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Liner Notes

For more than 25 years, recordings of this extraordinary performance have circulated underground as a kind of Holy Grail for serious rock & roll collectors and Dylan enthusiasts alike.

The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert -- which Mojo magazine (August 1998) called "The Most Famous Bootleg Album Of All Time" -- was actually recorded and performed on May 17, 1966, at Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England; the mystery behind the 30-year misidentification has never been completely resolved. Throughout the years, fans have clamored to replace worn-out vinyl and hissing popping CDs mixed from 3rd generation tapes. Now for the first time, the complete concert, including the sublime acoustic opening set, is available in pristine quality, freshly mixed and mastered from the original 3-track source tapes. None of these performances, with the exception of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (which appears on Biograph) has been legitimately available until now. This never-before-released complete concert recording (acoustic and electric sets) two-CD set features extensive liner notes including an essay by Tony Glover and many mind-blowing, previously unpublished photographs of Bob Dylan and The Hawks.

Album Notes

Full title:
Live 1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert.

LIVE 1966... includes a 56-page booklet filled with rare photographs and a lengthy essay by Tony Glover.

Personnel:
Bob Dylan (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, harmonica, piano)
Robbie Roberston (guitar)
Richard Manuel (piano)
Garth Hudson (organ)
Rick Danko (bass, background vocals)
Mickey Jones (drums)

Recorded live at the Manchester Free Hall, Manchester, England on May 17, 1966.

A bootleg so legendary its incorrect origin graces the title of the official release, the Manchester-recorded "ROYAL ALBERT HALL" CONCERT documents one of rock and roll's redefining moments. The folk prophet's embrace of electricity in the face of his audience's dissatisfaction with such a decision is among the finest rock myths. This performance, recorded in the last days of Dylan's epochal 1965-66 world tour, proves the music he was creating at the time every bit as extraordinary and complex as the greatest art of the 20th century; Picasso, Joyce and Kurosawa spring to mind much faster than any popular musicians.
The show's first half consists of folkie-friendly acoustic tunes - though one wonders what stringent folkies made of the hallucinatory wordplay of "Desolation Row." When the Hawks join him onstage, the calm atmosphere becomes a deafening din, as coffeehouse introspection dresses up in garage amps turned to eleven, treating the stale traditionalists to a post-modern hootenanny. Robbie Robertson and Dylan trade electric guitar catcalls, like gunslingers grazing each other with bullets just for fun. Garth Hudson's organ rolls out a juke-joint groove. And the bard delivers a batch of songs bursting with ideas of self-identity and social existence that are, even today, standard-bearers.