"I wanna get out of here as fast as you wanna get out of here"

1966-05-24, Olympia, Paris, France

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Photo via CultMTL

Bob Dylan does not like playing on his birthday.

I base that conclusion on the fact that he's only ever played three shows on May 24. Compare that to last week's newsletter, May 17, where I had eight shows to choose from. He hasn't played a birthday show in over a decade. As best I can tell, he's only acknowledged the occasion onstage once, ending a 2000 show in Germany with "Thank you! I will remember this birthday for a while."

The first of those three birthday shows turned out to be a historic one. It’s probably the second-most-famous show on his first-most-famous tour. Unlike the better-known “Judas” concert, though, this show is more remembered for the visuals than the music. And from the tape, it sounds like it made for a pretty terrible 25th birthday.