100 Reasons Why Bob Dylan’s “Live 1966” is Great 100 Reasons Why Bob Dylan’s “Live 1966” is Great 100 Reasons Why Bob Dylan’s “Live 1966” is Great

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56. the phrasing of the words are better than the words themselves.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 6 September 2003 14:52 (twenty years ago) link

57. The folk set is ace - definitive version of Visions of Johanna if nothing else.

Johnney B (Johnney B), Saturday, 6 September 2003 15:14 (twenty years ago) link

58. I haven't heard any of them!

Freedom Dupont, Saturday, 6 September 2003 15:58 (twenty years ago) link

59. People thought it was recorded at Royal Albert Hall for years when it was actually recorded in Manchester haha

M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 6 September 2003 20:35 (twenty years ago) link

60. It's still called the Royal Albert Hall gig too! haha, classic.

David. (Cozen), Saturday, 6 September 2003 21:11 (twenty years ago) link

61. motherfuck a nail clipper
62. Rick Danko-- not the only bass player to grab your stomach like it's a nerf ball, but the only one who could twist it and make it feel good
63. "The sky too, is falling under youuuu". the only thing that could cut through that deafening silence is Dylan's acid tounge.
64. most of the best mover/shaker guitar players are just aping Bob's moves from these shows.

colin mcelligatt, Saturday, 6 September 2003 21:19 (twenty years ago) link

47. The world would neevr cope with 50 CD boxset of CD2 type stuff.

haha Julio - but there is such an animal!

http://theband.hiof.no/band_pictures/66bootbox/66boxfront.jpg

(Genuine Live 1966 on the Scorpio label. ok, actually it's only 8 cds. But actually it's more like 10 because after you pick up the separately available Away From the Past 2cd, also on Scorpio - the May 10, 1966 Bristol show and other odds and ends)

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 6 September 2003 21:21 (twenty years ago) link

i've actually laid eyes upon that beast and thought long and hard. i didn't end up taking it home.

amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 6 September 2003 21:28 (twenty years ago) link

65. I think the folk set also has the best version ever of "Mr. Tambourine Man" - mesmerizing.
66. The arrangement of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues".
67. The way Dylan's voice cracks on "take another shot" on same.
68. Robbie Robertson's chicken-scratch guitar solo on same.
69. Robertson's blistering, trebly guitar tone on the whole record.
70. "This song is called, 'Yes, I See You've Got Your Brand New, Leopard Skin, Pill-Box Haaaat'"

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 6 September 2003 21:35 (twenty years ago) link

71. "It used to go like that, now it goes like this."

amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 6 September 2003 21:39 (twenty years ago) link

72. 11, amateurist. And 12.

David. (Cozen), Saturday, 6 September 2003 22:14 (twenty years ago) link

73. Robbie Robertson. Had to say his name some more. Because it's true what you hear. He's great.

David. (Cozen), Saturday, 6 September 2003 22:15 (twenty years ago) link

(best description of RR's guitar ever, from Robert Christgau: "so cockeyed funky he almost careens off the stage")

M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 6 September 2003 22:44 (twenty years ago) link

sorry David

amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 7 September 2003 02:26 (twenty years ago) link

74. Bcz of this thread I know that 'genuine live 1966' exists and i will get it if i see it.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 7 September 2003 10:26 (twenty years ago) link

75. #'s 76-100 should also be "Robbie Robertson." I mean, holy fuck. Robbie Robertson.

flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Sunday, 7 September 2003 16:48 (twenty years ago) link

< /hyperbole>

flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Sunday, 7 September 2003 16:49 (twenty years ago) link

76. The James Orr Complex's (or Eska's) Chris Mack looks like Robbie Roberston. Handsome.

David. (Cozen), Sunday, 7 September 2003 16:51 (twenty years ago) link

Julio it's like $200

amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 7 September 2003 17:15 (twenty years ago) link

for an 8 disc set?!

I'll make my mind up when i see it.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 7 September 2003 18:13 (twenty years ago) link

james orr/ chris mack is/are wonderful aint they/he?

jed (jed_e_3), Sunday, 7 September 2003 18:18 (twenty years ago) link

Julio: it's a bootleg!

amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 7 September 2003 20:53 (twenty years ago) link

77. The photo of him on the stoop with those kids at the end of the booklet.

Sam J. (samjeff), Sunday, 7 September 2003 21:09 (twenty years ago) link

78. The sound of the snare drum (even so, if there is one thing which could have actually made this recording even better, it would be to have had Helm at the helm).
79. Bob's nonsense-speak at the start of Leopard Skin to get the crowd to shut up and listen.
80. Garth’s lyrical organ fills on Ballad of a Thin Man: "You walk into the room…"
81. The indecipherable jibberish spouted by some beardy no doubt, just before the chap who pipes up with "Judas."
82. The psychedelic harp playing on Disc 1 that sets my heart on fire.
83. Robbie’s howling, bending lead line on ‘I Don’t Believe you’.

Alex K (Alex K), Monday, 8 September 2003 08:27 (twenty years ago) link

84. amt: ok, still it might be worth it.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 8 September 2003 11:24 (twenty years ago) link

85. Dylan's voice on "pawn it babe" = ayler's alto on "truth is marching in" (@ greenwich village).

Marcello Carlin, Monday, 8 September 2003 11:27 (twenty years ago) link

86. "Also, to eat my words a bit, I actually do own a Dylan album, the live 2 disc bit (pappademas recommended), which i got cos I got obsessed with THE BAND, despite barely liking their music at all, after seeing LAST WALTZ, which I loved mostly because of Van The Man jumping around in that purple men's leotard/suit like some leprochaun pimp, roly poly and just bleeding for the people. That's entertainment. I also loved Robbie Robertson's hat, very dapper/Robin Hood coke chic."

David. (Cozen), Monday, 8 September 2003 11:27 (twenty years ago) link

87. heh, yes david keenan has said that '66 was ayler's year. but dylan shares it.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 8 September 2003 11:33 (twenty years ago) link

88. There appear to be only 89 reasons. And one (this one) is a mirror facing a mirror.

David. (Cozen), Friday, 12 September 2003 20:36 (twenty years ago) link

89. yer what?

thom west (thom w), Friday, 12 September 2003 21:16 (twenty years ago) link

90. Aye. I meant 88 reasons. In the end of Cinemania, there's a scene where the film is played back to the people who are the stars of the documentary. They all then comment on the film. How can they comment on that scene when that scene is just being film right there then? If you suspend disbelief, that is disregard facts that you know, then that scene is a mirror facing a mirror. You still don't see?

David. (Cozen), Friday, 12 September 2003 21:21 (twenty years ago) link

There's a scene like that in Spaceballs, too.

Sam J. (samjeff), Friday, 12 September 2003 21:34 (twenty years ago) link

91. "I only put on [Love And Theft] several times, though I liked it enough to
vote for it. But there *are* slow songs on there. Why didn't you warn me
about the slow songs? People know that I don't like slow songs, but they
keep releasing slow songs anyway. Well, he does get beauty out of his wasted
vocal cords. (Speaking of which, I remember when he blew his voice out. He
was in a car. He didn't notice that the lights had changed. A crowd of
people stood and stared. They'd heard his voice before. Nobody was really
sure if it was in the Albert Hall. It might've been in that place in
Manchester, what was it called, the Free Trade Hall?)"

David. (Cozen), Friday, 12 September 2003 22:09 (twenty years ago) link

(best description of RR's guitar ever, from Robert Christgau: "so cockeyed funky he almost careens off the stage")

how about WORST description of RR's guitar??? COCKEYED FUNKY???

Cockeyed Funky describes Robertson's solo career. As in Shit. As in F-.

rumple, Friday, 12 September 2003 22:14 (twenty years ago) link

92. That is a brilliant description of the guitar. Cockeyed is a horrible word and my aversion to 'funky' is noted. And it's not a simple double-negative at work either. I think perhaps its the comedy over-kill of 'careens' that sets off and distracts from the horrible original phrasing and kind of imbues it with a ex post facto glow. Imagine him just going about his job (that's playing guitar; whatajob) but doing it in a manner so comedy tragic he almost hurts himself in his greatness. Slapstick genius sentence. I think I just read some Christgau I actually like.

David. (Cozen), Friday, 12 September 2003 22:18 (twenty years ago) link

93. Matos?

David. (Cozen), Friday, 12 September 2003 22:20 (twenty years ago) link

94. "MATOS!" (Sorry.)

David. (Cozen), Friday, 12 September 2003 22:23 (twenty years ago) link

rr's guitar is at its most beautiful on the intro to "just like tom thumb's blues"

amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 12 September 2003 22:30 (twenty years ago) link

the live b-side of that single (I forget which) is far and away the best 'tom thumb.'
neither cockeyed nor funky, I might add.

rumple, Saturday, 13 September 2003 00:03 (twenty years ago) link

two weeks pass...
95 - One too many mornings - danko's backup vocals at the end of the chorus "BEEEEHIINND"
96 - RR's joyous (yet aching), sliding guitar solo on the same song that leaves me in sweats.
97. the way dylan pronounces "miles" on this same song
98. "TEEEEEEeeeeEEEELLll m MoMMMAaaa" incredbile, how does he do this
99. just like a woman - just when he starts playing it, those few plucked strings

someone else finish this off. for the record, i don't think i have ever bought a better 2 disc set than this, not a wasted moment on either one.

Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Thursday, 2 October 2003 14:08 (twenty years ago) link

let's kill this beast..

100. Tell me Mama

Fabrice (Fabfunk), Friday, 3 October 2003 07:44 (twenty years ago) link

As 100 = 98, here's 100.


100. The way the acoustic set is disk one and electric is disk two. Just so you traditionalists can play the first and walk out instead of putting on disk 2.

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 3 October 2003 08:36 (twenty years ago) link

i don't think the "traditionalists" (that's a misnomer if ever there were) were really as prevalent as the mythology would have us believe, the cry of "judas!" notwithstanding.

amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 3 October 2003 09:24 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...
What fantastic sound for a 1966 live rock recording.

Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 5 May 2005 13:11 (eighteen years ago) link

There's a new "Bootleg" series CD coming out. Anyone know owt?

mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 5 May 2005 13:15 (eighteen years ago) link

19/04/2005 - Bob Dylan - 'Bootleg Series 7'
We've just got a 16th August date for this Volume of the 'Bootleg Series'. Apparently it contains studio-outtakes fom the period 1961-1966. Anyone know more?

(From the "Spin CDs" site)

mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 5 May 2005 14:17 (eighteen years ago) link

To go along with the Martin Scorcese documentary on the same period.

Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:53 (eighteen years ago) link

a-ha! nice. the last bootleg set was on the dull side.

do you think one day something akin to "the genuine basement tapes" will be released by sony?

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 5 May 2005 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...
oh we got to 100 already :(

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 2 February 2007 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm always glad it's mickey and not levon drumming on this.

say it with blood diamonds (a_p), Friday, 2 February 2007 15:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, me neither. I'm listening to Neil Young 1973 boots and he's doing the acoustic set -> electric set thing too, and he continues to do it for years (cf. Live Rust, for instance). And it occurred to me how I automatically parse this as a Dylan thing, and wondered about predecessors. By 1972 the Dead kinda pull this, but that's way later obviously; prob. lots of other acts are doing this around 1970 as well but I can't think of them.

wide swing juggalo (Euler), Thursday, 6 August 2009 15:47 (fourteen years ago) link

one year passes...

so uh dylan nerds, what bootleg/comp/live record has this on it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atUiJKsP3Jg&feature=related

dayo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 01:16 (thirteen years ago) link

Folk Rogue bootleg.

EZ Snappin, Thursday, 21 October 2010 01:18 (thirteen years ago) link

cheers!

dayo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 01:21 (thirteen years ago) link

I hope you enjoy it when you track it down - it's a good one!

EZ Snappin, Thursday, 21 October 2010 01:23 (thirteen years ago) link

looking forward! the youtube just slays - that manic, tribal drumming is incredible

dayo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 01:27 (thirteen years ago) link

Is that the Newport 65 version of "Maggie's Farm"? I think so. & if so it's on Bootleg Series 7, the No Direction Home soundtrack.

Euler, Thursday, 21 October 2010 01:32 (thirteen years ago) link

I think you're right. Though Folk Rogue has the whole set, as well as the Newport '64 set. Nice to hear the difference year-to-year.

EZ Snappin, Thursday, 21 October 2010 01:50 (thirteen years ago) link

okay I didn't mean to say the drumming was awesome - I meant the bass. I love that one-two bassline. I wish I knew more about folk music so I could say more than just "it's that one-two folksy bassline".

dayo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 03:52 (thirteen years ago) link

somehow the youtube version sounds louder and more raw. hmm

dayo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 03:53 (thirteen years ago) link

I think the youtube is sped up. whatever, I'm tapping my toes.

dayo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 03:56 (thirteen years ago) link

it was The Paul Butterfield Blues Band what backed Bob up on that set. I definitely think that YouTube is sped up

Stormy Davis, Thursday, 21 October 2010 03:57 (thirteen years ago) link

well they fucking killed it. cannot stop listening to this today! makes me want to get a big ol upright bass.

dayo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 04:11 (thirteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Judas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOJO3pKxw0

The Newport '65 (electic) show was 47 years ago today. (Seemed to be the most applicable thread.)

clemenza, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:28 (eleven years ago) link

and almost ten years since his triumphant return!
http://img2-2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/020819/161625__bob_dylan_l.jpg

tylerw, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 15:13 (eleven years ago) link

nine years pass...

Why does “Ballad of a Thin Man” sound so shitty on this album? Do any of the bootlegs have better sound quality?

Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 29 July 2021 22:41 (two years ago) link

What I hear is a shitty-sounding take on an otherwise rockin’ Dylan set. What Dave Marsh hears is… ahem: “As Dylan and the Hawks tune their way into "Ballad of A Thin Man", a tension, intangible but definable for anyone who has ever seen great music performed in its live context, accrues, becomes almost unbearable and then is relieved by the most precisely perfect note from Robbie Robertson. A swoop of the purest finery, not all flash and filigree but something else, something so simple that it treads the thinnest edge of becoming merely mundane. Its B. B. King antecedents laid bare, it remains the most cosmic rush I've ever experienced from mere music, totally unadulterated by chemical...a pristine swoop, up and then down and then back up again, Robertson soaring on that single note to heights the significance of which the average guitarist couldn't begin to comprehend even if he were capable of playing them.”

Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 29 July 2021 22:48 (two years ago) link

The "About the Recordings" section at the end of the booklet mentions that the tapes "came with built-in limiting/compression," and some sound issues arising from that... that song may be particularly affected?

Low FODMAP* Snack Ideas (morrisp), Thursday, 29 July 2021 23:13 (two years ago) link

FWIW, the Free Trade Hall show on Live 1966 was officially mixed twice - the first time, Dylan didn't think it accurately reflected what people heard at the show (too clean, too tame) and rejected it. It eventually got leaked and was promptly bootlegged. In the mid-to-late 1990s, they mixed it again, this time with a dirtier, more aggressive sound, including more compression, and Dylan approved it for release.

What that in mind, it's possible you may prefer the bootleg of the first mix. (I don't have it, I've always been fine with the official release.)

birdistheword, Thursday, 29 July 2021 23:30 (two years ago) link

there was a new mix of the manchester show made for this thing... also includes another 17 (increasingly ragged) performances of boatm if you really want to go there

no lime tangier, Friday, 30 July 2021 08:52 (two years ago) link

actually, looking around i can't find any info to back up my assertion about its being a new mix. i do recall noting on my one listen that it sounded different to my memory of the earlier release (then again i could just be entirely wrong!)

no lime tangier, Friday, 30 July 2021 10:18 (two years ago) link

I actually prefer the electric set from the Liverpool show. (FWIW, only a few songs are known to exist on tape from the acoustic set.) It wasn't recorded to multi-track, so it only exists as a mono Nagra recording for D A Pennebaker's filming, but the performance more than makes up for it - it's even sharper and more ferocious. For decades the only official release from the 1966 tour was "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" from the Liverpool set, and it was issued barely a month after the show as the B-side to "I Want You."

birdistheword, Friday, 30 July 2021 16:06 (two years ago) link

Absolutely LOVE that version of “Tom Thumb”. “And my best friend my doctor… he won’t even TELL me WHAT it IS iIiiiigggggghhhuhhhhh.”

Mr. Snrub, Friday, 30 July 2021 19:40 (two years ago) link

one thing I love on this is in the acoustic set where Dylan seems to creep into each song like it’s a dark room, his singing is a flashlight picking each lyric out of the murk

assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 30 July 2021 23:24 (two years ago) link


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