"It used to
be like that, now it goes like this" Dylan mutters before
the electric "I Don't Believe You" and that sums up the mood and the
impact of this incredible record. When Dylan and The Band mounted the
tour of England from which this concert comes (Manchester, not
London's Royal Albert Hall as long assumed), Dylan stood atop the
musical world, a standard-setting, vital performer, maybe the most
important of his time. The music scene in the mid-60's was a far
different place than today- there wasn't as much of it, for one thing.
This meant that events like "Dylan goes electric" sent tidal waves,
not mere ripples through the minds of musicians and fans alike. Some
got it, others didn't. He had always made music for adults, but when
he cranked up the Stratocaster at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965,
backed by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, among others, some of his
fans booed and whined like petulant children, terrified of change. He
never looked back.
This record, one of the most bootlegged sets of all time, has grown to
the status of legend, and in this remixed release, you see why. The
first disc, Dylan solo on guitar and harp, gives sharp evidence, if
anyone needs reminding, of why he is considered a genius poet. The
aching sadness of "Just Like a Woman", or the harrowing
"Desolation
Row" are as good a string of words as any penned by an American writer
this century. But by this point in his career, Dylan had grown wary of
the standard "Folkie with a Guitar" tour format, and his disdain just
adds a sharpness to tunes like "She Belongs to Me" and a brutal,
scathing "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". With this music he set a
standard that many have reached for, but few have touched. Cryptic,
smotheringly personal, it slaps you in the face and pulls you to
places in yourself that you might not want to go, at times sneeringly
mocking our fears and doubts. If the first disc was the only one
released, it would still be enough to blow away the over-hyped dross
lingering in our musical vista today.
But it's the second disc, Dylan with The Band, that blows you away.
The Band, minus Levon Helm-- who quit the tour, tired of "busting his
ass and getting booed for it" and hiked back to Arkansas, (Micky Jones
takes his place on drums) was simply the greatest "American" band
ever. Here they stomp, duck and weave, and become as important to
Dylan as his own hands, and as in step. Robbie Robertson fills spaces
with little snippets of Telecaster glory that sting and slash, while
Garth Hudson, the Band's elder shaman, swirls and teases with his
brilliant organ playing, paranoic but proper. Dylan's voice crackles
and jabs--it's a perfect instrument. Anyone who says he can't sing
doesn't understand what the human voice is designed to do- it is a
tool of communication, not a trained seal.
It's difficult, 32 years later, to perhaps understand the sheer
groundbreaking blitzkrieg that Dylan unleashed when he made this
music. It's hard to relate to the fan who yells "Judas!" after a
masterful, engulfing "Ballad of a Thin Man"- at one point, music
mattered. If affected peoples lives. Sadly, it rarely does anymore,
and it takes something like this record to remind us of that fact. Far
and away the album of the year, "Live 1966" shows us, that for a
brief
moment, rock and roll was the axis around which the world turned, and
Bob Dylan was the driven visionary that spun the globe. We'll most
likely never hear such again.
©1998 James Mann
Originally appeared in Miles of Music, Ink19