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The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998)

Where the lyrics of The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert take you, and where it was really made.

The concert on this album was recorded in Manchester, but early bootlegs credited London's Royal Albert Hall, and the album still carries that name.

Key places

Electric set at Manchester Free Trade Hall (1966)

Live show Free Trade Hall — Dylan's electric set was recorded at Manchester Free Trade Hall on 17 May 1966. Early bootlegs named London's Royal Albert Hall instead, which is why the recording became known by that name. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: a two-disc live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1998
• Recorded at Manchester Free Trade Hall on 17 May 1966, during Dylan's 1966 world tour
• Released on Legacy Recordings as part of the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series
• Known as the "Royal Albert Hall" Concert because early bootlegs named the wrong venue
• First disc: Dylan alone, an entirely acoustic set
• Second half: an electric set with his band the Hawks
• Certified gold by the RIAA

Background

• Six-week spring tour of 1966 began in Australia, passed through western Europe, Ireland and the UK, and ended in London
• Dylan's move to electric music and his apparent break with traditional folk remained controversial
• UK audiences were particularly disruptive, and some fans believed Dylan had "sold out"
• Dylan suffered a motorcycle accident on 29 July 1966, two months after the spring tour

Recording

• The acoustic first half was greeted warmly by the audience
• The electric second half drew heavy criticism and heckling before and after each song
• A heckler calling out "Judas" is clearly audible on the recording
• The Manchester source was confirmed only after a 1995 bootleg of a proposed Columbia edition appeared
• Dylan rejected that edition and authorized a markedly different version for the Bootleg Series three years later

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota; raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Moved to New York City in January 1961 to pursue a music career.
• Signed to Columbia Records after playing harmonica on Carolyn Hester's album; debut album Bob Dylan released in 1962.

Members

• Solo artist; backed over the years by bands including the Hawks/the Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his touring band led by bassist Tony Garnier.

Career

• Breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963); protest songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
• Went electric with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), provoking controversy among folk fans.
• Motorcycle accident in 1966 led to nearly eight years without touring; Basement Tapes recorded with the Band.
• Converted to Christianity in the late 1970s and released gospel albums; won Album of the Year Grammy for Time Out of Mind (1997).
• Has toured since 1988 on the Never Ending Tour; won an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards; awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Finally released in 1998, the album was a commercial and critical success
• Reached number 19 in the UK
• Included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Reappraisal

• Critic Dave Marsh reviewed an earlier bootleg of this concert in Creem magazine in June 1971, praising it as "the most supremely elegant piece of rock 'n' roll music"
• Critic Jon Landau described the same concert's bootleg edition as musically great and an amazing path back into the temperament of the sixties
• Photographer Ross Halfin, a friend of Jimmy Page, said Page still buys copies of the bootleg whenever he sees it
• Ranked number 989 in All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd edition, 2000)
• Elvis Costello named it one of his 500 favorite albums
• Cat Power covered the record in full in 2023

Records

• UK chart peak: number 19
• RIAA certification: gold
• All Time Top 1000 Albums ranking: number 989 (3rd edition, 2000)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Early bootlegs credited the Royal Albert Hall in London, so the album became known by that name instead of its real venue
• The Manchester source was confirmed only after a preliminary mix of a proposed Columbia edition was bootlegged in 1995 as Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix
• Film footage of the "Judas" incident was discovered and used at the end of Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary No Direction Home
• Elvis Costello named the album one of his 500 favorite albums
• Cat Power covered the record in full in 2023

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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