Bob Dylan
Manchester Free Trade Hall
Manchester, England
17 May 1966

aka Guitars Kissing & The Contemporary Fix

Legendary Dylan/Hawks concert with Dylan (g,v), Danko (b), Hudson (k), Manuel (k), Robertson (g), and Mickey Jones (d)

  1. She Belongs To Me
  2. Fourth Time Around
  3. Visions of Johanna
  4. It's All Over Now Baby Blue
  5. Desolation Row
  6. Just Like A Woman
  7. Mr. Tambourine Man
  8. Tell Me Mama
  9. I Don't Believe You
10. Baby Let Me Follow You Down
11. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
12. Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat
13. One Too Many Mornings
14. Ballad of a Thin Man
15. Like a Rolling Stone

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After releasing The Official Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, a stripped down version of what was once planned as a five-CD box, Columbia/Sony began promising to release the complete Manchester Free Trade Hall show from May 17, 1966 as Volumes 4 and 5. Several years later there is still no official release or even a scheduled release date. No doubt someone in the upper echelons of Sony was asking themselves the same question and in a fit of frustration made the masters available to a well connected bootlegger. At least that is the rumour, and regardless, the cat is out of the bag now.

The masters were reviewed by a pair of guitar techs who both pronounced them to be a quarter-note sharp - so the pitch was adjusted for this release. Other than that adjustment, this is a precise representation of what Columbia has been promising for the last couple of years.

Although much of this show has been around for years and has made numerous appearances on bootleg before, most often being referred to as Royal Albert Hall. Prior to this set, the best version appeared on a pair of Swingin' Pig CD's a number of years ago.

Why is this such a desired show?  This was the legendary and controversial tour in which Dylan moved firmly away from pure folk and into the corrupt area of electric rock 'n' roll. Of course, history has judged that Dylan was right to make the move. Elitism had no place in a music. Who gave folk music the mantle of being the only form of music that could take up the fight against racism, poverty, and segregation - the only true music of the working man? Let's see - folkies wanted to be see as holistically concerned about life, diverse, and inclusive but they don't want to share the feel good attitude with others? This condescending attitude seems obviously hypocritical decades later.

Shouts of disapproval can be heard throughout the electric portion of this show, an indication of just how important the hard-core folkies perceived themselves to be. After Ballad Of A Thin Man someone yells out "Judas" and the audience applauds the detractor. Dylan proceeds, telling his band to play louder, a flip of the finger to arrogance and hypocrisy if ever there was one. The level of importance of this tour cannot be underestimated. Ten years later Dylan would take a full contingent of amplified folkies along for the ride on the Rolling Thunder Review. Nobody was complaining by then.

The Hawks were no rookies in the world of music and touring - audience abuse was nothing to them. They originally were the backing band of Ronnie Hawkins, a rock-a-billy figure of some note, who made his living playing an endless stream of road houses and honky-tonks throughout the south.  But this double-CD set also bears witness to what a great band The Hawks (who later became The Band) were. Although Levon Helm was not present for this tour (Mickey Jones substituted on drums), the double keyboards of Garth Hudson and Richard Manual drive the music while Robbie Robertson weaves in an out with amazing grace.