Weekend Music -- Dylan Goes Electric

 

Sixty years ago today (yes, in that magical year 1965), folk music's biggest star went to the Newport Folk Festival and ... plugged in:

Bob Dylan’s performance at the Newport (Rhode Island) Folk Festival in 1965 is widely regarded as one of the pivotal moments in the history of rock music. But if there is near consensus on its importance, there is much less agreement on exactly what happened. Rock historians, Dylan’s biographers, and eyewitnesses provide varying accounts of the audience’s reaction to Dylan’s performance, the reasons behind those reactions, and Dylan’s response.

This much is clear: when Dylan took the stage at Newport on July 25, 1965, he was the leading light of the folk music revival of the early 1960s. Based on traditional American musical forms and steeped in the populist politics of the 1930s, the revival was meshed with the ongoing civil rights movement and thrived on topical songwriting. The pursuit of “authenticity” lay at the heart of the revival, and as such it was generally believed that real folk music was played only on acoustic instruments. Folk purists had little respect for rock and roll, which most regarded as puerile and crassly commercial...

Having already released the part- electric "Bringing It All Back Home" album, Dylan's move to a rock format was clearly being telegraphed to his fans.  But when he showed up at the folk festival in Newport, the response to his electric set -- "Maggie's Farm," "Like a Rolling Stone," and "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" -- was (as you can read about at the link) decidedly mixed.  He went on after a break to play acoustic versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue."  Today, we're featuring his performance of "Like a Rolling Stone," with the crowd already in some turmoil at its outset. His all- star backup band consisted of Mike Bloomfield on guitar, Al Kooper on organ/bass, Jerome Arnold on bass, Sam Lay on drums, and Barry Goldberg on piano/organ.  Timeless music.