In May 1966, Bob Dylan and his backing band took the stage at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England, famously switching from acoustic to electric instruments halfway through the set. The change was not only an historic move for Bob Dylan, but it was an historic moment for rock music in general … even if it annoyed some of Dylan’s committed acoustic fans. The legendary concert was furtively recorded, and the bootleg tape was mislabeled “Royal Albert Hall” — the famed London venue 200 miles from Manchester.

Fast-forward to November 5, 2022, and Chan Marshall — best known by her artistic name Cat Power — walked onto the stage at the actual Royal Albert Hall in London, where she gave a song-by-song performance of Bob Dylan’s original 1966 concert. That live performance was recorded and is now the album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert.

Marshall recently connected with The Current’s Jill Riley to talk about the experience re-creating that magic concert, as well as her admiration for Bob Dylan, and what it was like to actually meet him. Listen to the complete interview using the audio player above, and read a transcript below.

Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert is The Current’s Album of the Week for December 26, 2023.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You are listening to The Current. I'm Jill Riley, and I am on the line with a special guest who has an appreciation and an admiration for someone that is very near and dear to our hearts in Minnesota. And I am with Chan Marshall, also known as Cat Power. How are you?

Cat Power: Hello, I'm great.

Jill Riley: This is awesome to talk to you about, again, someone that is near and dear to our hearts in Minnesota, but clearly near and dear to your heart and somebody who's had a huge impact on you. We're going to talk about the live album, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, which is out now. It's a re-creation of Bob Dylan's legendary acoustic and electric sets. You have re-created such a historical moment in music history. And I wonder if we could just start by talking about your love of Bob Dylan, and when did you first connect to Bob Dylan's music? 

Cat Power: I was already changed early on by his lyrics. But when I was 17, and I heard "To Ramona," and I was just trying to figure out how to be a young lady in this crazy world, that's when I fell for him then, with that song.

Jill Riley: Well, your love of Bob Dylan, your admiration for his work and music and again, connecting to that music at especially at an age that I feel like, when you talk about being a little kid, or even a teenager, the impression that music can make on us; that's something I feel sets you up, really, for the rest of your life.

Cat Power: My job — it created my job, you know? Storytelling and the passion that comes from seeing the world, traveling the world. That was like, my only goal as a little kid: I wanted to go see the world, I wanted to go to Africa and China and South America, you know? And I got to do all those things, because Bob created the job.

Jill Riley: Now, when it comes to re-creating a full concert, you are pretty faithful to this original concert. And I wonder if we could talk about how that idea started, for you to not only cover maybe another Dylan song, but to actually re-create a historical moment, a concert. Can you talk about that, and the idea?

Cat Power: Absolutely, I got an offer to play this venue, called the Royal Albert Hall in London. And as a kid, when I was 20, I saw Don't Look Back, and that's when I really fell in love with the artist [Bob Dylan] as a man as a being. And I used to stand out front of this place, you know, in the early '90s, like just daydreaming that I was at that concert, for example. And so when I got the call that I got a job, my first thought was it'd be a nice bookend for the covers record that I was — the tour that I had finished.

And then about a month later, it dawned on me, maybe I should record it. And that's when like the weight of the world kind of mounted, but I dealt with it. And I didn't know what to expect; being in my 50s now, I've learned to not put expectations on myself, but just try to do the best I can do. And I went, I flew out to L.A. to do rehearsals; I sang a couple of songs, but I just wanted to make sure that I was like a fly on the wall to make sure that the band sang without ego. I wanted to present, because Bob's walking around this planet, I wanted to offer grace, that recording and that tour that he did — for that moment in time, it changed music history — was difficult, I think for the Hawks, for him and the Hawks, to tour with the base sort of protesting what was going on in the venues. And I wanted to offer grace and respect to those songs and that moment in time for Bob, because he's still on tour, and you know, a lot of people do post things when people have passed, and I felt like it would just be nice to record it and put it up there as a document to offer some honor to the man.

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Cat Power, Chan Marshall is on the line with me. Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, which is out now. And I have to say, I spent some time listening to the album. And I admit, I honestly got chills when the album starts with just those first lines of "She Belongs To Me." There was just something about the words, you're singing the words of Bob Dylan. But I wonder if you could talk abo when that concert is starting, and I love the advice of not putting too much expectation or trying to not to put too much weight on your shoulders. But knowing that you were taking on this almost like a big responsibility, but hearing you start the show and hearing, if I could just read the lines in case we have people out there who don't know the song "She Belongs To Me": But,

She's got everything she needs, she's an artist
She don't look back
She's got everything she needs, she's an artist
She don't look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black

And for you to be singing those words, and as long as I've been listening to your music, I don't know, it really felt magical. I wonder if you could talk about just being in front of that audience and playing the show, because it really sounds gorgeous.

Cat Power: Thank you! Thank you for getting it. It was very powerful to be in that room. It felt like I was walking out onto a ship, like a moment in time, a timeless place, knowing that the words of the myth, the man, the words of the spell, and to be singing it, coming from my background — I won't get into that personally — but being able to stand there and sing the concert in general, was a triumph for the child in me, who grew up knowing all his songs just because of my upbringing, and appreciating him as a writer was really important. For example, for those first lines of that first song, I felt in tune with it, in my 50s, like I say, being a woman, a single parent, having lived that life, traveling around the world alone with the guitar and doing the time on Earth and learning. I love learning and I love song. And it felt beautiful to be singing almost to myself in a way, too, and to the other women, and to the men who love us and protect us. And it just felt very empowering from the beginning of that song from the beginning of the show. Just to sing these magic words. 

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Cat Power, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. So now, the first part of the show, acoustic; I mean, we look back historically, and even the way that you re-created it, the first part of the show was acoustic, and then Bob and the band — the Hawks, who would become The Band — started playing electric. And certainly, folks in the audience were not happy about that. Now...

Cat Power: They were expecting something totally different, and I think, Bob, having done what he's done, I believe every great artist can grow. And I believe he was growing. And he needed to do what he needed to do. And, you know, the times they had a-changed, and I think he was just moving forward as any great artist does, bringing something new to the table, which coincidentally, just changed rock and roll history and made people like Jimi Hendrix come out and sing, “I'm stone free to do as I please,” you know, with the revolution popping off right after that. That element is, I think, so many of us — musicians, journalists, scientists, all kinds of people from all types of life all around the world — are grateful to him for that sort of elaborating a type of critical thinking that the masses really needed at that time. We need at this time so desperately as well.

Jill Riley: Now, listening to the live album, certainly your audience was more enthusiastic about the performance, but I couldn't help but notice that there was an audience member that did kind of follow the historic track, there was the audience member doing the heckling, the yelling "Judas!" moment. I thought, I wonder if that just happened organically or if somebody was so into that history that they're like, "And this is gonna be my part in my re-creation!" What was that like to kind of have somebody do that? I mean, was that funny to you? Was that like, "Oh, yeah, of course, somebody took that moment," you know?

Cat Power: Well, you know, I knew — well, he was a song early — but I think he knew, just as everyone knew in the venue, that someone or several men would have done it. I had contacted Courtney Love because she lives in London now, and I had contacted her the morning of the concert and asked her if she wanted to be the person in the room to yell out "Judas." And she said, "No, no, no, no, not me." And I said, "What about if you yelled 'Jesus'?" And she laughed, and said, "Genius," she said, "I'm there." She didn't show up, but it's all good.

But so when [the audience member] quipped, "Judas," I instantly said, "Jesus," because I guess I'm a pacifist, you know, with everything that's going on: the Congo, Palestine. You know, I believe in peace, and I think that people can be more like that guy Jesus. Whatnot. So it was perfect. I think it's perfect. I knew several dudes would do it at the right time, but he did it at the wrong time, which was perfect.

Jill Riley: Which is perfect!

Cat Power: It was done, and it was over.

Jill Riley: Cat Power on the line. We're talking about Cat Power's re-creation of Bob Dylan's legendary acoustic and electric sets. I think we talk about the new Newport Folk Festival a lot here in the U.S., and then for a concert that was bootlegged for a number of years, but really this historic moment.

Now, your concert wasn't a one-time thing. Cat Power taking the show on the road, in fact, Friday, March 1, at the Fitzgerald Theater right here in St. Paul. How does it feel to take the show on the road, to share this show with your fans and Bob Dylan fans?

Cat Power: Well, that is a whole different enterprise, because just doing the concert in itself was a gift. And then doing the recording was kind of like smoke and mirrors; I didn't know if it was going to even sound good, to work out. You never know with these kinds of things, how they work, if they operate well, if the mics are all on, if it works or not. So it's like a gift that it even happened in general, got recorded and everything. Then getting the offer to play L.A. — I was like, "Dude, I want to play at The Troubadour." So we took it to a really small place so it could be very close like it used to be, even when I started, but in the ‘60s, like super close at a historic place like that. But then I've been getting these offers. So yeah, it's like a dream. I don't know, I believe in miracles, but I guess it's, you know, there's no money in rock and roll anymore. So, it's a good job. And I'm just blessed that I get to do it.

Jill Riley: And you talk about it feels like a gift. And I think it's a gift to music fans, like the new generation is being introduced to the significance of Bob Dylan, and by somebody who is such a big admirer. I mean, to be quite frank, I had heard of this concert in historical contexts, but I didn't really dig that deep on it. I mean, I couldn't have told you the setlist unless I would have gone deep on it after listening to the recording that you made. And I just found myself going down the rabbit hole of all of these historical facts and inaccuracies about the show. And I appreciate that, because what you did is, even for me, just introducing me, just to dig into something that I didn't know a ton about.

Cat Power: I think half of the goal to record it is to sort of meet the people that don't, even though history covers itself up; you know, history comes and goes and gets covered and covered and covered. Again, because Bob Dylan is still on tour, he's still doing magnificent work, and I think there is a new, whole new generation that doesn't know the history, and that's partially the key of the energy. The idea is to introduce the history because of how history repeats itself with genocide and Palestine, the revolution, the '60s, this sort of like, the nuance of how this tragedy keeps happening on planet Earth. And the songs coming out of protest songs, Bob coming out of protest songs, and, maybe all the adults that were around that survived that era, maybe they feel the way I feel walking around, like, "Is there something I could have done? Is there something more I can do tomorrow?" That sort of helplessness and hopelessness that we all feel like around the world, you know, we can relate to each other on social media from across the world, that's really empowering. But there's something about music that can kind of align us and sort of give us peace when we really need it. And that healing is, I think, vital. And it always has been. So history is, I think, the key here with the album, being able to be heard by people who don't necessarily understand the past and the relevancy of today.

Jill Riley: Cat Power on the line, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, which you dig into that history, and you find out that that was the label on the tape and not the actual venue! That was another story that when that came up, I was like, "Oh, my god," I love learning about the history of it. I mean, on a level like that, of just the performance space, but then, the history that you were talking about, of what it was like in '66, and what it's like in 2023. You know, hey, before I let you go, Chan, I know that you've met Bob Dylan. And I wonder if you could talk about that, just as we kind of close up, what it was like to meet him as a person.

Cat Power: It went exactly as I kind of believed it would. And he was taller than I thought, more masculine than I imagined, because we grew up at a time where we had to, like, really search to find file footage. Now you can hear interviews and all kinds of stuff on Bob, but back then, you know — 2007 was when I met him — he was gracious, charming, humorous, a gentleman. And he knew me, he knew my — he knew where I was coming from. And that felt very safe. It felt safe for me to be myself, safe for me to have open camaraderie with him and have dialogue, and he was friendly and cool. You know, it was exactly as I imagined it would be meeting someone that I've kind of grown up with my whole life; it felt like someone I know, I knew, you know? It felt very normally healthy; I don't know how to describe it. It felt like someone I knew, which is really kind of like another gift. So it feels good to know that you're not alone on planet Earth, you know? And I feel like that comes from the artist, from him as an artist. There's a lot of people I've met around the world, and I seem to click more naturally with artists, artist-minded, creative-minded, people in the arts, or, you know, even journalists have that critical-thinking brain. It was a really good memory. And I got to see him right before I did the Royal Albert Hall, completely coincidentally, on the steps of a hotel on the night before I got to see him play his recent tour last Halloween. And he was kind and gracious. And he's the man, you know? He's a beautiful soul.

Jill Riley: Did he know what you were up to? That you were going to be recording the concert?

Cat Power: Oh lord, yeah. That's the thing about, you know, a good artist always has their finger on the pulse of what's happening in the world. He knew. He knows. Bob knows. God knows, you know? I'm just playing around — he's a human being. But I mean, I think Bob is one of those people who has always kept his finger on the pulse of what's going on. That's like his trait, with his music, with his work.

Jill Riley: So again, that's Friday, March 1, at the Fitzgerald Theater right here in St. Paul. Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. That live record is out now. And I just want to say happy holidays to you. I just wish you the best. Thank you again for sharing this part of your story, this part of your journey. And I really think that the record turned out beautifully. So it's great that it's out in the world, and we look forward to seeing you in March, OK? 

Cat Power: Thank you.

Jill Riley: Yeah.

Cat Power: Thank you so much, honey. Thank you. Happy holidays, everybody! Keep your chin up.

Jill Riley: All right, thank you so much. That's Cat Power. Chan Marshall here on The Current.

External Links

Cat Power – official site

Royal Albert Hall – official site