Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've got an issue of Guitar World Acoustic that prominently features Bob Dylan, and there's a section where famous artists talk about "Their Favorite Dylan Song". Paul had this to say:

Mr. Tambourine Man: I heard him do it at the Albert Hall in May 1965, and I was aching for him to do it and knowing Dylan I thought he might not do it. Just to be awkward, just to be perverse. It was the infamous show where all the folkies though he'd sold out. How **** is that? It was fantastic. First half a folky, and then the second half is electric with The Band- it was the all-time concert. So he did it there, the first time i'd ever heard it live. A really good song, very much of the period. Totally nailed that year. I was lucky to be there

Now i'm no Dylan afficionado, but wasn't the "infamous show where he went electric" the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island?

My guess is that there was a British equivalent in that Albert Hall concert. Dylan was on everybody's tongue that Spring and Summer.

No mistaking Albert Hall for the Newport venue, even by a senile, "romantic" old man...

If you watch the recent Dylan documentary 'No Direction Home', it spends a lot of time on this topic. Yes, there were people in the audience booing at Newport, but it may have been in response to Dylan's short set (i.e. they wanted to hear more). It seems that the folkies running the show were more outraged by Dylan's electric sound than the audience. They were the ones who admitted wanting to 'pull the plug' and send him home. So much for open-minded free-thinking folk singers...

By the way, Dylan was also booed at the Royal Albert Hall. I think the soundboard recordings capture someone screaming 'Judas!' as he started one number. What's the big deal? According to Dylan, he was just a 'song and dance man'.

Isn't there a film of the Albert Hall concert? Same film where Dylan meets Donovan? That'll prove if Paul was smoking in the audience. Or am I just a senile romantic old man too?
(I've been absent-minded since I can remember...I think...)

Randy is correct, Scorsese's film covers both incidents quite well. Plus there are several other sources especially about Newport. Whether the audience was as upset about the electric as some of the organizers, I don't know. But boy, was Seeger mad. (Partly, it is said, because his father who wore a hearing aid, was there.) Seeger STILL hasn't forgotten/forgiven.

Actually,
The '66 Royal Albert Performance is on CD. It's part of the bootleg series (vol. 4) from Columbia.
This show has been circulating in the underground for years and until a few years ago, it's been remastered to CD and vinyl. The vinyl just entered second printing and if your luck you can pick up a copy. I have the CD and it's amazing. I love this show and highly recommend it.
I plan on picking up a copy of the boxset on 200 gram vinyl when it comes out anyday.
Jerry, yes there is a film of it also circulating in the black market. I've only seen bits and pieces of it.

Actually, the Royal Albert Hall performance on the CD, and much odd what's in the Scorsese film is from the Manchester Free Trade Hall show a week earlier (May 17) on the '66 UK Tour. The 'Judas' comment was definitely from the Manchester show. Over the years the legendary bootleg was always referred to as the 'Royal Albert Hall' show, which it clearly was not. The tapes came from Columbia's recording of the Manchester show, which they had planned to release as a live LP.

David,
That's right. Doh. Forgot about that one.
Here's the info from wikipedia.org:

"A famous and widely bootlegged concert by Bob Dylan at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester on May 17, 1966 was mistakenly labeled the "Royal Albert Hall Concert." In 1998 Columbia Records released an official recording, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, that maintains the erroneous title, but does include details of the actual concert location. Dylan actually did close his European tour on May 26th and 27th of that year; these were his last concerts before Dylan got into a motorcycle accident and became a recluse for a brief period of time."

Paul's probably confusing either the year or the concert, since Dylan did play in the UK in the late spring of 1965, as documented in the film Don't Look Back. The Beatles had already met Dylan in New York, so it's possible that some of the Beatles saw him on that tour as well as the '66 tour.