Stories in the Press: Pittsburgh 1965 (w/ Joan Baez)

1965-03-17, Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh, PA

Stories in the Press looks at past Dylan shows through contemporary news reports. See the archives here.

On today’s date in 1965, Bob Dylan played the first of two all-but-forgotten shows in Pittsburgh, his first time in the city. They’re all-but-forgotten for a simple reason: No recordings. But I decided to see what info I could piece together from contemporary news reports.

The first show was announced on February 21, a little less than a month before. These were co-headlining dates with Joan Baez, and it’s interesting that in both this and the other major news clip we’ll see, Joan is still being treated as the real star. Dylan is not technically an opener; everything in the ads, tickets, etc puts him at equal billing with Joan. But the press in Pittsburgh don’t treat him that way.

Remember, this is 1965! Dylan has already released four albums, which include all his folk-era standards, and recorded a fifth. Peter Paul and Mary had made “Blowin’ in the Wind” a massive hit two years earlier. So I was surprised to see that, even this late, he was being treated as second-banana to Baez.

This is also barely a month before Dylan brought Baez along on his tour in England, then never invited her onstage, as seen in Dont Look Back (plug: I recently appeared on a podcast about that movie). Perhaps this sort of press treatment helps clarifies why she’d reasonably expected he would bring her up—and also why he didn’t want to seem like a perpetual afterthought to her.

At some point in advance of the show, this handbill was given out, perhaps at earlier shows at the venue (the Syria Mosque where, incidentally, Dylan would return in 1966 with a very different sound). Two of the songs they’re advertising for the unrelated program up top Dylan would cover years later (“Frankie & Johnny,” “Closer Walk with Thee”).

Thanks to Ian Woodward for passing this along, and the postcard below too

Some ads appeared in the paper. Notice the difference below between the one on the left and the one on the right? They added a second show! No recording of that one either, though. I guess mid-‘60s Pittsburgh needed its own Richard Alderson.