Bob Dylan, a Stage-Crasher, and a 14-Year-Old Photographer

1966-02-11, The Mosque, Richmond, VA

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Photo by Warren Lowery

For the second-to-last-stop on our journey through the first week of Bob Dylan’s tumultuous 1966 tour, we travel to Richmond, Virginia. No, there are – say it with me now – no recordings. But our guest tourguide James Adams, who you may know as @bob_notes in the Twitterverse, fills in some of the gaps. Here’s James:

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One of the most iconic photographs of young Elvis Presley was taken backstage at the Richmond Shriner’s Mosque in 1956. I wonder if Bob Dylan, a serious Elvis freak, was aware of that musical convergence when he played the same venue a decade later, on February 11, 1966? If not, maybe he learned of it during one of his subsequent visits to the storied venue. The name changed over the years—Richmond Mosque, Landmark Theatre, Altria Theatre—but after 1966 Dylan played the same room again in 1990, 2013, and 2015.

It’s the 1966 performance that sends me daydreaming. I’m not a Richmonder, but the city is close enough for me to drive there in a single playing of Blonde on Blonde. On an alternate timeline there’s just no way I would have missed it. I picture myself there with Dan, my very best Dylan tour buddy, and a Richmond resident. I fantasize about sitting in the dark and hearing “Visions of Johanna” for the first time. I feel the tension in the air during the intermission. I do some soul-searching and wonder if maybe I would have booed during the electric set.

Unfortunately, “it happened so long ago, I wasn’t even born.”

Luckily, my friend Warren Lowery was there, just about as close to the stage as you can get. Not only that, he brought a camera and captured what seems to be the only known photograph of the show. The image is blurry and aged, just like memories from 57 years ago. It shows Dylan with a turtleneck and a black Telecaster, flanked by Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson. It reminds me of an image from the Old West, featuring dubious men drifting from town to town wearing strange weapons and nice suits.