From RollingStone, Robbie celebrates the 60th
birthday of The Zimmerman:<br><br><br>Robbie Robertson on
Dylan<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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."