Bob Dylan: Like the Night [Paperback]

C. P. Lee (Author), C.P. Lee (Author), Paul Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1998

In the early 60s, Bob Dylan was the protest singer whose anthems personified the folk music revival. Then in 1966, at the height of his popularity, he plugged in an electric guitar and merged his poetic lyrics with the sound of one of the great rock 'n' roll bands. The rock world was delighted, but the folk scene was outraged and betrayed. This book is an account of that legendary world tour, when Dylan waged a nightly war with his audience and reinvented rock with incendiary zeal.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bob Dylan's tour of Europe in May of 1966 has long been a point of fascination for his most dedicated fans, thanks mostly to the tapes of incendiary gigs that leaked out and were bootlegged over the years. Treasured tapes of the phenomenal show he gave in Manchester, England, on May 17, 1966, have been passed among fortunate collectors for decades, and the show has finally been officially released by Dylan's record label as Live, 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall Concert." Now those who've only attended the legendary Manchester gig in dreams can journey back to join C.P. Lee and his mates. Lee, a professor today, was at the age of 16 one of the lucky 1,800 to be blasted and blown away by the intense aural assault Dylan unleashed inside Manchester's Free Trade Hall. Writing with an eye for the quirky detail, Lee takes the reader along to the concert, introducing us to the steadfast fans as well as those who came to heckle. Not only is Like the Night great fun, but the author possesses keen understanding for Dylan and his music, and his insights into Dylan as both performer and as a cultural force should be required reading for anyone who claims to be a Dylan fanatic. --Robert McNamara

About the Author

CP Lee was the leader of the acclaimed art-punk band Albertos Y Los Troias Paranoias. He has also written a study of the films of Bob Dylan: Like A Bullet of Light and currently divides his time between lecturing in media studies at University in Manchester and broadcasting for BBC radio.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Helter Skelter Ltd; Revised edition (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1900924072
• ISBN-13: 978-1900924078
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,816,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lee proves 1966 was Dylan's and rock's quintessential year!, October 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bob Dylan: Like the Night (Paperback)

I am a Dylan freak if ever there was one. For numerous reasons, 1966 was my favorite year. Not to have lived through (I was only four) but historically speaking. This was Bob Dylan at the height of his writing and performing powers, most Dylanologists/fans would agree, made even more amazing and controversial for the fact that at this stage of his creative genius, he was barely twenty-five! In addition, BLONDE ON BLONDE was, and still is, my favorite album, and the European tour of said '66 is undoubtedly rock's crucial moment. The songs that threw audiences and journalists into a frenzy that has not yet, to this very day, let up, were mainly from the most famous one-two punch in popular music's short history; HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED and BLONDE ON BLONDE. CP Lee's LIKE THE NIGHT is a book I've been waiting on for twenty years. This is not just an historical account of a moment in history which had enormous impact on music and culture in general, but a recollection from the author and a group of individuals who possess a real passion and heart-felt affinity for a man who became a hero not only for his artistic genius, but as much for his courage. Like so few artists before him, and even fewer after, Dylan spent the better part of two years doing things his way, regardless of how any other soul in the whole world felt about it. This book will entertain you, educate, surprise, and inspire you. It will take you back to a split second in popular music history when it actually mattered what kind of music and what kind of words an artist presented to his public. In 1966, rock and roll was twelve years old, still breast feeding on the teet of its public's expectations. Bob Dylan was perhaps its one-and-only rebel with a monumental cause: artists' rights/poetic license. LIKE THE NIGHT is a crystal clear snapshot from Bob Dylan's march on Manchester and the world of rock and roll. Read this book, and join the march.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blow-by-blow account of Dylan's legendary '66 Manchester gig, October 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bob Dylan: Like the Night (Paperback)

Thirty-two years ago some bloke in Manchester called Bob Dylan "Judas!". Dylan called him a liar, and finished a breathtaking show by uncorking a truly incendiary "Like A Rolling Stone."

While the exchange has long passed into rock mythology, for years it was thought to have taken place at London's Royal Albert Hall. Now, CBS are releasing the show as part of Dylan's Bootleg Series, coinciding nicely with C.P. Lee's book detailing the lead-up to, and the events of, that night in May 1966.

Lee - unlike most people who claim to have been there - was actually there, as was a young Paul Kelly, who took some excellent shots of Dylan alone on stage, and Dylan fronting his five-piece band of junkyard angels (then they were just 'the band', though they would later become The Band).

Lee sets the scene perfectly by contrasting the immediacy of today's pop scene with the mid-60s; no MTV, little radio or tv coverage, sketchy details in the press... it was hard to keep abreast of what was going on. Though he had already released a brace of electric (or electric dominated) albums the previous year (Bringing It All Back Home, and Highway 61 Revisited) with another in the pipeline (Blonde On Blonde), Dylan was still largely known as a folk artist, rather than as a rocker.

Many felt that by plugging-in, Dylan was selling-out, and even though he was playing with a band many attending the shows hoped that he'd "see sense" and send the noisy five-piece home.

Rounding up many people who were there that night, Lee gauged their reactions to the events that unfolded. Some are still unrepentant that they booed and catcalled the Minnesotan singer, still feeling that he had somehow "betrayed" the folk movement.

And it's here that Lee excels; he paints a wonderfully vibrant picture of the folk revival both in Britain and the USA, detailing the almost Stalinistic regime of rules that applied to performance of folk material. As the millenium approaches it may seems quirky, quaint even, that folk music could stir up such feelings, yet the fears were obviously genuinely felt that something would be lost to an all too attractive youth culture.

Building the tension of the day of the show with all the skill of a thriller writer, Lee reveals that a put-upon stage manager almost cancelled the show (when unannounced to him the road crew turned up with recording equipment and rather more amplifiers than he was expecting), and his song-by-song account of the show really makes the whole thing come alive.

Lee's descriptions of the performances tingle with excitement, bringing the reader right into the Machester Free Trade Hall. Paul Williams' books on Dylan's performances are renowned among Dylan fans, and Lee now joins Williams in making the music dance and sing on the page.

It's hard to read Lee's book and not want to stick on the cds - you'll be "pausing" and "playing" as you read! And it's hard not to listen to this wonderful, timeless, and breathtaking music, without thinking of the swirling tempest Dylan was stirring up, so wonderfully captured by C.P. Lee in this excellent book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It used to be like that, now it goes like this..., January 12, 1999

By 

John Howells ([e-mail]) (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bob Dylan: Like the Night (Paperback)

Well, what have we here? Only the best book yet written about the 1966 Bob Dylan world tour, and by focusing on the crucial Manchester 5/17/66 concert (now officially released), and by providing fascinating background detail surrounding the events leading up to this particular concert, Lee has demonstrated in a very entertaining way the reasons why we should care about Bob Dylan and the direction his music took in the mid 1960s. It's hard to believe now, after listening to the recently released Live 1966 double-CD set, that this music was dismissed as trash and the tour itself considered to be a disaster. In fact, the music created by Dylan and the Hawks at Manchester (and other venues in Europe in 1966) has proven to be more influential and longer lasting than most other contemporary music of the time. 1966 was truly the year that the music changed, and Dylan was there leading the way. C.P. Lee's eyewitness account shows us why music fans still talk about this amazing concert 33 years later.