I just read Gerry Storm's attempt to write an Austin history of the mid 60s in Austin. I'd describe it as a flawed overview, more a personal memoir than history. More research would be my recommendation. I thought the tying in of the Austin folk scene with Bob Dylan was a good idea, but I have to disagree about the socalled Dylan concert of 1965. I'm pretty sure it took place in 1966 on Dylan's second tour with the controversial rock and roll band, when he "went electric." By that time he had the Band with him, except I'm not sure if it was Robbie Robertson or Michael Bloomfield on lead. I think it was Robertson. I do remember that we didn't go home and start growing our hair out. Bill Holloway and Mark Weekley got me a ticket and I escaped from Beaumont after going through the draft experience, rode the bus to Austin. We hung out somewhere and got what for me was a little too imbued with weed, then went to Palmer Auditorium, getting there early enough to see the rest of the folks come walking in. It was quite a surprise to me to see how many men walked in with really long hair, and how many women with long flowing straight or curly hair and little or no makeup. I hadn't thought about it that much, but had assumed my friends and I were among the few in central Texas who were growing out our hair. Women were still wearing their beehives and pounds of makeup, weren't they? No? No. Dylan walked out onstage to thunderous applause, a skinny cat in Beatle boots and an English mod gray suit. He stood alone and sang his recent songs. There were a lot of "frat rats" among the soon-to-be-called "hippies." One of them kept yelling out, "Song to Woodie!" Finally, Dylan looked at him and said, "Let's try to be reasonable about this." He didn't play "Song to Woodie." After 10 or 15 songs, the curtains closed and everybody stretched and hung out in the lobby and so on. No beer was sold, and if anyone smoked any pot in that well-lighted auditorium, it wasn't me. I actually felt like I was having a heart attack, my arms were numb and my hands hurt from clapping. There was some noise from behind the curtains. They opened and there were Dylan and the Band. They blasted into something, maybe Subterranean Homesick Blues or Tombstone Blues, and they were playing Loud, man, Loud! When Dylan started on the harmonica, it was just this side of earsplitting. The instruments were all in tune and the sound was fucking gorgeous! When the guitarist took a lead, Dylan would stand right in front of him, up close face to face, turned sideways to the audience, both these skinny cats in Beatle boots blasting out the music like there was no tomorrow. I'm so glad to be alive during these times, Wali Stopher

do you remember when the frats sponsored a Chuck Berry concert - must have been '63-64? Monty went back stage and asked Chuck if he wanted to come to a party - Chuck asked if there would be girls that weren't sorority sisters - was told yes. So, somebody borrowed a motorcycle, picked him up after the gig (at the UT auditorium) and brought him to the party - folks were indeed amazed...... Judy Herr

Yes, it was Karen who turned me on to Dylan. She played album #1 for me, and I remember my first thought: voice is awful, but great harmonica...have we already said that? but eventually lyrics such as 'times they are a changin' and 'blowin in the wind'. I went to the same concert at Palmer that Wali referred to, I thought it was 65, but then maybe not, but it WAS when he started with electric guitar. We (the folksing/ghetto crowd) were on the first couple of rows thanks to Houston White, I believe. After the concert, we all went out to Burton's in the West Lake Hills. So when was that? Connie Clark

there is NO doubt in my mind that dylan played austin in 1965. miz vickie and i went together. the band played w/ memorable version of "stage fright." if your friends' drug addled memories are not adequate verification, please read levon helm's account of the show in his autobiography as the only one on that tour where they weren't booed. Stephanie Chernikowski

Well, Wali, for being as whacked out as you claim you were, you remember that concert pretty well. At least that's the way I saw it too. Powell St. John

as steffi sez, i remember it being '65 Vickie Devereaux

Helm's autobiog is called WHEEL'S ON FIRE (or something like it). Good stuff. But hard to find. Ted Samsel

I think spring of '65. I had a front row seat provided by the wiles of Joe Brown who had a friendship with Bobby Neuwirth. I remember "Ballad of a Thin Man" most vividly. It was my only meeting with Bob ever. They had rooms at the Villa Capri and Joe and Gilbert went over to say hi to the band. I figgered, well, well if they can, so can I. So I determined which room Dylan was in by quizzing the help, and I went and knocked on his door. The man himself came to the door. I asked, if he had seen Joe Brown and Gilbert? He said, "Yeah, 'They're in room such and such." I said thanks and went looking. (They had left.) But Joe came back and gave some tix that Neuwirth had been assigned to give to pretty girls who wanted to meet the band to me and Lieuen. We weren't all that cute, but we did have front row seats. Bob, seemed like a true pal from our deep and meaningful exchange. I can hear it now, "Yeah, they're in room such and such.." Why cannot I remember what room he said? Hell, I am Lucky to remember there was a Villa Capri. Wali's right. It was a night I was glad to be alive, and I will never forget it. Bobo DeLuxe (Bob Simmons)

I was here in Spring 65 but, damn it, didn't go to the concert. I remember running into Bobby Neuwirth in full daylight maybe at Brazos & 18th where Bob Simmons upstairs, Dorothy & Claudette downstairs lived in a brick house. What are you doing in Austin? I asked. I'm Bob Dylan's road manager he answered. (I knew him from Cambridge, MA & NYC). I did go to the Dylan concert at the drum in the 70s, where we waited all night to get tickets. He addressed the audience once saying "Austin? Austin? Oh yeah! The last time I was here the only person with long hair was Doug Sahm." The drum concert was soon after his religious conversion to born again, there was a 3 member black gal backup chorus. Bob Neuwirth plays Austin from time to time usually at the Cactus Club. I always mean to go & if he shows up again I will. Bob N was once probably the heaviest dude conceivable. At one time he traveled with a bruiser named Moran whose father was said to be an army general. These were cross-country international trash jet-setters, today Los Angeles, next week doing Horse in Morocco. Neuwirth always got the prettiest gal, hey he took Edie Sedgewick away from Chuck Wein just like that when they were hanging out in the Andy Warhol scene. Watching the 2 Bobs in Don't Look Back (Pennybaker's documentary of Dylan, Joan Baez, Al Goldman & Bob Neuwirth in England) as well as in Clara & Renaldo, I alway get the sense that Dylan was Neuwirth's groupie. Like I said a very heavy dude. Layed some smoke on a party I was at circa 1961: my second meeting with mescalito's little brother. Mike Eisenstadt

So I will have to regale you sometime about the 'wild night' I spent with Neuwirth and Edie in NYC as they rolled with bumpkin me along from club to club fighting and snorting crystal all evening. I was the designated driver before there was such a concept, but I did, stupidly, maintain a car when living in the city, so... I do remember at 5:00AM in some dive like the Kettle of Fish after a particularly bitter exchange between the two, Edie jumped up and started to stalk out without Bobby. He yelled after her at the top of his lungs for the 20 or 30 other night crawlers to hear, "Go on, leave! Fifty dollars is way too much for a cheap bitch like you." She kept walking without looking back. I later called her up and got her to be our "SlumGoddess" in an edition of The East Village Other. Walter Bredel took the pics, and we posed her next to a TUMS poster in the subway. When we printed the neg, we printed it backwards...SMUT. Clever boys. Hmm. Bob Simmons

When I see her coming down the street, I'm as happy as I can be, My beautiful Slum Goddess from Ave. D. - Ed Sanders, The Fugs quoted by Mike Eisenstadt Another Ed Sanders quote. Freda Miller told me this was what he said when he approached her at a party: "Ma'am, I'd walk a mile just to stand in your shit." What fair maiden could resist? Ramsey Wiggins

I was at that Bob Dylan concert in Austin in 1965, too. Dylan was double-billed with the Beach Boys, if I recall correctly. And I do remember he was wearing a grey suit. I don't really remember too much about the concert itself--I'm not real big on live concerts, as a rule. It was the day before the concert that was the interesting one for me. I had promised, or bragged, to my colleagues at Texas Student Publications that I would do an interview with Bob Dylan when he came to Austin, to be published in the Texas RANGER. I had previously done an interview with Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond before their performance at Gregory Gymnasium, and that had been easy--I had a student press card that gave me backstage access, and Brubeck and Desmond were very cooperative. With the Dylan concert, however, my student credentials were worthless. The first problem was to find the guy. So the day before the concert I went to the Villa Capri, which was the biggest and fanciest motel in Austin at the time, and asked the clerk at the desk if Bob Dylan was registered there. "No," was all he said. But the registration book was in view on the desk, and I immediately spotted a long list of obvious psuedonyms--Chuck U. Farley, Woontny Goont, Puddn' 'n' Tane, etc. So I asked what room Mr. Farley was in, the clerk told me, and I strolled over to that section of the motel complex. I looked up and there, standing by himself on the balcony, was Bob Dylan. I was too shy to approach him directly, so I yelled, "Is Bobby Neuwirth around?" I had previously met Bob Neuwirth in New York, through Joe E. Brown, and I knew him to be a friendly and accessible guy. Dylan went and got him out of one of the motel rooms, and Neuwirth then introduced me to Dylan. I asked Dylan if he would do an interview with me, and he said, "I guess so," but there were a couple of things that needed to be done first. Most important, The Band needed a set of drums, since Levon Helms' own set had disappeared in transit (all of The Band except for Robbie Robertson were on the tour). So Levon and I got in my car and went looking for Emory "Stick" Whipple, drummer extraordinaire (and alas, now another r.i.p.), who was able to find some drums after a few hours. Back at the motel, the band members then asked me to find them something to smoke, which, Austin being what it was in 1965, took me another couple of hours to obtain. Finally, late in the evening, I got to do the interview, but by that time I had consumed so much beer and bourbon, and I was so inexperienced at doing interviews (I had no tape recorder, and I didn't even take any notes) that I was unable to remember much of what we talked about, and subsequently had to re-invent the interview out of whole cloth, so to speak. This interview was printed in an issue of the Texas RANGER, and if anyone can find it, you'll see what I'm talking about. I do remember saying to him that I thought it was a great idea that he was using a rock band (I too was sick of folk music by this time) but to my surprise he was not enthusiastic about this idea. Maybe he had been booed at too many of that tour's concerts. So after a half-hour or so of interview, I finally let the poor guy go. I presented him with the artwork from one of my surrealistic comic strips from RIATA, the U.T. student literary magazine, and went home and crashed. Neuwirth later told me that Dylan asked him, "What on earth was THAT guy stoned on?" He probably threw the comic strip in the trash can. Neuwirth presented me with four complimentary tickets to the concert and a promotional copy of Dylan's latest album. I could't find anyone to go to the concert with me the next day, even after going to the Chuck Wagon and yelling, "Does anyone want to go to the Bob Dylan concert with me? I have three extra tickets!" So I stretched out on my four seats on the first row of the second level of the auditorium, and enjoyed the concert in comfort. Gilbert Shelton

what did you say you were on, gilbert? Stephanie Chernikowski << Dylan was double-billed with the Beach Boys, if I recall correctly.>> HA HA! What a show THAT would have been! I saw Dylan that time (yes, Steph, it was then the "Municipal Auditorium"); at the Erwin Center in '79 (?), with several teen-age boys from the half-way house I was working at (we camped out for those tix; also for Springsteen that same season); again at his most recent Austin/Erwin Center gig. Saw his movie at the Texas Theater, I think - maybe the Varsity - when it first came out; there were about 6 people in the audience. Mariann Wizard

Yes, I must be mistaken about Bob Dylan being double-billed with the Beach Boys. Bob Dylan wouldn't have allowed such a thing. Not back then, anyway. But I am sure that I saw the Beach Boys at that auditorium during that era. And they must have been double-billed with someone I wanted to see. Who could it have been? The Lovin' Spoonful? Gilbert no idea. they (the beach boys) were considered way too lightweight to be w/dylan. funny how times change. Stephanie Are you guys sure there WAS another band? Mary Ann Wilson are we sure that the 60s werent just a collective hallucination? no. but i'm sure glad i was in on it. Stephanie You are not suggesting some kind of chemically induced mental state alteration creating temporary visual and auditory confusion combined with a lack of long-term memory....surely. Wayne Johnson

Well, I wasn't going to argue about this, but my drug-raddled mind won't let me along until I challenge Steph's subway-rattled one (and Levon, too!) - I could dredge up a bunch of stuff about where I was living in the spring of '65 and who I knew/didn't yet know at that point and it would all just be yada yada, who knows? BUT - here is a VERIFIABLE FACT: Dylan's Top forty hit of the SUMMER of 1965 was, in fact, "LIKE A ROLLING STONE", and honey, Levon and the boys aren't on there; it's just a boy, a git-tar, and a mouth harp. I rest my case. Half-folk, half-electric concert was at Municipal Auditorium in fall of 1965 (just barely possible), or spring of 1966. Terry Dyke, Dylanologist, what say you? Bob Pardun, did George & I go to this concert w/ you & Judy in the Volvo? It hadda be somebody with a vehicle. Wiz

Yea, surely and verily. I say unto you, I was ripped. Hallelujah! The last thing I remember is riding there in Houston's van. Clouds from that big pipe engulfing us, whoever we were. Then there was transcendence. I don't remember another band ... but I think the back-up was Butterfield and those guys, not The Band, definitely not the Beach Boys. Mary Ann

September 24, 1965. Palmer Auditorium. $3.00. (Still have the ticket.) Pretty sure it was the Hawks Terry Dyke

the hawks (so named cuz they were ronnie hawkins backup band) was the name used by the band before they became the band. read levon's book, at least that passage. it is quite wonderful to be singled out as the only audience on the whole tour who got it. Stephanie