Robbie Robertson on Dylan :
The first birthday I remember spending with Bob was his twenty-fifth, when we were playing in Paris in 1966. This was that infamous tour of Europe when Bob, the Hawks and I were being booed and laced with tomatoes and coins. But when we played Paris, somebody had the bright idea of covering the whole back of the stage with a big American flag. It was like, "Hey, here's an idea - this should really piss the French off." For the show, he used to go out and do his acoustic bit, and then we would all come out and manage to assault and offend most of the people in the house. He did his acoustic thing that night, but he couldn't seem to get it in tune. Sometimes this happens - you keep tuning and it just keeps getting worse. So he stood up there tuning it for, like, fifteen minutes, and between the tuning and the flag, the audience didn't have to wait until the band came out - they were already pissed off.
Bob was in a frame of mind that it was all somehow quite enjoyable. I don't know if it was because it was his birthday or he just didn't give a shit anymore - that because we'd been booed so much, calluses had built up on his soul. I'm not sure why it happened, but it completely annoyed everyone in the audience - they thought it was a put-on. Then it became such an issue that it doubled back on him. He was like, "Well, shit, this is driving everyone crazy, maybe I'll just stand here and tune for a couple more minutes." And then you realize you can't get it in tune - something's gone wrong here. And I remember I was standing at the side there, because we were waiting to go out and do our bit, and he was looking at me and shrugging his shoulders like, "Can you tune this fucker?" I think he came over, and we turned a few things and got the guitar happening.
When we finally did come out, they were already used to the tuning and the flag and didn't even mind us all that much. That was one of the only shows we played that whole period in which we didn't get booed. And we were like, "Wow, this is a great birthday present."
