The 1966 Live Recordings

Lots of other reviews here on Amazon, making good points. What do you get? 36 CDs, a slim booklet, and a well-made cardboard box with lid. CD card covers have tracklist and recording details on back, and individual (all different) live concert photos from the tour on the front. What's on the CDs? 18 concert recordings from soundboard reel tapes (in mono) or professional CBS concert recordings (in stereo, the last few concerts of the tour). Most are complete, or just missing a bit where tape had to be turned-over / changed. The last 5 discs are audience recordings of shows CBS didn't record. Why is this interesting? Firstly, it's for Bob Dylan freaks like me, who know that these Dylan concerts are among the greatest musical evenings there have ever been for rock music fans. The live recordings in Europe are excellent quality, a fine representation of the music. The concerts are generally the same songs (over and over again!), BUT in the case of the electric sets, different songs come off better or less well on different nights (especially the thunderous intros). The band listened to the tapes after the concerts, and no doubt looked for ways to make the next concert better. Even the acoustic sets show Dylan in different moods, sometimes just singing the songs nicely in tune, professionally for the people, but sometimes in touch with what the songs are about and conveying the meaning with real feeling. Even the audience tapes have a story to tell - history tells us that the electric sets were over-loud and people couldn't understand the vocals. Now you can hear for yourself, what it sounded like for those attending. I'm a Dylan-in-'66 nut - I bought the £400 studio set (and CBS then kindly gifted purchasers with all the 1965 live material too). We know that we're getting these things because the copyright is running out, but it's finally getting us as much as we can listen to, of probably the greatest rock tour that there ever was. Everything there is, is not too much! There is no other example of such great coverage for a great tour. Value for money is hardly an issue, faced with the chance to get this material - however, 36 CDs for £100-odd -you do the math.. The audience recordings may have you straining to follow the electric sets, and the Australian soundboards are not like the European recordings, but there's plenty to enjoy in great recording quality. So, a wonderful present for Dylan buffs, in barebones packaging, which keeps the price manageable. Leaflet is dull but refers readers on to the Clinton Heylin book about the tour, which is well worth acquiring. Incidentally, the re-issue of the No Direction Home DVD has live footage of a few whole songs from the tour, as extras. When I loved the bootleg of the Manchester concert in the early seventies, I never dreamed that we would (eventually!) get to hear all-there-is of this wonderful material - glad I lived long enough to see this day.

The boxset here is a true treasure trove for real Bobophiles. I am proud to say that I was at the second of the Royal Albert Hall gigs (27 May '66), so getting hold of a copy was a no brainer for me. Only having received it late yesterday I've not played anywhere near the majority but I started with the night that I was there, and can say that I trembled at finally hearing it in its entirety (I had some of it from acetate recordings etc). Probably only one for real hard-core Dylan fans but I'm always going to be one of them. I'll add a bit of info in response to other reviews. One reviewer says this isn't a new issue as it was offered as a free download if you bought the limited 18 disc version of the 65-66 (Cutting Edge) sessions boxset last year. This isn't true...what was given free THEN was the complete 1965 live recordings (this boxset covers 1966). Another mentions that there is a duplication of many songs over the 36 discs here, while not featuring songs such as All Along The Watchtower. As a trove featuring only what he played in '66 - and the gigs were almost all the same set list - this is what you should expect. Also... many of the songs that were listed as missing (Blowing in the wind apart!) hadn't even been written by '66. Hope this helps clarify. A fabulous archive boxset of every known 1966 live recording, but probably not for someone wanting a Bob hits collection..!! In short...it's bl**dy marvellous and I'm in Bob heaven.

It’s difficult to give this anything but 5 stars because it undoubtedly does well what it sets out to do - assemble all known recordings of Dylan’s 1966 tour. I can’t fault the execution and I was under no illusion in terms of what to expect. It was the sub £50 price point for the 36 CDs that made me take the plunge. Even for completists it maybe a step too far though. Dylan didn’t vary the setlist much across the tour so most gigs are pretty much identical - you largely get the same tracks performed in a very similar way, just in varying sound quality depending on the source. The CDs where there is some interesting variation to the setlist - the inclusion of Positively 4th Street and Love Minus Zero/No Limit, for example - is on some of the poorer quality CDs. The sound quality on the ‘audience recordings’ (CDs 32 -36) is truly dreadful - most people probably won’t play these more than once. Being brutally frank, leaving aside the historical significance of the 1966 tour in Dylan’s development, it is questionable what this collection offers beyond what you can get on the two individual 1966 concert releases - ‘The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966 (The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert)’ and ‘The Real Albert Hall 1966 Concert’. Hardcore completists though will enjoy listening for variations in Dylan’s vocal delivery across the 36 discs, the occasional bits of interaction with the audience between songs (CD31 is great for this) and those nights where the band is ‘on fire’ and really leans into the songs during the electric set.

生々しい記録をこれだけ聴ける事は、うれしい限り

No hay que decir que es una caja para los muy fans de Dylan, una vez dicho esto hay que añadir que se trata de una gira mitica yo diria indispensable para entender que necesaria para entender el desarrollo de la musica popular de nuestros dias., es casi un diario de abordo de toda una epoca. Tanto Martin Scorcese como sobre todo D.A Pennebaker hicieron dos excelentes documentales sobre la misma, sobre todo el segundo. Estos cociertos documentan ala perfeccion la transicion del Dylan folk al Dylan electrico y la evolucion que concierto a concierto se va produciendo, como el publico y el mismo se van acostumbrando a esa evolucion. De hecho el programa en todos ellos es casi identico y siempre tienen una primera parte acustica de Dylan solo y luego Dylan con los Hawks, que terminarian siendo tras esta gira The Band. Aqui los musicos son Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel ,Garth Hudson y Mickey Jones, salvo este ultimo, luego vino el famoso encierro de Woostock y las no menos miticas "cintas desde el sotano". Todo es pura historia, pura leyenda. el sonido depende de cada concierto y las fuentes tambien, desde la grabacion casera a la mesa de mezcla, en cualquier caso conservan el sabor de lo autentico, la verdad que le ha llevado a ser premio Nobel, a ser una piedra principal de la musica de nuestros dias. Curiosamente CBS solo grabo dos de los conciertos para editarlos, el de Manchester que finalmente fue editado como si se hubiera el "famoso" concierto del Albert Hall de Londres, aqui tiene el del Royal Albert Hall autentico editado por vez primera. Es sin duda un privilegio asistir tras tantos años a estos conciertos en donde se puede vivir el embiente de aquelos eventos. Sydney, Melburne, Copenhagen, Dubkin, Belfast,Bristol, Cardiff, Birminham, Liverpool, Leicester, Sheffield, Manchester,Glasgow, Edinburg, Newcastle, Paris, Londres, White Pains NY, Piittburg,, Hampstead, Melburne y Stockholm. Faltas muy pocos lugares de la gira pero al parecer no ha sido posible obtener documentos sonoros de los mismos de cualquier forma el trabajo de arqueologia de esta edicion es mas que evidente. Es una caja que es casi para especialistas en Dylan pero interesantisima y bastante bien de precio a tenor de que se trata de 36 CD nada mas y nada menos. Una aventura prodigioda de un nuevo Odiseo en busca de otro mundo.

On saluera l'effort complétiste de Columbia qui sort ici l'intégralité des enregistrements connus de la tournée la plus célèbre du rock. Ils sont allés jusqu'à mettre quelques disques issus des enregistrements pirates de l'époque (inécoutables, soyons honnêtes) en fin de coffret. Que l'on se rassure les deux bons tiers du coffret sont d'une qualité tout à fait satisfaisante. A noter qu'il s'agit de la même setlist (à quelques variations près) qui se répète, donc même si Dylan varie les interprétations tout en nuance de soir en soir, le non-initié pourra se sentir assomé là où le fan se délectera. Mais c'est la nature du produit qui veut ça. Un coffret économique et complet, présenté avec soin, à réserver aux mordus donc. Les autres se contenteront du Bootleg Series Vol 4 ou du Real Royal Albert Hall, deux concerts présentés ici et disponibles indépendamment qui sont sans doute objectivement les meilleurs.

This set of concert tapes from Dylan's famous 1966 tour, recorded in various ways - soundboard mainly - are excellent. They are excellent because the sound quality is good; they are excellent because the 1966 tour was one of Dylan's best, highlighted by focusing almost entirely on new material he had not systematically exploited in a concert setting (in this respect they are similar to his 1979-80 gospel tour recordings); and excellent because they allow the listener to follow the tour sequentially, discovering how the Hawks and their mercurial singer/band leader learned to jell, gradually honing their chops, morphing into a remarkable musical engine.

Ich bin erst bei der Zehnten CD. Habe noch 26 weitere zu hören. Die Tonqualität ist der Zeit entsprechend in Mono, aber bisher sehr gut für meine Vorstellung. Klare Empfehlung für Fans. Auch empfehlenswert für Jüngere Fans um den damaligen Zeitgeist nachzuspüren.