Today in Music (1966): Bob Dylan performed at “The Royal Albert Hall”

The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert (The Bootleg Series Vol. 4) Bob Dylan

Recorded: May 17, 1966 Released: October 13, 1998 Peak: 31 US, 19 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.06 UK Genre: folk rock

Tracks, Disc 1: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. She Belongs to Me 4 4th Time Around 6 Visions of Johanna (5 CL) 6 It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (16 CL) 4 Desolation Row 5 Just Like a Woman (9/10/66, 33 US, 28 CB, 26 HR, 3 CL, 43 UK) 6 Mr. Tambourine Man (single released 12/65, 4 CL) 4 Tracks, Disc 2: Tell Me, Momma I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) 3 Baby, Let Me Follow You Down 1 Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues 5 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat 6 One Too Many Mornings Ballad of a Thin Man 2 Like a Rolling Stone (7/20/65, 2 US, 1 CB, 2 HR, 1 CL, 4 UK, 2 CN, 7 AU) 5 Total Running Time: 95:18 The Original Studio Recordings: 1 Bob Dylan (1962) 2 The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1963) 3 Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) 4 Bringing It All Back Home (1965) 5 Highway 61 Revisited (1965) 6 Blonde on Blonde (1966)

Rating: 4.388 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Quotable: “The most famous bootleg in rock history.” – Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “The most famous bootleg in rock history, with the possible exception of Dylan’s own Basement Tapes.” AMG This “is a great performance from one of the most important performers of our time.” NO The album didn’t receive an official release until 32 years later when it was released in 1998 as part of Dylan’s Bootleg Series. However, “Dylan's performance at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966 (and the bootlegs that followed) set the music world on its ear.” NO The show is often misidentified as being at the Royal Albert Hall – hence the title in quotes on the official release. That show, on May 26, was one of the final shows from the same tour. “The one thing you can't argue is the significance of this tour; and more importantly, this particular show.” NO The first half of the show featured Dylan in a solo acoustic performance. “He was in fine form and turned in a gripping solo performance. The audience was ultra quiet during the seven songs. They had heard most of them several times before. It was familiar territory. They were comfortable.” NO The second half, however, is electric set in which he is accompanied by The Hawks, who later became The Band. “The crowd had no idea that what they were about to experience would change the face of rock music as they knew it.” NO The set opened with “the hard rocker Tell Me, Momma, which Dylan never recorded in the studio.” AMG Within the set, Dylan also performed “radical electric arrangements of songs that had originally been recorded acoustically (One Too Many Mornings, I Don’t Believe You).” AMG Dylan also “blazes through mid-‘60s classics such as Like a Rolling Stone and Ballad of a Thin Man” AMG and delivers “a killer rendition of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, featuring a great guitar solo by Robbie Robertson. The audience tries to drown them out, but they’re no match for the energy pouring from the stage.” NO Dylan fans were dismayed by what they viewed as a betrayal of traditional folk music as evidenced by the legendary moment when a heckler yells “Judas!” Another man shouts, “I’m never listening to you again, ever!” to which Dylan responds, “I don’t believe you” and “You’re a liar.” Then either Dylan or guitarist Robbie Robertson can be heard instructing the band to “play it fucking loud.” WK “Drummer Mickey Jones slams his snare like his life depended on it, and they kick into the best version of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ you’ve ever heard.” NO Film footage of the incident was found and used in Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary No Direction Home. Sometime in late 1970 or early 1971, the electric portion of the show started surfacing on bootleg LPs. Dave Marsh reviewed it in Creem magazine, calling it “the most supremely elegant piece of rock ‘n’ roll music I’ve ever heard.” WK All Music Guide’s Richie Unterberger called it “an important document of rock history. It captures…Dylan…at his most controversial and hard rocking.” AMG Critic Jon Landau notes “the booing, the names, the insults he endured just to be standing there with an electric band…The audience claps at the wrong time, claps rhythmically as if to deliberately throw his timing off.” WK While the bootlegs focused on the electric set, the official package is a two-CD set which “not only includes the eight electric rock songs from the original bootleg, but also the seven solo acoustic performances that comprised the first half of the show.” AMG “The acoustic disc is not as epochal, but on par with the electric half in the quality of material and performance.” AMG “It’s all in very good fidelity, about as good as any copies you could find through unofficial sources.” AMG This isn’t “just an interesting adjunct to Dylan’s ‘60s discography; it’s as worthy of attention as anything else he recorded during that decade.” AMG “Even if you’re not a Dylan fan, this CD is an essential part of any collection.” NO

Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Bob Dylan AMG All Music Guide review by Richie Unterberger NO TheNightOwl.com WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 5/17/2012; last updated 5/17/2024.

Today in Music (1969): Crosby, Stills & Nash released their self-titled debut

Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash

Released: May 29, 1969 Peak: 6 US, 25 UK, 2 CN, 10 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 4.30 US, 0.10 UK, 4.57 world (includes US and UK), 15.62 EAS Genre: classic rock/folk rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes [7:25] Marrakesh Express [2:39] Guinnevere [4:40] You Don’t Have to Cry [2:45] Pre-Road Downs [3:01] Wooden Ships [5:29] Lady of the Island [2:39] Helplessly Hoping [2:41] Long Time Gone [4:17] 49 Bye-Byes [5:16] Total Running Time: 40:47 Other Songs from This Era: Blackbird The Players: David Crosby (vocals, guitar) Stephen Stills (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, organ, piano, percussion) Graham Nash (vocals, guitar) Dallas Taylor, Jim Gordon (drums)

Rating: 4.500 out of 5.00 (average of 24 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Ultimate Supergroup “Through the 1960s, power in the music industry gradually moved from managers, promoters, producers, and songwriters to the performers themselves. Many followed the Beatles’ example and wrote their own material and by 1968 a small number of musicians were venerated as rock equivalents of the virtuosos of classical music.” TB “If one rock superstar made a band great, the logic ran, surely four superstars would make a group four times greater. Thus was born …the supergroup.” TB The coming together of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash (and later Neil Young) wasn’t just any supergroup. They were “hailed by the music press of the day as the ultimate supergroup.” RD “All three were known for their immaculate grasp of close vocal harmonies, their guitar skills, and their ways with a winning folk/pop melody.” RD They were responsible for “introducing the notion of rock musicians as free agents and creating a brief vogue in ‘supergroups.’ They were one of the few American bands that even came close to rivalling the Beatles in the late 1960s.” AB A Sparkling Resume March 11, 1970. Crosby, Stills & Nash won the Grammy for Best New Artist – on the same day of the release of their second album, Déjà Vu with Neil Young. They were, however, hardly newbies. They may have had the most impressive resume a Best New Artist could have. Crosby had been a member of the Byrds, Stills was a veteran from Buffalo Springfield, and Nash had been with the Hollies. “The hippie harmonists initially found their home in the counter-culture: FM-rock radio and the festival circuit,” AB notably performing at the famed Woodstock festival in August 1969. “There is no doubt that Crosby, Stills & Nash’s quiet, heavily acoustic songs provided a welcome for audiences overdosed on hard rock and the incessant political turmoil of the period.” AB The Debut Album The trio first sang together at a party in 1969. “Genuinely surprised by how well their voices blended, they got together and recorded” TB their self-titled debut. “Their voices blended together just perfect.” KN They have said they “were meant to sing together.” KN Nash said, “In our first year together, we spent probably eleven months together, 24 hours a day…with just a couple of guitars [we] would sit people down and say, ‘Listen to this,’ and…rip off these ten songs, do them brilliantly, and floor people…Musically we ate, drank, and slept together every night.” TB It was “one of the most anticipated rock music debuts of the late 1960s.” AB They matched up to expectations “with aplomb, dishing up a collection of expertly arranged, performed, and produced songs that hinted at a whole world of influences.” RD It was “a sparkling set immortalizing the group’s amazingly close, high harmonies.” AM “The harmonies are absolutely timeless, and the best material remains rock-solid.” AM “A definitive document of its era.” AM Notes A 2006 expanded edition added bonus tracks “Do for Others,” “Song with No Words (Tree with No Leaves),” “Everybody’s Talkin’,” and an early version of “Teach Your Children.” The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Guinnevere Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): David Crosby Recorded: June 26, 1968 Released: Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), So Far (compilation, 1974), CSN (box set, 1991), Carry On (compilation, 1991), Greatest Hits (compilation, 2005) Peak: 15 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 12.81 streaming About the Song: The album offers “subtler, more introspective joys…in the trancelike, almost soporific Guinevere – the deep vocal lines are spine-chilling.” RD Crosby wrote the song for his girlfriend, Christine, TB who tragically died in a car crash on September 30, 1969. “David Crosby said, “When all my friends were listening to Elvis and 1950s rock ‘n’ roll, I was listening to Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and West Coast jazz. Later I got involved with the folk music scene. After getting kicked out of the Byrds I didn’t have a plan, but I went back to my roots, and ‘Guinnevere’ is a combination of these two influences. This was a demo I cut on borrowed studio time, hoping to land another record contract. Cyrus Faryar from the Modern Folk Quartet played bouzouki; Jack Casady’s bass still gives me chills; it’s like another voice. People ask, ‘Who was Guinnevere?’ Songs are seldom about one person. It’s a love song, an answer to some other love songs, and part of a conversation.” LN

You Don’t Have to Cry Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): Stephen Stills Recorded: December 1968 Released: Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), CSN (box set, 1991), Carry On (compilation, 1991) Peak: 23 CL, 26 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 15.18 streaming About the Song: Stephen Stills said, “It was a letter that never got sent. I took bits and pieces of it, put then into a song and it got posted through the record business instead of the mail.” LN

Lady of the Island Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): Graham Nash Peak: February 11, 1969 Released: Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), CSN (box set, 1991) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.30 streaming About the Song: Nash wrote Lady of the Island about Joni Mitchell. TB Nash, however, said, “It’s a song about two ladies. The Islands in question are Ibiza and Long Island. Warm gentle feelings. Recorded in one take, Crosby and I improvising that niice little fugue in the middle.” LN

Blackbird Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): John Lennon, Paul McCartney Recorded: February 11, 1969 Released: CSN (box set, 1991) Peak: 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming About the Song: Graham Nash: “A song by our favorite group. We were staying on Moscow Road in London in 1968, hoping to get onto the Apple Record label. The Beatles were recording The White Album and when we heard McCartney do ‘Blackbird’ we flipped and learned it right away. It was perfect for our three-party harmony.” LN

Wooden Ships Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Paul Kanter Recorded: February 20, 1969 Released: Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), So Far (compilation, 1974), CSN (box set, 1991), Carry On (compilation, 1991), Greatest Hits (compilation, 2005) Peak: 5 CL, 9 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 33.57 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Wooden Ships was jointly composed by Crosby and Stills “with a couple of lines of the song written by Paul Kantner” KN of Jefferson Airplane. It is “about two survivors of a nuclear war from opposite sides, meeting by chance on a boat and who plan to start a new civilization together. A real sixties song, to say the least.” KN While AllMusic.com’s Jason Ankeny said, “the antiwar sentiments of Wooden Ships, though well-intentioned, are rather hokey,” AM the song has also been praised for “evoking the Woodstock Nation-era perfectly.” TB David Crosby said, “Written in the main cabin of my boat the Mayan. I had the music already. Paul Kanter wrote two verses, Stephen wrote one, and I added the bits at both ends…I borrowed the first part off a little Baptist church sign in Florida that said ‘If you smile at me I will understand, because that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.’ It’s a weird science fiction story, but one that could happen tomorrow. ‘Silver people on the shoreline’ are guys in radiation suits. We imagined ourselves as the few survivors, escaping on a boat to create a new civilization. Later on, Jackson Browne said, ‘What about all the people who got left behind?,’ and wrote ‘For Everyman’ in response.” LN

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): Stephen Stills Recorded: early 1969 Released: September 1969 (single), Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), 4 Way Street (live, 1971), So Far (compilation, 1974), CSN (box set, 1991), Carry On (compilation, 1991), Greatest Hits (compilation, 2005) B-side: “Long Time Gone” Peak: 21 BB, 15 CB, 10 GR, 18 HR, 1 CL, 11 CN, 50 AU, 2 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 25.50 video, 133.66 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “Stills’ gorgeous opener, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” AM is his “paean to Judy Collins.” AB It “is an epic love song remarkable in its musical and emotional intricacy.” AM It “is an almost symphonic work for vocals and guitar, with the occasional Eastern melody and that rollercoaster rush at the end.” RD “The harmonies on this tune couldn't be better.” KN Stephen Stills said, “It started out as a long narrative poem about my relationship with Judy Collins. It poured out of me over many months and filled several notebooks. I had a hell of a time getting the music to fit. I was left with all these pieces of song and I said, ‘Let’s sing them together and call it a suite,’ because they were all about the same thing and they led up to the same point. And the little kicker at the end about Cuba was just to liven it up because it had gone on forever and I didn’t want it to just fall apart. I said, ‘Now that we’ve sung all these lyrics about one thing, let’s change the subject entirely.’ And we did. Even did it in a different language just to make sure that nobody could understand it.” LN

Marrakesh Express Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): Graham Nash Recorded: early 1969 Released: 7/11/1969 (single), Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), Replay (compilation, 1980), CSN (box set, 1991), Carry On (compilation, 1991), Greatest Hits (compilation, 2005) B-side: “Helplessly Hoping” Peak: 28 BB, 19 CB, 29 GR, 17 HR, 28 AC, 7 CL, 17 UK, 17 CN, 10 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 9.80 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The “Eastern-influenced musings” AM on “Nash’s incessantly tuneful travelogue” AB “now seem more than a little silly.” AM “The spiraling, upbeat” RD Marrakesh Express is “a happy-go-lucky sounding song…about an actual locomotive trip he took in 1966 between Casablanca and Marrakesh. Nash offered this song to his old group, The Hollies, but they rejected it, saying it wasn’t commercial sounding enough. No wonder he quit that band shortly after.” KN Graham Nash said, “An actual journey I took in 1966 from Casablanca to Marrakesh, with my first wife Rose. I came back and played it for the Hollies, who rejected it, along with the first ‘Sleep Song.’ After a couple of months of that a man is Liable to go insane, especially being the only one who was smoking grass at the time.” LN

Pre-Road Downs Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): Graham Nash Released: Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), 4 Way Street (live, 1971), Replay (compilation, 1980) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.49 streaming About the Song: “Nash’s Pre-Road Downs is buoyant folk-pop underpinned by light psychedelic textures.” AM

Helplessly Hoping Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): Stephen Stills Released: 7/11/1969 (B-side of “Marrakesh Express”), Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), So Far (compilation, 1974), CSN (box set, 1991), Carry On (compilation, 1991), Greatest Hits (compilation, 2005) Peak: 10 CL, 10 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 195.78 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more). About the Song: Stephen Stills said, “This song was inspired a long time ago by my tenth-grade English teacher in Tampa, Florida. She was a real knock-out, so much so that she got all the football players to stand up and read poetry, trying to impress her with how sensitive we were and how much we loved this awful stuff. Some of it must’ve rubbed off on me.” LN

Long Time Gone Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): David Crosby Recorded: early 1969 Released: September 1969 (B-side of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”), Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), 4 Way Street (live, 1971), CSN (box set, 1991), Greatest Hits (compilation, 2005) Peak: 8 CL, 7 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 17.87 streaming About the Song: “Crosby’s Long Time Gone remains a potent indictment of the assassination of Robert Kennedy.” AM The song features “excellent lead vocals sung by Crosby, but Stills’ playing of several different instruments makes this one extra special.” David Crosby said, “It was written the night Bobby Kennedy was killed. I believed in him because he said he wanted to make some positive changes in America, and he hadn’t been bought and sold like Johnson and Nixon – cats who made their deals year ago with the special interests in this country in order to gain power. I thought Bobby, like his brother, was a leader who had not made those deals. I was already angry about Jack Kennedy getting killed and it boiled over into this song when they got his brother, too.” LN

49 Bye-Byes Crosby, Stills & Nash

Writer(s): Stephen Stills Released: Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), 4 Way Street (live, 1971), Greatest Hits (compilation, 2005) Peak: 13 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.84 streaming

Resources/References: AB Michael Spilling (editor) (2015). Best-Selling Albums: From Vinyl Records to Digital Downloads. Amber Books Ltd.: London, United Kingdom. Page 44. AM AllMusic.com review by Jason Ankeny RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 159. KN Keno’s Classic Rock Album Reviews LN liner notes from CSN box set TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 113. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 4/13/2008; last updated 3/21/2026.

Today in Music (1965): Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home released

Bringing It All Back Home Bob Dylan

Released: March 22, 1965 Peak: 6 US, 11 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 1.5 US, -- UK, 3.5 world (includes US + UK) Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Subterranean Homesick Blues [2:21] (4/3/65, 39 US, 52 CB, 53 HR, 6 AC, 2 CL, 9 UK) She Belongs to Me [2:47] Maggie’s Farm [3:54] (6/19/65, 12 CL, 22 UK) Love Minus Zero/No Limit [2:51] Outlaw Blues [3:05] On the Road Again [2:35] Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream [6:30] Mr. Tambourine Man [5:30] (12/65, 4 CL) Gates of Eden [5:40] It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding [7:29] It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue [4:12] (16 CL) All songs written by Bob Dylan. Total Running Time: 47:21

Rating: 4.567 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Bob Dylan lost some of his most loyal fans when he released Bringing It All Back Home after he did the unthinkable – he plugged in.” CS “With Another Side of Bob Dylan, Dylan had begun pushing past folk” STE and now, “for the first time, this folk music hero used an electric guitar, as evident from the very outset of Subterranean Homesick Blues.” CS the “raucous leadoff track and Dylan’s first top-40 single.” SM “He even pays tribute to electrified rocker Chuck Berry by borrowing from his ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ for the first track.” CS “It’s not just that he went electric, either.” STE “The opener is only the beginning of the revolution.” CS “From start to finish, Bringing It All Back Home is one of Dylan’s most enduring statements, containing some of Dylan’s greatest songs and performances.” SM “He’s exploding with imagination throughout the record.” STE Home “had the requisite folk tunes that fans expected, it also contained songs of introspection and paranoia, alongside beautifully poetic love songs – all within the confines of a single album.” SM “This is the point where Dylan eclipses any conventional sense of folk and rewrites the rules of rock, making it safe for personal expression and poetry, not only making words mean as much as the music, but making the music an extension of the words.” STE “He writes uncommonly beautiful love songs (She Belongs to Me, Love Minus Zero/No Limit) that sit alongside uncommonly funny fantasias (On the Road Again, Bob Dylan's 115th Dream).” STE “Maggie’s Farm and It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) openly criticize the American government, spawning the catch phrase, ‘Money doesn’t talk, it swears,’ and infuriating listeners with the immortal line, ‘flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark.’” CS “The nominal folk songs derive from the same vantage point as the rockers, leaving traditional folk concerns behind and delving deep into the personal. And this isn’t just introspection, either, since the surreal paranoia on [the aforementioned] ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ and the whimsical poetry of Mr. Tambourine Man are individual, yet not personal.” STE “Dylan still remembers his folk heritage, delivering some of his best acoustic narratives, including It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue and the dream-like Gates of Eden. But for Dylan, the future was electric.” CS “Dylan broke all musical boundaries.” SM with this “remarkable collection of songs unlike anything else up to that time.” SM “If you’re…just starting your Dylan collection, this is the perfect place to start.” SM

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bob Dylan STE All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine SM Steve Marshall (2001). The Night Owl review CS Clarke Speicher, The Review The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/7/2011; last updated 5/15/2024.