The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert is a controversial live album by Bob Dylan.
It is one of the most famous live recordings ever made as one disgusted fan of Bob Dylan’s electric rather than acoustic songs yells out “Judas” before Like A Rolling Stone. Listen out for it and you”ll also hear Dylan’s instruction to his band to “play it fucking loud”.
And they do.
Feelings were still running high although the electric Bob Dylan first appeared on the Bringing It All Back Home album, released in March 1965.
For many years it was bootlegged and became known as the Royal Albert Hall recording but it is widely known that the Judas heckling comes from the concert at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966.
Bob Dylan started to issue a series of official bootlegs and this album appeared legally in 1998.
The group backing Bob Dylan in this concert were known at the time as The Hawks but they became better known later as The Band.
Bob Dylan Live 1966 The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert
Set List
Disc 1 (solo acoustic)
- She Belongs to Me – 3:27 (originally on the studio album Bringing It All Back Home)
- 4th Time Around – 4:37 (Blonde on Blonde)
- Visions of Johanna – 8:08 (Blonde on Blonde)
- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – 5:45 (Bringing It All Back Home)
- Desolation Row – 11:31 (Highway 61 Revisited)
- Just Like a Woman – 5:52 (Blonde on Blonde)
- Mr. Tambourine Man – 8:52 (Bringing It All Back Home)
Disc 2 (with The Hawks)
- Tell Me Momma – 5:10 (never released on a studio album)
- I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) – 6:07 (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
- Baby, Let Me Follow You Down – 3:46 (traditional folk song that Bob Dylan covered on his self-titled album)
- Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – 6:50 (Highway 61 Revisited)
- Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – 4:50 (Blonde on Blonde)
- One Too Many Mornings – 4:22 (The Times They Are a-Changin)
- Ballad of a Thin Man – 7:55 (Highway 61 Revisited)
- Like a Rolling Stone – 8:01 (Highway 61 Revisited)
1966 was a perfect time for a live album from Bob Dylan as he can draw on three albums – Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde – that helped change rock and pop music forever by encouraging groups like The Beatles to write much more meaningful lyrics. You can see the impact Dylan had on John Lennon on songs like In My Life on the Rubber Soul album.
Dylan also had his more traditional folk albums as well and I suspect that it is the electrification of some of these songs – I Don’t Believe You and One Too Many Mornings – that really upset the folkies.
I will be writing more.
What Other People Say About Bob Dylan Live 1966
This Bob Dylan live album regularly appears in the lists of the best live albums ever. In fact it is a surprise when it doesn’t.
Stylus 1
Chordstrike.com 6
DigitalDreamDoor.com 9
Q – 2006 12
Rolling Stone Top 25
Vox Best 70
Amazon reviewers go crazy about the album:
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Buying Bob Dylan Live 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert
To help you to find the album quickly and easily, I’ve given you the following links:
- Amazon.com as a CD or mp3
- Amazon.co.uk as a CD or mp3
- iTunes as a digital download
- eBay as a CD
What Do You Think About Bob Dylan Live 1966
Do you think this is Bob Dylan’s best live album?
Or do you think that for all its historic importance, it is overrated? Please let me know by leaving a comment.
Loading ...What Are The Best Live Albums Ever?
Please help me find the best live albums by voting in the readers polls. I’ve included Live 1966 in the polls to find the best singer songwriter live albums and best folk and folk rock live albums.
Loading ... Loading ...You may also be interested in the results of the best classic rock live albums poll. This particular Dylan album isn’t nominated but Before The Flood and At Budokan are included as I think they will appeal to a more general audience.