AA

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.

She Belongs To Me
4th Time Around
Visions Of Johanna
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Desolation Row
Just Like A Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man
Tell Me, Momma
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone