Gloomy expression, rock star shades, wild hair – there is no mistaking this iconic image of Bob Dylan, taken on this day 60 years ago.
The bridge just visible in the background of this famous snap is of course not San Francisco’s Golden Gate or another suitably exotic location. It is the Severn Bridge.
The story behind the snap, taken on May 11, 1966, is as mundane as it is extraordinary – especially as this was on Dylan’s infamous and so-called at the time ‘Judas tour’.
The photographer behind reveals why the legendary singer looked quite so bleak… It was the good old-fashioned British weather grinding him down.
“It was the British weather that made him look so gloomy,” Barry Feinstein said. “It was a long tour and everyone was just worn out.”
The picture was also taken shortly after Dylan’s Bristol concert as part of his first world tour, which became known as the “Judas” tour.
The concert at the Colston Hall was his first date in the UK and was possibly the first time he was heckled for abandoning his folk style to go electric.
“The bard of nihilism, hope, anti-convention and protest was at the Colston Hall last night” wrote the Bristol Post’s reviewer Helen Reid. “Bob Dylan in person, even if you could not hear him clearly.
Bob Dylan pictured around the time of his Colston Hall show
“During the first half, the audience patiently listened as he belched his way solo through half a dozen marathons – in an unbroken chain. Where was the Dylan stage presence we have heard so much about?
“The second part of the evening was spent listening to beat music “a la Bob Dylan” – with the volume turned on full.
“Two guitarists (one was the now legendary Robbie Robertson from The Band) a drummer and an organist accompanied Mr Dylan.
“The resulting rivalry was wearying and not very enjoyable.
“At rare intervals the pianist could be heard fighting his battle against the rest of the noise with great ability – but he was drowned out.”
Back in 2006 Dylan fan Chris Jame, from Bedminster, who was at the concert, recalled: “We weren’t prepared for the electric side of it.
“When he brought the band on, a few people heckled and a few people walked out, but I thoroughly enjoyed the concert.”
Mike Thomas, from Henbury, recalled in 2011 how he’d been among those to walk out.
Bob Dylan in 1966, the year he came to Bristol
“I anticipated the Bristol concert eagerly, buying a good seat in the front row of the gallery,” he said. “The first disappointment for me was that there was no programme, the second that he appeared to be rushing through his solo acoustic songs, hardly pausing for the applause.
“Halfway through the first half someone shouted, “Why don’t you say something?” to which Dylan paused before whining, “Wha’ d’you want me to say?”.
“The thought “you could try thank you” occurred to many of us, but by then he was headlong into the next song.
“In the second half the band shambled on, proceeded to deafen us and then, during the third number, I walked out.
“In 1966, we were not that musically ignorant not to know what a good rock band sounded like – and in truth this one was pretty mediocre.
“Not only that, they were murdering one of my favourite songs from those early albums.
“Was I wrong? Could I not see the future? At that moment in time – no, I couldn’t.”
It was a few nights later, at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, that a gig-goer famously shouted “Judas!” at the singer, a jibe especially offensive given Dylan’s Jewish heritage. Nevertheless the incident – and the word – stuck.
In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan opened up on the impact it had on him.
“[They] tried to pin the name Judas on me,” he said. “Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you’ve been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that.
“Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified.”
But back to the snap. Here is is in all its uncropped glory.
Bob Dylan at the Aust ferry in 1966(Image: Barry Feinstein)
Dylan was waiting for the Severn ferry, at Aust, in the grim grey weather.
The first Severn Crossing can be made out in the background, but it was another four months before the bridge would open.
The picture has been well known for decades, but the Severn Bridge and the Aust ferry ticket house were usually cropped out.
Mr Feinstein, who moved to the United States, was rooting around in his attic a couple of decades ago when he found the original proof sheet from that day in 1966.
It was before Martin Scorsese used the image for his Bob Dylan film, 2005’s No Direction Home, and it’s likely to be one of a series of snaps taken on that gloomy day 60 years ago.