About 3 months ago, I was bored and looking for something to watch on Netflix when I came across the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home directed by Martin Scorsese. For anyone even remotely interested in Dylan, it would be well worth your time to watch it. The documentary follows Bob Dylan from the start of his career up to his famous 1966 “electric” world tour. The documentary closes on one of the most legendary performances of all time. The May 17, 1966 version of Like a Rolling Stone.

On this tour, Dylan performed the first half of the set in his traditional format, alone with only his guitar and harmonica. During this set he held the audience captive and earned unanimous adoration. For the last half of the set, he brought out his touring band, soon to be known as The Band. As soon as the guitars were plugged in to the amps, the mood in the audience quickly shifted. Bob Dylan and The Band performed the last half of the set to a mixture of cheers, boos, and jeers.

The Judas Moment

Dylan

During the end of his May 17 concert at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, the jeering Dylan received became legend after an audience member shouted “Judas!” Dylan paused before responding “I don’t believe you … you’re a liar!”, turned to his band and said “Play it f*ckin’ loud!”1. Mickey Jones, who replaced Levon Helm on drums for the tour, hit his snare as hard as he could, starting a vicious version of Like A Rolling Stone. That snare hit is easily one of my favorite pieces of recorded music.

Hear it for yourself:

Like a Rolling Stone [Live] by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

Here’s a nice video of the exchange.

Links:

Trivia:

  • Mickey Jones, the drummer for this tour played a recurring role on the TV show Home Improvement.

    Mickey Jones

  1. There is some argument as to who actually said “Play it f*cking loud!” Some think it was Bob, some think it was a member of their crew. I like to believe it was Bob though. :) ↩︎