Dylan's 1966 World Tour was notable as the first tour where Dylan employed an electric band backing him, following him "going electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The musicians Dylan employed as his backing band were known as The Hawks, who later became famous as The Band.
Dylan first saw his new personnel — guitarist Robbie Robertson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel, keys player Garth Hudson and drummer Levon Helm. Quickly poaching Robertson and Helm for a pair of upcoming gigs in Los Angeles and New York, Dylan refined his new sound with a group that included bassist Harvey Brooks and keyboardist Al Kooper, and though the crowds at those bicoastal shows didn't react as negatively as the audience in Newport, it was still clearly a work in progress.
In the summer of 1966, a motorcycle accident brought a halt to Dylan's touring activity, which led to the creatively rich convalescent period that produced the Basement Tapes LP — and presaged the former Hawks' coming-out party as the Band with 1968's landmark Music From Big Pink LP. The next time Dylan and the Band toured together, they'd both be household names.
