WE HAD KNOWN A LION
Vigotone 170/171 2CDR
Recently reissued on CDR by Head
(1) Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, CA); September 3, 1965 (line)
(2) Columbia Records Studio A (New York, NY); July 29, 1965 +
overdub
Tracklist: (1) She Belongs To Me, To Ramona, Gates Of Eden, It's
All Over Now Baby Blue, Desolation Row, Love Minus Zero, Mr.
Tambourine Man, Tombstone Blues (missing first verse), I Don't
Believe You, From A Buick 6, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Maggie's
Farm, It Ain't Me, Babe, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Like A Rolling
Stone
(2) Tombstone Blues (with backing vocal overdub)
rmd: This is a full concert, one week after Forest Hills,
the second post-Newport concert, in pristine sound quality--far
better obviously than the unlistenable Forest Hills tape, and also
substantially superior to the Berkeley 12-4-65 recording. The
acoustic performance here is par for the course, 1965, with a few
words by Dylan between a couple of the songs. It's vintage if not
truly transcendent acoustic Dylan '65 on the first disc. The second
half is of greater interest. The sound on these tracks is far less
raucous than Newport, less polished than Berkeley, and far more
prone to Dylan singing almost operatically. Very minimal backing
for most of the songs. To be honest, this is a pretty
plain-sounding band, and the riffs played are borderline cheesy,
especially from Kooper, on a couple of cuts. But it is not an
inferior performance, just different, a telling early stage in the
electrification of Bob Dylan. For that reason, well worth having...
(Thad Williamson)
