The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert

The Good: It’s a bootleg!
The Bad: It’s a double bootleg…
The Ugly: Finding two legs, in boots… start of a murder mystery…

Fuck me… that was not an easy one to get through.
Sure, some very familiar songs on there, and they sounded great. However, one full album of acoustic BD live… just him, an acoustic guitar, and the fucking harmonica… Then, one full album electrified, yet the music was that electric…

I could have been spared this album. I could have been spared several of BD’s albums… however, it’s not my 1001 list… so I will have to suck it up.

2* out of spite!

Dylan isn't someone I would choose to listen to on my own, but its ok.

Good lord, a live rendition of songs I've already heard on different albums. Not worth the long playtime.

I don't see the necessity after including the whole studio discography of Bob Dylan to put a live album of his on the list. Come on!
Support your local small artists

Den akustiske delen av konserten er flott, men fy faen som den elektriske delen går hardt. Tror "Judas"-klippet må være det klippet jeg har sett flest ganger på Youtube. Dessverre er utgaven på Qobuz uten hecklingen mellom låtene. Kanskje for å tekkes en spillelisteorientert samtid? Jeg har uansett CD-en som er definitivt Judas-edition. Uansett, Bob Dylan live 1966 er en av de beste liveopptakene noensinne. All hecklingen var en del av fansen som mente Dylan hadde sveket folkmiljøet, men de kjøpte jo billett og møtte opp, så Dylan vant vel uansett. Dessuten fikk de det akustiske settet. Og selv om det er haterne som blir husket, så er det full jubel etter maratonversjonen av "Like A Rolling Stone". Og man skal ikke glemme at studioversjonen klatra til nesten førsteplass på Billboard. Så Dylan sto ikke der bare og spilte for seg selv, men det høres ut som han koste seg med det.

Play it fucking loud!

It's bobbyyy, it's pretty goood. The story of it is pretty interesting too. I love his studio albums much more though. Not the biggest fan of live albums in general, so it would be a solid 3 for me.

Classic Dylan

This album should not be on this list. Dylan already has what feels like 50 entries, and all these tracks are already on the list in studio versions. Disc 1 is boring and droning, an while it does pick up on disc 2, it feels like it will never end.

Can't believe that woman yelled 'jewish' at our mate Zimmerman.

Before the Flood is the best Dylan live album, cheers.

Are there no Cat Power albums on this list. That's fucked. One star review is for Dimery.

Better than Coldplay

Ok, I’m surprised how much I loved this seeing as how I never felt particularly drawn to Bob Dylan’s music. But this was SO GOOD and soothing and it was the perfect background music to read a book to. It felt like I was being sung lullabies in the first half. And the second half was fun and pumped me up. He really is something special.

Custa-me um pouco dar esta «nota» ao Bob, uma vez que é um clássico e o seu valor é inestimável, ninguém contesta isso. Contudo, devo dizer várias coisas, pois a experiência de ouvir este álbum foi deveras difícil e angustiante:

1) um álbum ao vivo não deveria fazer parte de uma lista deste tipo! Uma coisa é ir ao vivo ouvir, ver, sentir a experiência, vibrar com tudo o que ali se passa! Ouvir um álbum ao vivo é lidar, como foi neste caso, com imensos problemas;

2) Como estava irritado com a minha sorte por ter tido este álbum, fui pesquisar e aprendi que na 2ª parte o Bob foi vaiado e o espetáculo foi tudo menos bonito! Saber que este disco foi editado e que se perde todo esse registo é má-fé, é uma autêntica batota. Por isso, a minha opinião de que este disco não deveria estar nesta lista e que esta experiência foi tudo menos agradável, sai reforçada;

3) O registo é extremamente longo. Ouvir a voz nasalada do Bob durante uma hora e meia, mais a harmónica e o raio que o parta, ao longo de uma hora e meia deixa de ser arte e passa a ser tortura.

Poderia alongar-me mas acho que bastam estes motivos para poder dizer, com toda a certeza e na plena posse das minhas faculdade smentais - "desculpa, Bob, mas antes morrer do que ouvir isto outra vez"

1/5 (pode-se dar zero? Por um segundo, o meu desejo foi dar zero :-( )

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It’s a bit hard for me to give Bob this “rating,” since it’s a classic and its value is priceless — no one disputes that. However, I must say a few things, because the experience of listening to this album was truly difficult and distressing:

1) A live album shouldn’t be on a list like this! It’s one thing to go to a live show to hear, see, and feel the experience, to get swept up in everything that’s happening there! Listening to a live album means dealing with, as was the case here, a ton of problems;

2) Since I was annoyed with my luck for having gotten this album, I did some research and learned that during the second set, Bob was booed and the show was anything but pleasant! Knowing that this album was released and that all of that is lost is bad faith; it’s a total rip-off. Therefore, my opinion that this album shouldn’t be on this list and that this experience was anything but pleasant is reinforced;

3) The recording is extremely long. Listening to Bob’s nasal voice for an hour and a half, plus the harmonica and whatever else, for an hour and a half ceases to be art and becomes torture.

I could go on, but I think these reasons are enough to say, with complete certainty and in full possession of my mental faculties—“sorry, Bob, but I’d rather die than listen to this again”

1/5 (can you give a zero? For a second, I wanted to give it a zero :-( )

Soll die Wäscheklammer von der Nase nehmen und die Mundharmonika nicht vergewaltigen

Starting the morning with some 1 hour of acoustic Bob Dylan and shrieking low quality audio harmonica wasn't a very pleasant way to start my workday. I've come to realize I don't really care for most of his earlier stuff, exceptions notwithstanding. The second side made up a lot for it, sounds so ahead of its time! Not something I'd listen to again probably, I don't think these renditions really offer a better version of the songs than the originals.

Lifelong Dylan fan- so look, anything before and including Infidels is probably gonna get a 5, very easily.

Dylan live now is so horrendous - that when you have a recording of him where he actually gave a shit, it’s special! Dylan live at Bodokan might be the best Dylan live recording- but early Dylan…recorded so cleanly…just amazing to hear.

NOT TO MENTION: Dylan + The Hawks (The Band)..give me anytime and twice on sunday. Judas can sure rock!

Danko's bass...Robbie guitar and Levon leading it all...man, they didnt know what they had.

He sounds like the Bob that everyone does an impression of, but when he's delivering some of the greatest songs ever written, it couldn't matter less. Totally masterful.

5/5

Luck of the draw.

I've never been a fan of Bob Dylan, but that's not because I have some utter disdain for his music. I assume it's because I just haven't had enough exposure to it. His Nobel Prize for Literature is well deserved, One of my reasons for taking on the 1001 Albums was to get more exposure to classic albums I have yet to hear! And by luck of the draw, my first Dylan album was this live recording. Turns out this is not at all how I want to hear Bob Dylan.

This is a horrible first impression for someone to have for him, for a few different reasons. For one, the singing. I don't know most of these songs, and I wouldn't even be able to gather the content of each song in this recording unless I was reading along with all the lyrics. Then there's the mixing. In the acoustic set, the harmonica will often drown out the guitar completely. During the electric set, there are multiple songs where Dylan's singing sounds very distant, and the whole recording seems to switch from the soundboard to the quality of an actual bootlegged tape.

I didn't enjoy listening to this at all, I can't see myself ever going back to it. But for hardcore Dylan fans, if it's any consolation, I have the utmost respect for the guy. When asked about the infamous "Judas" incident (the only thing about this recording that I would've been interested in, if it wasn't cut out) he said "All those evil motherfuckers can rot in hell." Nice guy.

90 minutes of nasal vocals, boring, drawling songs and frequent bouts of eardrum-piercing harmonica? Seriously, fuck off. Petition to ban the instrument starts now.

Ja Dylan is best tof maar deze liveplaat is toch geen absolute must listen denk ik zo.

It’s very hard to argue against this being on this list. I’ve listened to this on a few occasions before and again today, and it really is interesting. The length is helped by the juxtaposition between the electric/acoustic set. I can see how it could have been jarring for the audience, but both sets are very good and most of them seem to be into it.

It also shows that Bob actually used to be good live.

Also, the link sent me to the wrong album.