin Man' a truly wonderful performance this is. The vocals are said in the liner notes to be too far down in the mix and stuck there as only a 3 tape deck was used with guitar and vocals on one, drum and bass on the other and everything else on the other. They aren't outrageously too low though, certainly enough for lines such as "something's happening and you don't know what it is, do you Mr Jones" to be heard being screamed by Dylan at the audience. This song is very much a direct challenge from Dylan to the angry old order. It is such a clear challenge to those followers sat in the audience that when the wonderfully sad downbeat song ends the slow hand clapping is no more!

Bob Dylan stopped the slow hand clapping in the end via his 'Ballad of a Thin Man' the lyrics of which seemed quiet bizarrely in perfect context of the ongoing war Dylan was having. Clearly he'd got through to most of the audience with this song, and if anyone in that hall failed to recognise that the music was of an unmatched level of beauty from electronic instruments up until then I would honestly pity their closed mind! The organ again here is unbelievable; it's almost funny in its mad fills of the sad tune, yet it couples up with the jist of Bob's words to become a real ear opener for those in the audience. By sheer emotional force and not just by the volume this time Bob Dylan and The Band silence the audience.

And it is a deathly silence, as Dylan moves back from the Piano nothing is to be heard from the once riotous crowd. But as the silence grows there is suddenly a comment made in the audience that you can't quite make out due to the sound of guitars being picked up and the Harmonica fitted. Some people laugh at this and you can feel that the atmosphere has taken a bizarre twist. A comment is made by someone else in the audience, I think it's aimed at the first comment "just like you" which to me illustrates that the audience was indeed totally split, though that was realised from the very start of the second set. Right on the back of that shout comes the most famous shout from any audience ever, a shout that was to make this concert the most sought after from the whole tour, and the whole tour had been harsh going but it was this moment that made Manchester the special concert. A man, never found since, is heard to shout from the audience very clearly over the silence the word "Judas" at the man many had considered their social leader, Bob Dylan. Judas the man who had betrayed Jesus Christ. This remarkable shout at first receives a murmur and a laugh and then a very large cheer and applause. Bob Dylan was by this time already renowned for his quick wit and sharp put downs, press conferences where a game to Dylan, he played with journalists like he was an intellectual god and they were circus clowns and he was and to this day is a man of such extraordinary capability. Therefore everyone, the listener to the recording and the audience themselves there on the day await a speedy and likely complicated response from the man, the legend Bob Dylan. And they wait, and they wait some more. Guitars are fiddled with as still we await a response, surely he couldn't ignore such a charge made at him? The odd shout is heard and then it comes, a response unexpected in it's straightforwardness and it's surprising power.

"I don't believe you" comes Bob Dylan's response to being labeled Judas. And the music begins, as it does in-between bass notes, almost as if it was always there Bob adds to his response by saying "you're a liar." Something quite unique and historic has happened and I think the hall knows it and The Band knows it and above all Bob Dylan has just been whacked in the face by it. This was that one final attack of an already defeated audience. All but a few hardcore old order folkies had conceded defeat after hearing the words Dylan sung in 'Ballad of a Thin Man'. If they'd heard a message in that song and it made them think they could no longer object to Dylan's new order music and say that it was removing intelligence from songs. They knew they'd lost it, but there was one man in that hall who I believe knew exactly what he was doing and saying that resonated and ended up making the hall which was now silenced explode that one last time.

The last explosion was 'Like a Rolling Stone.' A song that the old order folkies had complained about too much surreal imagery being used, yet on this night it suddenly made cold steel sense. Every word of it seemed in perfect context. Bob Dylan and The Band had already won the war when they came to play this set closer, but after a comment like that Bob Dylan decided that he would let the music speak for itself. Many who follow Dylan may have expected a long and complex response to the call of Judas, that gave Dylan fans years of debate to work out exactly what he meant by it, but it wasn't to be. Bob Dylan was there at the end of his most hostile gig in history, it had been an incredible fight but he and The Band had won the night and Dylan had held on to his inner convictions. Therefore rather than go backwards and give the defeated any chance of a comeback he decided he would bury them six feet under. After saying "you're a liar" you can clearly hear Dylan turn to The Band and scream at them - oddly perfectly in sync with the music - the eternal words "Play Fucking Loud" upon which command Mickey Jones cracks the snare drum with such a thunderous whack that I'm surprised it didn't break. The Band give Dylan what he deserves, a rousing and glorious and utterly thunderously loud backing to celebrate his victory.

Suddenly all the confusions of recent events make sense, from the song being written a year before to the events of this concert. Whether Dylan wrote 'Like A Rolling Stone' with his audiences in mind or not, upon this night it was sung to every individual in that room and it made crystal clear sense. This was Bob Dylan revealing exactly what he was doing; he was pushing the followers away. He was telling them to be strong individuals and not to worship him as a god or prophet. "How does it feeeeeeeeel, How does it feeeeeeeel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone" Dylan quite literally screams at the audiences. This was about him and it was about them at the same time, I think perhaps Dylan had started to feel guilty that he'd ever let himself get into the position of a God in the first place. Bob Dylan has always believed in the individual and not following others but making your own way through life, here he tells his audience that it's time they went their own way and he went his. To come along if they thought it was good but never to merely follow just for the sake of it. I'll explain in the conclusion with use of the words of this one song just what Bob Dylan was saying to the world at this concert.

This performance of 'Like a Rolling Stone' is without any doubt my favourite of the many I've heard. It is ultimately full committal stuff, Dylan sings with every single gram of energy he has and The Band play so amazingly powerfully that you can picture them floating five metres above the stage. And you must bear in mind  

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