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Bob Dylan World Tour 1966 – Australia Photo Gallery (30 Photos)

February 10, 2016, 3:53 pm

Bob Dylan World Tour 1966 - Australia Photo Gallery (30 Photos)

Between April 13 and April 23 1966 Bob Dylan Australia World Tour Photos

Bob Dylan, Sydney, 1966

Australia was the first major stop (outside the US) for Dylan’s legendary World Tour in 1966. The fortunate few thousand here who witnessed it saw what proved to be the watershed moment in Dylan’s career. It was the culmination of Dylan’s evolution from folkie icon to fully-fledged rock star, which had begun with his controversial “electric” debut at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. The punishing schedule of the 1965-66 period – three landmark albums somehow crammed in around a frantic round of tours and other engagements – took its toll on Dylan. “Credits: Tricia Jungwirth and Olof Björner’s Yearly Chronicles “

Bob Dylan Australia 1966 - 6

The ’66 world tour was to be his last major concert outing for almost 8 years: seared by the experience, Dylan withdrew after his famous motorbike accident in July and, apart from sporadic solo appearances at events like the Isle Of Wight Festival and the Concert For Bangladesh, he did not undertake another major tour until the Before The Flood tour in 1974, which reunited him with The Band.

Bob Dylan Australia Concert Photo

By the time he arrived in Australia, just prior to his 25th birthday, Dylan was at the height of his fame and was now, along with The Beatles, one of the most famous and popular performers in the world.

1966 Bob Dylan performed at the Sydney Stadium in Sydney, Australia as part of his Bob Dylan World Tour 1966.

Thanks to the agressive style of his manager Albert Grossman, he was also one of the most highly paid

Bob Dylan at a Sydney press conference

Like The Beatles, his popularity, and his perceived role as a social spokesman exposed him to an unprecedented level of media and fan attention. His press conferences and interviews became a cross between an police interrogation and a boxing match, with the wry, caustic and cynical Dylan sparring with (and sometimes mauling) the journalists, who in return probed to find flaws in this new musical demigod.

Bob Dylan Australia Playing Piano

His songs were taking rock music to a new level of complexity and maturity, but in doing so he had left far behind him the folk style that had made him famous. Many older fans, who took folk music very seriously, felt betrayed by Dylan’s move into what they saw as the ‘corrupt’ world of pop music

Bob Dylan Australia Smoking

He famously outraged the folk audience when he performed his second set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival backed by an electric band, comprising members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and organist Al Kooper (who had played on the legendary Like A Rolling Stone). Folk patriarch Pete Seeger was apparently so angered by Dylan’s electric set that he tried to pull the plug on the PA system, resulting in a fight between him and Albert Grossman.

bob dylan australian tour 1966

Dylan was deeply committed to his new music, and determined to present it the way he wanted – whether the press and audiences liked it or not. He began his Fall 1965 Tour in August that year, backed by a 4-piece group that consisted of two members of Ronnie Hawkins’ former backing band The Hawks (guitarist Robbie Robertson and drummer Levon Helm), plus bassist Harvey Brooks and organist Al Kooper, who played the organ on Like A Rolling Stone. From the outset they experienced hostility from audiences across the US. Partway throught the tour, in Septemeber, Brooks and Kooper left the group, unwilling to continue in the face of the nightly jeering and catcalls. They were replaced by the other three members of The Hawks – Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko – thus completing what many consider to be Dylan’s perfect backing band.

bob dylan australian tour 1966

The ’66 World Tour tour commenced in early February, and travelled through the US and Canada, interspersed with sessions for Dylan’s next LP (Blonde On Blonde). Audience reaction to the tour was very mixed; many were excited by the new direction, but older fans objected vehemently to Dylan’s new style, and expressed their displeasure loudly. Volume was a critical issue: Dylan and his musicians were using the best amplification available, and by 1966 standards they played very loudly indeed. Used to the moderate sound levels at folk concerts, many fans were taken aback by the unprecedented volume, causing further negative reaction. According to a recent article about the English leg of the tour, in the music magazine Mojo, many of the supposed catcalls during the electric sets were actually calls to “turn it down”. Reviews of the new tour were generally negative, and press conferences were increasingly confrontational. Hostility from the press and audiences dogged him all through the ’66 world tour, culminating in the famous incident at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, when a heckler called him “Judas” – to which Dylan famously replied “I don’t believe you!” “Credits: Tricia Jungwirth and Olof Björner’s Yearly Chronicles “

bob dylan australian tour 1966

Numerous dates on the tour were officially recorded and/or bootlegged; the “Judas” concert was captured on tape and was available on the famous Great White Wonder bootleg LP (which wrongly identified the concert as being at the Royal Albert Hall). It can now be heard on the official Live 1966 double-CD. The tour was also filmed in color by documentarist DA Pennebaker (who also captured Dylan’s 1965 UK tour for the landmark music documentary Don’t Look Back). The ’66 footage was put together by Dylan and Howard Alk as Eat The Document in 1971. It has been out of circulation for many years, although a segment from it is included in the BBC documentary series Dancing In The Street. When questioned by the author at the Sydney Film Festival in 1998, Pennebaker was evasive about the status of the ’66 footage, which is apparently still under Dylan’s control; he described himself as having been merely a camerman for this project. “Credits: Tricia Jungwirth and Olof Björner’s Yearly Chronicles “

bob dylan australian tour 1966

Credits: Tricia Jungwirth and Olof Björner’s Yearly Chronicles

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bob dylan australian tour 1966

Bob Dylan – 1966 Australian Tour Program

A great and extremely rare 12 page program for Bob Dylan's 1966 tour of Australia. This is one of the best Dylan programs ever, with photos, his "My Life In A Stolen Moment" essay, and a list of Bob Dylan cover versions circa '66. In excellent condition, with a very subtle moisture ring on the front and the previous owner's name written twice, very small, over an ad inside. The only copy we've ever had.

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April 20th, 1966: Bob Dylan performs live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia

Bob Dylan

April 20th, 1966 : Bob Dylan performs live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia

Bob Dylan performs live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia

The events we write about at Gaslight Records happened in some form or another 50 years ago to the day. Roll along with us and imagine you are back in 1974.

Support Gaslight Records

April 20th, 1966 - Bob Dylan performed live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia.

Listen below to Dylan introducing "Visions Of Johanna" as "Mother Revisited" and complaining about his replacement acoustic guitar.

Below is the setlist for Dylan's show at Festival Hall in Melbourne.

Acoustic Set:

She Belongs To Me Fourth Time Around Visions Of Johanna It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue Desolation Row Just Like A Woman Mr. Tambourine Man

Electric Set:

Tell Me, Momma Baby, Let Me Follow You Down Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues

Listen here to two tracks from Dylan's show in Sydney, Australia recorded a few days earlier.

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By: sam pethers, march 27th, 1965.

Bob Dylan performs live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia

Listen to Bob Dylan take calls from listeners on Radio Unnameable, 50 Years Ago today

By: peter stone brown, january 27th, 1966, more recent news.

John Prine returns with second album

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Black Sabbath share debut single 'Evil Woman': Listen

February 7th, 1970: Black Sabbath share debut single "Evil Woman": Listen

The English rock band's debut album is due out this week.

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Greenbaum's sings the gospel on his new single

Watch The Jackson 5 perform single from their debut album on Ed Sullivan

December 23rd, 1969: Watch The Jackson 5 perform single from their debut album on Ed Sullivan

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December 20th, 1969: The Clancy Brothers have released a new album of Christmas songs: Listen

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See photos from The Doors album cover shoot in Los Angeles today

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Four people died over the weekend at The Altamont Speedway Free Festival

December 10th, 1969: Four people died over the weekend at The Altamont Speedway Free Festival

Here's the story of Altamont in quotes from many of the people involved.

The Rolling Stones have released a new studio album ahead of their free concert tomorrow at Altamont

December 5th, 1969: The Rolling Stones have released a new studio album ahead of their free concert tomorrow at Altamont

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Emmylou Harris covers Bob Dylan on debut album

December 3rd, 1969: Emmylou Harris covers Bob Dylan on debut album

Listen to Harris's cover of Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" from her album Gliding Bird

Peter Stone Brown covers Bob Dylan's 'She Belongs To Me'

Live At The Gaslight

Peter stone brown covers bob dylan's "she belongs to me".

Recorded in Atlantic City at Dylan Fest in 2015

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Here at Gaslight Records we’re trying shine a light in the dark, to reanimate a bygone era of musical brilliance…of peculiarity and independence.

And we’re trying to maintain that same peculiarity and independence ourselves. That ain’t easy. We believe that Mr Dylan summed it up nicely back in 1964: that ‘Advertising signs they con’ So we’re keeping the Gaslight distraction free.

But hey, we’re working hard blowin’ our thumbs out for no dollars a day, so consider this the cap on the road. Any little bit helps...

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bob dylan australian tour 1966

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My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg 1966: Genuine Live 1966 (box set)

66boxfront

Scorpio put out the 8 CD set entitled Genuine Live 66 in 2000 (following in their tradition of sticking titles to Sony music.)  It gives us a fantastic view into one of the best  (if not THE best) rock tours ever done.

The Bootlegs included in the box set are:  “A Phoenix in April” – Sydney, Australia “The Children’s Crusade” – Melbourne & Adelaide “While The Establishment Burns” –  Dublin, Copenhagen, & Edinburgh “A Nightly Ritual” – Liverpool, Glasgow, Sheffield, & Birmingham “The Genuine RAH Concerts” Manchester & London (In addition, some sets included two bonus discs of the Bristol show entitled Away From The Past)

The Bob Dylan World Tour 1966 was a concert tour from February to May 1966. Dylan’s 1966 World Tour was notable as the first tour where Dylan employed an electric band backing him, following his “going electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The musicians Dylan employed as his backing band were known as The Hawks; they subsequently became famous as The Band. The 1966 tour was filmed by director D. A. Pennebaker. Pennebaker’s footage was edited by Dylan and Howard Alk to produce a little-seen film, Eat the Document , an anarchic account of the tour. Drummer Mickey Jones also filmed the tour with an 8mmhome movie camera. Many of the 1966 tour concerts were recorded by Columbia Records. These recordings produced one official album, the so-called “Royal Albert Hall” concert, and also many unofficial bootleg recordings of the tour. This box set is the definitive audio documentation of this tour.

Highlights: Too many to single out, this is a true treasure chest!

Other entries in this series:

My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1962: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan Outtakes My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1969: The Dylan / Cash Sessions My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1973: The Pat Garrett sessions My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1983: Infidels outtakes (Rough cuts) My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1989: The Oh Mercy Outtakes My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 1995: Prague 3 nights in March My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 2011: Funen Village Denmark June 27 My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 2012: The Day of Wine and Roses, Barolo, Italy July 16 My Favourite Bob Dylan bootleg from 2014: Gothenburg Sweden July 15

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A Phoenix In April ( disc 1 and 2 ): Sydney, Australia  1966

“The Sydney show is a raw and powerful soundboard recording. It is surprisingly quite for being an analog recording from such an early show. Dylan is talkative between a few of the first songs of each set in the slow, stoned voice that typified this tour.” – read more at Bobsboots

phoenix front

A Phoenix In April by hallgeir olsen on Grooveshark

The Children’s Crusade ( disc 3 ):

“As with most performances of this tour, Dylan sings the first 6 songs solo with the acoustic guitar. For this show he uses a borrowed guitar, as his had been broken. When compared to the Sydney show, this performance is more laid back. This recording has a higher analogue tape white noise floor level, but the windscreen is effective at this show, and there are few mic pops. She Belongs To Me cuts in after the song has begun The band kicks in for electrified versions of the final 3. The overall sound on this recording is quite good. All members of what would be The Band are now in place, except for Levon Helm. On this show, Mickey Jones plays drums. Dylan introduces Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues with a fanciful story about a Mexican Painter, and two girls begin screaming wildly at the prospect of their idol singing their favorite song. “ – read more at Bobsboots

childrens front

The Children’s Crusade by hallgeir olsen on Grooveshark

post2

While The Establishment Burns ( disc 4 ):

“Six of the seven songs that were recorded at the Adelphi Theatre have been available to vinyl LP boot collectors for many years. They first appeared on CD in 1988 as ‘Dublin May,5 1966’. They are not quite the quality as some of the other shows, but they are still very good. As it was an incomplete recording, Scorpio has rounded out the disc with some of the wildest performances of the tour. Great quality as well. These 3 songs are the only known surviving board recordings of their respective shows except for ABC’s I Don’t Believe You , which was officially released on Biograph .. These push the listening time to 65 minutes. There have been rumours since the 1960s of an unreleased Dylan song by the title of While The Establishment Burns. It was also the name of a fairly rare 1970 bootleg LP release. “ – get more info at Bobsboots

While the Establishment Burns by hallgeir olsen on Grooveshark

A Nigtly Ritual ( disc 5 and 6 ):

“If not the best sounding recording, Liverpool is as good a performance of the electric set as you will find on the tour. Perhaps inspired by playing the hometown of the Fab Four, the band is tight and powerful. Dylan’s vocals, Robbie’s lead guitar playing and Garth’s erie B-3 all seem truly inspired. This board tape is of a remarkable effort. The first track was used as a demo of the song by Dwarf music. The second track appeared on a 1966 single, and on the official CBSCD  Masterpieces . Dylan starts his now famous mumbling ruse before the introduction of  Leopard Skin PillBox Hat , as the blue collar audience becomes a little loud with their heckling. Ballad Of A Thin Man is the highlight of the night. Glasgow is interesting tracks of songs that Bob was working on that were recorded for use in the film Eat The Document . The sound quality is amazing. The Sheffield show is perhaps the best of the tour. The quality is incredible, and the performance can move you to tears” – read more at Bobsboots

Nightly front

A Nightly Ritual by hallgeir olsen on Grooveshark

post1

The Genuine RAH concerts ( disc 7 and 8 ):

“The Manchester show is moot now with the release of the official album, but this actually has a slightly softer, more polished sound. This CD is most likely the correct order and venues of what has traditionally been a very confusing and inaccurate account of the performances in the bootleg community. These represent clean, quiet recordings… although they have been available to collectors for so long that it’s almost hard to get excited about them. If you’re new to collecting, by all means, this is required material … and in as good a quality as you are likely to find. …At the final tracck of disc one, we magically switch to a pristine tape source. We get to hear a rarity on the tour… Bob introduces The Band. Then he kicks into the highlight of disc one… a painfully slow Like A Rolling Stone in which Bob spits words at the crowd with venom, and drags them into eternity. “ – Bobsboots

Genuine RAH Concerts by hallgeir olsen on Grooveshark

1966 poster

– Hallgeir

7 thoughts on “My favourite Bob Dylan bootleg 1966: Genuine Live 1966 (box set)”

this is my absolute favorite set of all time. i still remember sampling the first few cds at my local shop and being astounded the quality was so great. i asked the counter guy if they all sounded that good and he told me the story of the nagra recordings. instant buy! i can’t believe Sony is releasing all audio from this tour in November!

Yeah, it’s on preorder! …and it comes with quite a few recordings that we haven’t heard before.

Thanks for music that I haven’t heard until now.

Nicely packed, but later superseded by the better sounding 26-CD Vigotone collection.

OK? I’m not familiar with that one. Do you have some more information?

I found a little about it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOB-DYLAN-1966-JEWELS-amp-BINOCULARS-26-CD-BOOK-VIGOTONE-/370518106780

I should get that one…anyone who knows where the files are located? 🙂

the jewel in my collection.

A crown in any collection!

Comments are closed.

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Bob Dylan Setlist at Sydney Stadium, Sydney, Australia

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  • She Belongs to Me Play Video
  • 4th Time Around Play Video
  • Visions of Johanna Play Video
  • It's All Over Now, Baby Blue Play Video
  • Desolation Row Play Video
  • Just Like a Woman Play Video
  • Mr. Tambourine Man Play Video
  • Tell Me, Momma Play Video
  • I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) Play Video
  • Baby, Let Me Follow You Down ( Eric Von Schmidt  cover) Play Video
  • Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Play Video
  • Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat Play Video
  • One Too Many Mornings Play Video
  • Ballad of a Thin Man Play Video
  • Positively 4th Street Play Video

Edits and Comments

8 activities (last edit by rocker129 , 26 Apr 2013, 20:45 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

  • 4th Time Around
  • Just Like a Woman
  • Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
  • Visions of Johanna
  • It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
  • Mr. Tambourine Man
  • She Belongs to Me
  • Ballad of a Thin Man
  • Desolation Row
  • Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
  • I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
  • Positively 4th Street
  • Tell Me, Momma
  • One Too Many Mornings
  • Baby, Let Me Follow You Down by Eric Von Schmidt

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bob dylan australian tour 1966

bob dylan australian tour 1966

The Story Behind “I Want You” by Bob Dylan and the Rock Hall of Famer Who Urged Him to Record It

T he year 1966 was a hectic one for Bob Dylan, with constant touring and playing for audiences who were often unhappy with the folk singer’s new direction. Dylan had taken on a rock ‘n’ roll band, which conflicted with the purist view of what a folk artist should be. In Forest Hills, New York, cries of “Where’s Ringo?” greeted the band.

After moving from a New York recording studio to the quiet of Nashville’s Music Row, the sessions for the album Blonde on Blonde took on a new energy. Musicians had to be “on-call” and wait while Dylan wrote lyrics. The album was nearly complete when they entered Studio A at Columbia Records on March 10, 1966. The sun was coming up by the time they had the finished recording. Let’s look at the story behind one of the songs from Blonde on Blonde , “I Want You” by Bob Dylan.

The guilty undertaker sighs

The lonesome organ grinder cries

The silver saxophones say I should refuse you

The cracked bells and washed-out horns

Blow into my face with scorn, but it’s

Not that way. I wasn’t born to lose you

I want you so bad

Honey, I want you

The Recording

Al Kooper, who played guitar and organ on previous Dylan recordings and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, had urged the singer to record “I Want You.” Dylan seemed to resist recording the song until the last session. He showed the band the song on an acoustic guitar. Guitarist Charlie McCoy asked about the intro. Dylan showed them, and the band attempted a take. They discussed the arrangement further and gave the song another try. They finished three complete takes and two partial attempts at the song before agreeing the last full take was the master. They finished the session at about 7 a.m.

The drunken politician leaps

Upon the street where mothers weep

And the saviors who are fast asleep, they wait for you

And I wait for them to interrupt

Me drinkin’ from my broken cup

And ask me to open up the gate for you

Yes, I want you so bad

The song appeared as the lead track on side two of Blonde on Blonde . The 3:08 duration down to 2:57 for the single release. Columbia paired it with a live recording of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” from May 14, 1966, in Liverpool, England. “I Want You” peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits featured the song, and the entire recording session is included in the 2015 eight-disc The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: Collector’s Edition .

How all my fathers, they’ve gone down

True love, they’ve been without it

But all their daughters put me down

‘Cause I don’t think about it

“It’s Not the Bomb that Has to Go, It’s the Museums”

When authors Nora Ephron and Susan Edmiston asked Dylan if music was more in tune with what’s happening than other art forms, he replied, “Great paintings shouldn’t be in museums. Have you ever been in a museum? Museums are cemeteries. Paintings should be on the walls of restaurants, in dime stores, in gas stations, in men’s rooms. Great paintings should be where people hang out. The only thing where it’s happening is on radio and records. That’s where people hang out. You can’t see great paintings. You pay half a million and hang one in your house, and one guest sees it. That’s not art. That’s a shame, a crime. Music is the only thing that’s in tune with what’s happening. It’s not in book form. It’s not on the stage. All this art they’ve been talking about is nonexistent. It just remains on the shelf. It doesn’t make anyone happier. Just think how many people would really feel great if they could see a Picasso in their daily diner. It’s not the bomb that has to go, man, it’s the museums.”

Well, I return to the Queen of Spades

And talk with my chambermaid

She knows that I’m not afraid to look at her

She is good to me, and there’s

Nothing she doesn’t see

She knows where I’d like to be, but it doesn’t matter

Imagery and Live Performances

“I Want You” contains deep symbolism. Many reviewers have pointed out the multiple characters and the link to Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones as the “dancing child” with time “on his side.” The song has evolved through the years. Dylan didn’t perform it live until 1973 when he was joined onstage by Neil Young and members of The Band at the SNACK (Students Need Athletic and Cultural Kicks) benefit concert. He slowed it down through the years and performed it more like a dirge. In 1981, he brought the tempo back up and played a more spirited version. He played it during The Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead 1987 Tour.

Now, your dancing child with his Chinese suit, he

Spoke to me. I took his flute

No, I wasn’t very cute to him, was I?

But I did it because he lied and

Because he took you for a ride

And because time was on his side and

Because I want you

Sophie B. Hawkins included a version of the song on her 1992 Tongues and Tails album and released it as a single, reaching No. 49 on the UK singles chart. She told Songfacts , “I was on a plane going to Los Angeles, sitting in coach, and Dylan’s manager came back into coach to talk to me. He said Bob heard my version of ‘I Want You’ and really liked it.”

Hawkins was asked to perform the song at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration in 1992.

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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The post The Story Behind “I Want You” by Bob Dylan and the Rock Hall of Famer Who Urged Him to Record It appeared first on American Songwriter .

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Bob Dylan Live Review: Latest, and perhaps last, chapter of The Never Ending Tour comes to a masterful close

The penultimate night of the rough and rowdy ways tour caps off one of the strongest stretches of dylan’s live career..

Bob Dylan Hyde Park

ACL Live, Austin, Texas, April 5, 2024

Bob Dylan has had a long and fruitful relationship with audiences in Austin. Since playing one of his first shows with The Hawks here in September 1965, Dylan has played the Texas capital nearly two dozen times, culminating in a two-night stand here Friday and Saturday that concludes one of the most remarkably consistent stretches in Dylan’s concert history.

Contradicting his decades-long reputation as a mercurial and unpredictable performer, Dylan has delivered almost exactly the same 17-song set since November 2021, when he resumed touring after a nearly two-year pandemic break. 2020’s  Rough And Rowdy Ways  is the fulcrum: For more than 200 shows over the past three years, he’s played nine of the album’s ten songs, leaving off only the epic Murder Most Foul .

READ MORE: Bob Dylan at The London Palladium reviewed

The rest of the show almost always includes the same back-catalogue selections, from openers Watching the River Flow and Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine, to the closing Every Grain of Sand from 1981  Shot Of Love . At this point, die-hard fans know better than to expect his best-known songs: We may never again hear him trot out Like A Rolling Stone or Blowin’ In The Wind or Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. And that’s all right: We don’t expect a greatest-hits revue from the man who wrote “he who isn’t busy being born is busy dying.”

As such, Dylan shows of late are partly a matter of whether he pulls out a surprise in any given city. If he likes your town, you might get an extra song: Earlier this week in Louisiana, he added a couple of Hank Williams nuggets, playing Jambalaya in Lafayette April 2 and On The Banks Of The Old Pontchartrain in New Orleans April 1.

Tonight in Austin, we’re treated to Across The Borderline, a Ry Cooder/Jim Dickinson/John Hiatt song first recorded by Freddy Fender in 1982. The new addition to the set seemed to energize Dylan: It features arguably his strongest vocal performance of the night, and his mid-song piano solo is gorgeously lyrical.

The performance marked the first time Dylan has played the song this century. It was a staple of his 1986 tour with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers; he may well have brought it back this evening  because it’s the title track of a 1993 album by Austin legend Willie Nelson, with whom Dylan will be touring from June to September.

Those summer shows are part of Nelson’s annual Outlaw Tour, which also will feature Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, John Mellencamp, Billy Strings and others. The multi-artist bills almost certainly will require abbreviating the 100-minute sets Dylan has been playing since 2021; as such, this weekend’s Austin concerts may well bring an end to this  Rough And Rowdy Ways  phase of his Never Ending Tour.

Dylan’s band has changed slightly since his March 2022 appearance at Austin’s Bass Concert Hall. Longtime bassist Tony Garnier remains the anchor, with pedal steel/fiddle player Don Herron aboard for nearly two decades now. Nashville guitarist Doug Lancio replaced Austin ace Charlie Sexton when Dylan returned from the pandemic, teaming with fellow guitarist Bob Britt (who joined in 2019). Drummer Jerry Pentecost recently took over from Charley Drayton, who played the 2022 Austin show.

READ MORE: Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks Revisited

Tonight, the band flexes its muscles on occasion, but just as often they hold back to provide space for Dylan’s singing, which has been defying nature for quite some time. His voice, once a ravaged rasp that paled in comparison to his youthful glory years, somehow improved as Dylan reached senior-citizen status. Near the end of 1979’s Gotta Serve Somebody, his full-throated vamp sounds surprisingly like the ghost of David Bowie.

A late-set choice of Johnny Cash’s Big River, which Dylan first covered in the late 1990s and has played at most of his shows in the past month, finds the band digging into a deep rockabilly groove after Dylan’s jaunty piano kicks things off. A highlight from  Rough And Rowdy Ways  was the nine-minute meditation Key West (Philosopher Pirate), on which Lancio switched from acoustic to electric guitar for a more atmospheric wash of sound behind Dylan’s sprightly melodic piano runs that at times brings to mind, of all things, the theme song from the 1980s TV show Hill Street Blues .

And Dylan’s presentation of his older songs, once altered so drastically that even longtime fans couldn’t name the tune till it was half-over, has been reined in. Well-travelled numbers such as 1967’s I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight and 1969’s To Be Alone With You still sound different from their recorded counterparts, but it’s less of a guessing-game now. (An exception: 1971’s When I Paint My Masterpiece, which has been reworked to where it uncannily resembles Irving Berlin’s 1920s classic Puttin’ on the Ritz .)

Dylan speaks not a word the entire night, though he acknowledges the crowd’s rapt attention at the end of the show by stepping out front for a few gracious bows. Then the lights go down, the band stroll off, and Bob Dylan’s 21st Austin concert comes to an end. Another full house at the 2,700-capacity theatre will greet him on Saturday night  — and then, what’s next? These past few years have seemed like smooth sailing for Dylan, which probably means it’s time to rock the boat.

Watching The River Flow

Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine

I Contain Multitudes

False Prophet

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Black Rider

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight

My Own Version Of You

Crossing The Rubicon

To Be Alone With You

Key West (Philosopher Pirate)

Gotta Serve Somebody

Across The Borderline

I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You

Mother Of Muses

Goodbye Jimmy Reed

Every Grain Of Sand

Main picture: Bob Dylan at London's Hyde Park 2019 (credit: Matthew Baker/Getty Images)

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bob dylan australian tour 1966

Watch Timothée Chalamet Sing as Young Bob Dylan in New Biopic

The clip also captures monica barbaro as joan baez on the set of ‘a complete unknown’.

Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan

Gotham/GC Images

Timothée Chalamet has clocked into his shift as “young Bob Dylan ” and is already filming scenes where he’s singing as the music legend.

On Monday, Chalamet was captured in New Jersey filming a scene for the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown alongside Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez .

The clip sees Barbaro and Chalamet surrounding a microphone while strumming their guitars before he starts playing the harmonica. Director James Mangold previously revealed that Chalamet would do his own singing in the Dylan-approved film.

Timothée Chalamet, as Bob Dylan, and Monica Barbaro, as Joan Baez, were spotted filming a scene together yesterday in New Jersey for James Mangold’s upcoming biopic. More about the film: https://t.co/rTVnIiGika pic.twitter.com/JSX4ZFcPUb — IndieWire (@IndieWire) April 16, 2024

The new clip comes about a month after photos of Chalamet on set surfaced online. The photos see him as Dylan carrying a guitar case while wearing a scarf and hat.

The  long-in-the-works film traces Dylan’s journey from Minnesota to New York to meet Woody Guthrie through his memorable 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival when he plugged in an electric guitar to the dismay of folk fans.

A Complete Unknown  — which was originally titled  Going Electric  before swapping with the “Like a Rolling Stone” lyric — was  scheduled to begin production in August 2023  before the Hollywood strikes pushed its filming to this week, with photographers snapping Chalamet as Dylan on set.

The film also stars Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Nick Offerman as Alan Lomax, and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash. Edward Norton is in the Pete Seeger role.

“I’ve spent several, wonderfully charming days in his company, just one-on-one, talking to [Dylan]. I have a script that’s personally annotated by him and treasured by me. He loves movies,” Mangold  told  the  Happy Sad Confused podcast in July 2023.

“The reason Bob has been so supportive of us making it is … as in all cases I think of the best true-life movies are never cradle to grave, but they’re about a very specific moment.”

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COMMENTS

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  7. Apr 20, 1966: Bob Dylan at Festival Hall Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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    BOB DYLAN with THE BAND. World Tour 1966. April 13 Sydney Stadium April 15 Festival Hall, Brisbane Apr 16 Sydney Stadium Apr 19 Festival Hall, Melbourne ... Australia was the first major stop (outside the US) for Dylan's legendary World Tour in 1966. The fortunate few thousand here who witnessed it saw what proved to be the watershed moment in ...

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    Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits featured the song, and the entire recording session is included in the 2015 eight-disc The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: Collector's Edition.

  24. Bob Dylan Live Review

    Bob Dylan. ACL Live, Austin, Texas, April 5, 2024. Bob Dylan has had a long and fruitful relationship with audiences in Austin. Since playing one of his first shows with The Hawks here in September 1965, Dylan has played the Texas capital nearly two dozen times, culminating in a two-night stand here Friday and Saturday that concludes one of the most remarkably consistent stretches in Dylan's ...

  25. The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall

    Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert is a two-disc live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1998.It is the second installment in the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series on Legacy Recordings, and has been certified a gold record by the RIAA. It was recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall during Dylan's 1966 world tour, though early bootlegs attributed the recording to the Royal Albert Hall so ...

  26. Watch Timothée Chalamet Sing as Young Bob Dylan in New Biopic

    The photos see him as Dylan carrying a guitar case while wearing a scarf and hat. The long-in-the-works film traces Dylan's journey from Minnesota to New York to meet Woody Guthrie through his memorable 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival when he plugged in an electric guitar to the dismay of folk fans.