Bob Dylan World Tour 1966
| Tour by Bob Dylan, The Band | |
A ticket stub for the April 29, 1966 show at the Konserthuset, , Sweden. This show began the European leg of the 1966 World Tour.
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| Start date | February 4, 1966 |
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| End date | May 27, 1966 |
| Legs | 3 |
| No. of shows | 47 |
| Bob Dylan, The Band concert chronology | |
The Bob Dylan World Tour 1966 was a concert tour undertaken by American musician Bob Dylan, from February to May 1966. Dylan's 1966 World Tour was notable as the first tour--actually a continuation of his late 1965 U.S. 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 8mm home movie camera. Many of the 1966 tour concerts were recorded by Columbia Records. These recordings produced two official albums, the so-called "Royal Albert Hall" concert and Bob Dylan Live In Sydney 1966, and also many unofficial bootleg recordings of the tour.
Dylan's 1966 Tour ended with his motorcycle accident late on Friday afternoon, July 29, 1966. Subsequent to Dylan's withdrawal to , he refrained from undertaking a major tour until 1974.
As Dylan finished the sessions for his 1965 "Positively 4th Street" single, he wanted to reproduce on-stage the same sound that he had polished in the studio. He soon began to gather a pick-up band, with several musicians, such as bassist Harvey Brooks and organist Al Kooper, that had played during the sessions for Highway 61 Revisited. However, the bulk of the players came from Ronnie Hawkins' backing group, Levon and the Hawks (later renamed the Band). They impressed Dylan when he saw them play in Toronto, at the direction of Albert Grossman's staffer, Mary Martin, who told him to visit the group at the Yonge Street club called the Le Coq d'Or Tavern – though Robbie Robertson recollects it was the Friar's Tavern, just down the street. An alternate version of the first meeting, put forward by Williamson, suggests that he saw them in a New Jersey club. Drummer Levon Helm and lead guitarist Robbie Robertson were quickly invited to join Dylan's backing group. As the initial tour in North America progressed, both Kooper and Helm left the band due to stress, which opened up the way for the remaining Hawks (bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel, organist Garth Hudson) and session drummer Bobby Gregg to join the band. Gregg eventually left the band as the tour progressed, and Sandy Konikoff replaced him on drums, but Konikoff too left when Dylan traveled to Australia. Drummer Mickey Jones remained with the band throughout the rest of the tour.
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