The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall
Encyclopedia
The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall is a complete recording of Bob Dylan
's October 31, 1964 "Halloween" show at New York's Philharmonic Hall
. It was released in 2004.
The set list was dominated by Dylan’s protest songs, including "The Times They Are a-Changin’," "A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall," and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". Joan Baez
, a major supporter of Dylan's in his early career, duets with Dylan on three songs, as well as singing another alone ("Silver Dagger"). However, Dylan performed these songs alongside early versions of three songs from the soon-to-be-recorded Bringing It All Back Home
. New compositions like "It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)" and "Mr. Tambourine Man" showed Dylan moving in a new direction, becoming more immersed in evocative, stream-of-consciousness lyrics and moving away from social, topical songwriting. Even as he was moving in this new direction, Dylan was still portrayed as a symbol of the civil rights and anti-war movements, and the Halloween concert of 1964 caught Dylan in transition.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200
album chart on April 17, 2004 at number 28. It spent 4 weeks on the chart. It also reached number 33 in the U.K.
The Halloween concert of 1964 had been previously bootlegged on vinyl and CD, but those releases were incomplete and taken from poor dubs of the soundboard tapes. The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 presented the entire concert for the first time from the original master tapes.
A few critics, including biographer Clinton Heylin, were dismissive. "I’ve never rated [the Halloween show] as a performance," Heylin explained in a phone interview. "Dylan is very focused when he comes to doing the new songs...But the old material, he’s completely and totally bored with. It’s not a good performance. He’s clearly stoned...The concert was a real landmark, not in the positive sense, but in the negative sense because it looked at the time like Dylan was going off the rails."
However, the set was well-received by most critics, with NME
s Rob Fitzpatrick giving it the magazine's highest rating (a 10 out of 10) and called it "utterly brilliant."
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's October 31, 1964 "Halloween" show at New York's Philharmonic Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
. It was released in 2004.
The set list was dominated by Dylan’s protest songs, including "The Times They Are a-Changin’," "A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall," and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, a major supporter of Dylan's in his early career, duets with Dylan on three songs, as well as singing another alone ("Silver Dagger"). However, Dylan performed these songs alongside early versions of three songs from the soon-to-be-recorded Bringing It All Back Home
Bringing It All Back Home
Bringing It All Back Home is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's fifth studio album, released in March 1965 by Columbia Records. The album is divided into an electric and an acoustic side. On side one of the original LP, Dylan is backed by an electric rock and roll band - a move that further alienated...
. New compositions like "It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)" and "Mr. Tambourine Man" showed Dylan moving in a new direction, becoming more immersed in evocative, stream-of-consciousness lyrics and moving away from social, topical songwriting. Even as he was moving in this new direction, Dylan was still portrayed as a symbol of the civil rights and anti-war movements, and the Halloween concert of 1964 caught Dylan in transition.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
album chart on April 17, 2004 at number 28. It spent 4 weeks on the chart. It also reached number 33 in the U.K.
Preparing The Bootleg Series Vol. 6
When Dylan and Sony began planning for The Bootleg Series Vol. 6, they weren't sure what to release. Steve Berkowitz, an A&R head at Sony Music who worked on all the Bootleg Series discs with Dylan's office, stresses that Dylan's office is behind the brainstorming and decision-making for the Bootleg Series, not Sony. Concerts held at Carnegie Hall and New York's Town Hall, both in 1963, were considered for The Bootleg Series Vol. 6, according to Berkowitz, but they were ultimately rejected.The Halloween concert of 1964 had been previously bootlegged on vinyl and CD, but those releases were incomplete and taken from poor dubs of the soundboard tapes. The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 presented the entire concert for the first time from the original master tapes.
A few critics, including biographer Clinton Heylin, were dismissive. "I’ve never rated [the Halloween show] as a performance," Heylin explained in a phone interview. "Dylan is very focused when he comes to doing the new songs...But the old material, he’s completely and totally bored with. It’s not a good performance. He’s clearly stoned...The concert was a real landmark, not in the positive sense, but in the negative sense because it looked at the time like Dylan was going off the rails."
However, the set was well-received by most critics, with NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
s Rob Fitzpatrick giving it the magazine's highest rating (a 10 out of 10) and called it "utterly brilliant."
Disc one
- "The Times They Are a-Changin'The Times They Are a-Changin'The Times They Are a-Changin opens with the title track, one of Dylan's most famous songs. Dylan's friend, Tony Glover, recalls visiting Dylan's apartment in September 1963, where he saw a number of song manuscripts and poems lying on a table. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" had yet to be recorded,...
" – 3:29 - "Spanish Harlem IncidentSpanish Harlem Incident"Spanish Harlem Incident" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and was released on his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan, on August 8, 1964 . The song has been described as a "a gorgeous vignette" by critics and been praised for its multilayered, poetic dimensions...
" – 3:07 - "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid BluesTalkin' John Birch Paranoid BluesTalkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, also known as Talkin' John Birch Society Blues and Talkin' John Birch Blues, is a talking blues song written by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 1962. It is a satirical song, in which a paranoid narrator is convinced that communists, or "Reds" as he calls them, are...
" – 4:06 - "To RamonaTo Ramona"To Ramona" is a folk waltz written by Bob Dylan for his fourth studio album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. The song is one of the many on the album to highlight the more personal, and less political, side of Dylan's songwriting that would become evermore prominent in the future...
" – 6:01 - "Who Killed Davey Moore?" – 4:46
- "Gates of EdenGates Of Eden (song)"Gates of Eden" is a song by Bob Dylan that appears on his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records. It was also released as a single as the B-side of "Like a Rolling Stone". Dylan plays the song solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and...
" – 8:32 - "If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got to Stay All Night)"If You Gotta Go, Go NowIf You Gotta Go, Go Now is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1964. The first released version was as a single in the US by the UK group The Liverpool Five in July 1965, but this went uncharted in the US despite receiving much airplay, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. It was another English band...
– 4:06 - "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"It's Alright, Ma " is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and first released on his 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home. It was written in the summer of 1964, first performed live on October 10, 1964, and recorded on January 15, 1965...
" – 11:26 - "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)"I Don't Believe You " is a 1964 song by Bob Dylan, from his fourth studio album, Another Side of Bob Dylan....
" – 4:01 - "Mr. Tambourine ManMr. Tambourine Man"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
" – 6:33 - "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna FallA Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The lyric structure is based on the question and answer form of the traditional ballad "Lord...
" – 7:44
Disc two
- "Talkin' World War III Blues" – 5:52
- "Don't Think Twice, It's All RightDon't Think Twice, It's All Right"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, and released on the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.-Context:...
" – 4:34 - "The Lonesome Death of Hattie CarrollThe Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is a topical song written by the American musician Bob Dylan. Recorded on October 23, 1963, the song was released on Dylan's 1964 album The Times They Are a-Changin and gives a generally factual account of the killing of 51-year-old barmaid Hattie Carroll by...
" – 6:57 - "Mama, You Been on My Mind" – 3:35 (with Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
) - "Silver DaggerSilver Dagger (song)"Silver Dagger", or "Katy Dear", is an American folk ballad. It likely traces its roots to the British Isles of late 19th century, though possibly much earlier; the first published version appeared in 1907....
" – 3:47 (with Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
) - "With God on Our SideWith God on Our Side"With God on Our Side" is a song by Bob Dylan, released as the third track on his 1964 album The Times They Are A-Changin. Dylan first performed the song during his debut at The Town Hall in New York City on April 12, 1963...
" – 6:17 (with Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
) - "It Ain't Me, Babe" – 5:11 (with Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
) - "All I Really Want to Do" – 4:01
Personnel
- Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
: vocals, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes... - Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
: vocals - Steven Berkowitz: producer
- Jeff Rosen: producer