As Dylan finished the sessions for his 1965 "Positively 4th Street" single, he wanted to reproduce on-stage the same sound that he had polished in the studio.

[3] He soon began to gather a backing band with several musicians, such as bassist Harvey Brooks and organist Al Kooper, whom he had played with during the sessions for Highway 61 Revisited.

They impressed Dylan when he saw them play in Toronto, at the direction of Albert Grossman's staffer, Mary Martin, who told him to visit the group at Le Coq d'Or Tavern, a Yonge Street club.

[3] Drummer Levon Helm and guitarist Robbie Robertson were quickly invited to join Dylan's backing group.

[4] After only two shows into the initial tour in North America, Kooper left the band due to stress and safety concerns,[5][6] and he and Brooks were promptly replaced by the remaining Hawks (bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson).

[13] Leaving the continental United States, Dylan first traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii and from there to Australia, where he performed seven concerts over ten days in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

by a member of the audience (possibly John Cordwell),[14][15] between the songs "Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Like a Rolling Stone".

This incident soon became a legendary moment in Rock history; its status even drove BBC Radio 1 DJ Andy Kershaw to declare "I still can't believe they've finally put it out.

A review in the magazine Melody Maker of the May 5, 1966 concert in Dublin, Ireland stated that "It was unbelievable to see a hip-swinging [sic] Dylan trying to look and sound like Mick Jagger.

The May 10 concert at Colston Hall in Bristol was savaged by one reviewer, saying that Dylan was "sacrificing lyric and melody to the God of big beat.

[18] Concert-goers began to become hostile, yelling at Dylan from their seats, shouting phrases like "phoney" and "traitor" between songs.

"[17] During one concert, as the jeers and shouts reached a terrible level, Dylan lazily replied, "Oh come on, these are all protest songs.

"[18] When the group embarked to Scotland, the audience turned out to be somewhat more receptive, at least in Glasgow, where Dylan's supporters outnumbered his hecklers.

"[19] The final two nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London saw the biggest walkouts of the tour, but there was some support, as the Beatles were in the audience, shouting down the hecklers.

[19] When the tour ended, the Band returned to America angry and dejected; Robbie Robertson later said that, "After those shows we were lonely guys.

According to his primary photographer Barry Feinstein, Dylan picked up the custom tailored suit and boots from a shop on Carnaby Street in London.

When he wasn't on stage performing, Dylan was rarely seen without his blue suede military jacket, and custom wayfarer-style sunglasses.

During the electric sets, he used a 1965 black Fender Telecaster with a maplecap neck, subsequently used by Robbie Robertson until the mid seventies, during concerts like Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival, before being stripped of its paint in 1970, and having a humbucker placed on it around 1971.

Despite the transition from acoustic folk music over to rock 'n' roll, Dylan did not see himself as a part of the mainstream crowd of musicians.

During the second half of a concert, he performed eight songs each time; but on the other hand, played some of his older, once acoustic material as electric blues ("One Too Many Mornings", "I Don't Believe You"); but the bulk of each set was centered on recent Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited material, whether it be acoustic or electric.

[7] Dylan added several songs to the set as the tour progressed, including "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down", "Visions of Johanna", "4th Time Around", and "Tell Me, Momma", while he omitted "To Ramona", "Gates of Eden", "Love Minus Zero/No Limit", "Tombstone Blues", "From a Buick 6", "Maggie's Farm", "It Ain't Me, Babe", and "Positively 4th Street" during the later part of the tour.

[43][44][45][46] On July 29, 1966, two months after the last concert of the World Tour, Dylan was involved in a motorcycle accident while riding on the property of his manager, Albert Grossman.

Dylan's withdrawal from touring coincided with a similar decision by the Beatles, who had decided to halt public performances after their unpleasant experiences in The Philippines (after unintentionally snubbing the Marcos family)[49] and in the United States (due to the backlash over John Lennon's misinterpreted "more popular than Jesus" statement).

However, Dylan continued to record in the period following the accident, taping a large body of work with The Band downstairs in the converted garage of their rented home, nicknamed "Big Pink" due to its salmon-colored siding, near Woodstock, New York, which became known as The Basement Tapes.