Dylan & The Hawks :: Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Liverpool, 1966)

bob-dylan

After a few months of rumors, Sony has finally announced another massive Bob Dylan box set —  The 1966 Live Recordings. Weighing in at 36 (!) discs, it collects every known recording of Dylan’s confrontational 1966 tour of Australia and the UK  (along with a handful of audience tapes from the US)  with the Hawks, who were soon to morph into The Band. Overkill? Sure. But obsessives (guilty as charged) will love trawling through these tapes, many of which have never been bootlegged, savoring every Dylan inflection, every Garth Hudson organ fill, every slashing Robbie Robertson solo. It’s some of the most powerful rock and roll ever made.

With such a wealth of live ’66 recordings on the way soon, it’s easy to forget that for decades, the only official evidence of this epochal tour was a Liverpool performance of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” tucked away on the b-side of the “I Want You” seven-inch. Released just a few weeks after the concert itself, it’s easy to see why it sent Dylanologists on a mad hunt to dig up any and all recordings from 1966. Revisit it for a taste of the glories to come, as Dylan and the Hawks roar through the tune, making its Highway 61 Revisited studio counterpart sound like a pleasure cruise in comparison. words / t wilcox

Dylan & The Hawks :: Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Liverpool, 1966)

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5 thoughts on “Dylan & The Hawks :: Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Liverpool, 1966)

  1. and for 150 bucks shipped its a real deal. 4.16 a disc. Ive treasured the “genuine live 66” bootleg for years, will be great to listen in on the other shows of this incredible year…..

  2. i just wanted to commented that i purchased that 45 in the late 60s and i played until it worn to a nub on my portable KLH Model 11. Is the live version on this box set?

  3. This used to be on YouTube but I guess it was removed so we would buy the box set. I bought the 45 in 1969 at the corner record store. I too played it until it was decimated. Not long ago I gave the 45 as a gift to a fellow patti smith fan in Spain. When he took it out of the envelope, the record crashed through the bottom of the paper cover & fell to the floor.
    This for me is the most beautiful, most elegant rock arrangement of all time. Thank you for posting it as I need it like a drug.

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