New Video Footage of Dylan's Second 1966 Concert

1966-02-05, Westchester County Center, White Plains, NY

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A few weeks ago, about 15 minutes of new 1966 Bob Dylan footage appeared on YouTube. It was shot by Murray Lerner and Howard Alk at a concert in White Plains, just outside of New York City, on the second night of Dylan’s 1966 tour.

Bad news first: the new footage is silent. The audio has been lost. This is a double bummer because, in addition to the concert footage, the filmmakers shot interviews with the crowd. Sure would be nice to hear what those people are saying! 

Nevertheless, it’s still quite interesting. For one, you get a good overview of teenage fashion in the mid-‘60s. And teenage it is: this crowd looks to be almost uniformly under 25. Maybe that was more the norm in the era with a stronger divide between “you” and “your parents,” but Bob Dylan has seemed like the providence of “adults” for so long now, I found it noticeable. You can watch them leave the theater after the show at the end of the first video. They look a little shellshocked don’t they? Not a lot of smiles.

One of those teenagers actually wrote a review for his school paper, the Eastchester High School Eaglet. He hints at a touch of going-electric controversy, but from his description it sounds fairly mild. At the start of the second half, he writes, “after the first song the old Dylan fans left and the new Dylan fans ran up to take their seats.”