Bob Fass Show - WBAI-FM

January 1966

This radio call-in show has no musical content, and yet it's the most entertaining Dylan tape that I've ever heard! It's just Dylan and friends paying a late night visit to New York DJ Bob Fass and, Dylan being in a particularly good mood, taking phone calls from the audience. Dylan jokes around with Bob Fass, who is one of the few media personalities who seemed comfortable with Dylan and was able to keep up with his mad humor. This show had to have taken place in January or very early February of 1966 because the White Plains concert was being plugged and that show occurred on February 5 of that year.

Dylan introduces a couple of his friends (probably members of the Hawks) as "Harry the Hat" and "Roosevelt Gook" and is in a constant put-on mood throughout the entire relaxed appearance. Phone calls start coming in and Dylan answers some of the strangest phone calls in radio history. Some of the calls are fairly hostile and demand that the station play some music rather than have Dylan talk. Others phone in with support for Dylan's appearance.

I listened to this tape for the first time under ideal circumstances - through headphones very late at night. This simulated as close as possible the atmosphere of the original broadcast, which was late at night on the type of FM radio station that would typically be listened to with the lights off and headphones securely in place, and gave me a feeling of being transported back in time to 1966. This happened by accident, as it turned out. It was getting late and I was going to call it a night when I thought I'd preview a little of the tape to see what the sound quality was like. I was hooked from the very start and couldn't stop listening until I'd heard the entire 90 minutes. Fascinating tape! Sound quality is excellent.

CDs: none that I know of

Bring It All Back Home Back to Tape Index