Thursday, June 9, 2011

Bob Dylan, 1966

High up on the list of Dylan lore is the 1966 incident in Manchester where Dylan was transitioning from folk to electric rock. He would do a set of acoustic songs, and then bring out The Band to do a set of electric tunes. At the show in Manchester on his first tour with this acoustic/electric setup, a fan audibly yells "Judas!" at Dylan, supposedly for going electric and betraying his folk fans. After a moment, Dylan responds with "I don't believe you" and "You're a liar."

The incident is caught on tape on Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. "Royal Albert Hall" is in quotes because that was the venue it was attributed to when the fan bootleg initially came out. It was really recorded in Manchester's Free Hall. (As with ancient mythology, a lot of the facts and figures in rock and roll lore get mixed up together.) And, it seems that Dylan was responding not to the "Judas!" fan, but to another audience member who yelled "I'm never listening to you again, ever!"

Here's a short clip from Scorsese's documentary, No Direction Home:



And here's the incident on tape, after a full-throttle 7-minute version of "Ballad of a Thin Man":

Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man - Manchester - 1966

(You'll notice that the audience still claps and cheers for the band after they finish the song.)

No comments:

Post a Comment