Royal Albert Hall

Certain Songs #88: Bob Dylan & The Hawks – “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Manchester 1966)”

January 28, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Bootleg Series Vol 4
Year: 1966

On Highway 61 Revisited, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” was a bit of respite from the supersonic Old Testament testifying of the title track and the epic name-dropping of “Desolation Row.” Infused with uncharacteristic melancholy, it kinda gets lost in the shuffle.

But not the live version. As far as I’m concerned, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” was the peak of every concert on the 1966 tour and this version is definitely in my top 5 Dylan songs. All of that melancholy has been replaced by anger, as it now sounds like a trip through a harrowing hellscape.

Certain Songs #87: Bob Dylan & The Hawks – “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (Manchester, 1966)”

January 26, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Bootleg Series Vol 4.

Year: 1966.

This rocked-up revision of a polite (he even gives it attribution before he sings it) pretty acoustic cover from Bob Dylan’s debut exemplifies everything great about the “Royal Albert Hall” concert. Every single song in this set is given a new lease on life.

Even discounting the music, the new lyrics in this version of “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” – and how he sings those lyrics – transform the lovelorn cast of the original into an anticipatory fucksong:

I’ll buy you rope and twine
Honey, just for you to climb
Yes, I’ll do anything in this god almighty world
If you just once drive me out of my mind!

But of course, you can’t discount the music. Not without taking your life into your hands, because with Mickey Jones crashing around his drum kit like he forgot where the brakes were and decided to speed into the spinout, “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” will run you right off the road if you’re not paying attention.

Energized by those drums, or maybe just to protect themselves, Dylan and Hawks take turns trading off solos after each verse. Here goes Robbie Robertson. Here goes Dylan. Here goes Garth Hudson. Here goes Richard Manuel. All of them are just hanging for dear life and no doubt hoping that Rick Danko’s bass will provide the stability they need to make it to the end of the song.

The “Royal Albert Hall” concert came into my life via a cassette that my brother Joe had somehow gotten ahold of in either the late 70s or early 80s, and instantly became a favorite of mine. In case you couldn’t tell.

At some point in the mid-1980s, I discovered that the Henry Madden Library – the big one, with all of the books and magazines and microfiche and shit – at Fresno State had a vinyl copy of the “Royal Albert Hall.” Why they had it, I don’t know. I do know that there were a couple of other boots there, including The Rolling Stones Live’R Than You’ll Ever Be.

In any event, I recorded it to cassette a couple of times, and spent the next few years trying to figure out how to, uh, liberate it from its involuntary servitude and give it a new home in my vinyl collection. I never did, mostly because I couldn’t figure out a way to do it without getting caught. Nevertheless I often wondered how those boots ended up in the Library. I’ve always assumed that some super-hipster hippie librarian was responsible.

One amazing minute of “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” performed live in 1966

Official video for “Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Manchester 1966)”

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #86: Bob Dylan & The Hawks – “Tell Me Momma (Manchester, 1966)”

January 25, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Bootleg Series Volume 4.

Year: 1966.

The first thing you need to know about the legendary Royal Albert Hall concert is that it wasn’t recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. Instead, the greatest, wildest, most fucked-up visionary set of rock and roll music ever was recorded in Manchester. It was either misinformation or bootleggers hype that this ridiculously great piece of music became known to crazed Dylan fans as “Royal Albert Hall.”

Where even to start? How bout this insane blast of energy, which itself starts with what feels like random strumming until somebody (probably Dylan) counts off 1 … 2 … 3 … 4, and with a WHACK! of Mickey Jones’ snare drum, Dylan and The Hawks just fucking explode.

With Garth Hudson’s planet-covering organ and Robbie Robertson’s ever-changing guitar leading the way, “Tell Me Momma” barrels its way through its verses nearly crashing prior to every chorus

But I know that you know that I know that you show
Something is tearing up your miiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnd!

This is so fucking audacious: not only was Dylan “betraying” his audience by playing the hardest, fullest rock music that anyone had ever heard, he led with a song that nobody had even heard before! Or, for that matter – since Dylan never recorded a studio version – they likely would never heard again.

Imagine being a punter who hated that Dylan was going electric. By the time they got to the breakdown with Robertson’s typical mathematical rearguard solo, you’d be so furious, you wouldn’t know what to do. Meanwhile, Dylan, supremely confident, and one of the hugest, most totally wired assholes to ever walk the planet, was spoiling for a fight.

A fight, of course, he pretty much won with this first-round knockout punch..

Official Video for “Tell Me Momma”

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever