{"id":1344,"date":"2016-12-02T15:49:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T20:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2016-12-02T15:49:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T20:49:13","slug":"new-release-roundup-bob-dylans-real-royal-albert-hall-new-eps-from-permit-and-the-adventures-of-the-silver-spaceman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/12\/02\/new-release-roundup-bob-dylans-real-royal-albert-hall-new-eps-from-permit-and-the-adventures-of-the-silver-spaceman\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Roundup: Bob Dylan’s Real Royal Albert Hall, New EPs from Permit and The Adventures of the Silver Spaceman"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Bob Dylan<\/a> \u2013 The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert<\/em>
\nSo you don\u2019t have the money for the full 36-CD set of Bob Dylan: The 1966 Live Recordings, released last month. And you already have the \u201cRoyal Albert Hall\u201d show from the Bootleg series (the one during which a fan yelled \u201cJudas!,\u201d and which was actually from the Free Trade Hall show from Manchester, England and was mislabeled for years as an actual bootleg before Dylan released it himself). Today, you have some middle ground to work with, because Dylan has released a double-disc set of The Real Royal Albert Hall Concert. Following the format of the shows form the \u201966 tour, the first disc is Dylan solo, and the second is Dylan electric, backed by future members of The Band with Mickey Jones subbing for Levon Helm, who had gotten tired of being booed and went to Houston to work on an oil rig. <\/p>\n

Listening to this show, it was easy to hear what Dylan was after. The acoustic renditions of \u201cVision of Johanna\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s All Over Now, Baby Blue\u201d are fine and engaging. And you barely notice there\u2019s a crowd until they erupt in applause for the closing number, \u201cMr. Tambourine Man.\u201d But that\u2019s where Dylan was. The second disc is where he wanted to go. That opening blast of sound on \u201cTell Me, Momma,\u201d the way he sneers the verses \u2014 if he\u2019d released ten years after they\u2019d have called it punk. You can feel how loud these shows must have been. Dylan and the band ride these songs like a machine, turning \u201cBaby, Let Me Follow You Down\u201d and \u201cJust Like Tom Thumb\u2019s Blues\u201d into a glorious soul-stirring racket. On the second disc, it\u2019s clear there is an audience present, and Dylan is in fine sparring form. He\u2019s not necessarily trying to quiet them down. When they get loud, he eggs them on, saying, \u201cThese are all protest songs, now, come on.\u201d Later, he seems to isolate a particular heckler, though it\u2019s hard to make out what was being shouted, Dylan responds by saying, \u201cWhy don\u2019t yo come up here and say that?\u201d <\/p>\n

The standard history of The Band is that backing Dylan on this tour gave them the platform establish their own reputation on Big Pink<\/em> a couple of years later. That\u2019s all fair and true, but it\u2019s fair to say Dylan got a sizable return on that investment in these shows. Rick Danko provides the foundation on bass, a sturdy jumping off point for the rest of the band (even Jones, at some points). Richard Manuel on piano is part of that rhythm section, too, though you can hear step out on occasion. Garth Hudson provides the classic Dylan organ sound. And if you forgot that Robbie Robertson was once a prized gunslinger, here\u2019s your reminder. He would sublimate his guitar playing with The Band for the sake of the song. But the object here is to be loud, to smack the audience around a little and wake them up from the reverence they showed in the acoustic set, and Robertson is the prime mover in that effort. If you picked up the companion disc to Robertson\u2019s memoir, Testimony, you heard a bit of this on \u201cRainy Day Woman #12 & 35\u201d from the \u201974 tour and on the Hawks tracks. But it\u2019s even more up front and raw on the Albert Hall disc. If the object was to shake up his audience, Dylan could not have found a better band. <\/p>\n