Dylan Goes Electric: 50 Years This Werkend

[Red]

Dylan Goes Electric: 50 Years This Weekend

The Newport Folk Festival is this weekend. 50 years ago, I had the honor of hanging from the fence at the back of Peabody Park(no ticket) to hear Bob Dylan play electric guitar for the first time in public. And get booed. Folk purists did not like the change. Now called the single most important moment in the history of rock music....

https://www.boston.com/entertainmen...t-years-ago/0HarLrFs3u6k6Yy7BOLBwM/story.html

"“I think no matter which angle you take, the one thing that everyone can agree upon is that that moment, and I mean the pun intentionally, was electrifying,” said Sweet. “It’s so rare that there’s one direct moment in time, where you knew music was going to be different going forward.”


Released only 8 days earlier, I still remember this most of all. Could not for the life of me understand the boos, but I loved it. Great job on this old video....
Like A Rolling Stone.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x...g-stone-live-newport-festival-1965_shortfilms

 

[Red]

Great article on a new book "Dylan Goes Electric":

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review-dylan-goes-electric-by-elijah-wald-1.2296012

"‘A leather jacket, shiny in the lights . . . a salmon-colored shirt buttoned tight at the neck . . . His jeans were tight and black above his black cowboy boots, and his guitar was a solid-body Stratocaster with a two-tone sunburst finish. The lights picked him out, alone, front and centre, the other players shadows in the darkness behind him. He listened a moment more, feeling the power of the band, then stepped to the microphone and sang a single line: ‘I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more . . . ’”

The year is 1965, the day is July 25th, the event is Rhode Island’s Newport Folk Festival, and the result of Bob Dylan’s electrified few songs here is, no more and no less, the changing of the cultural guard.

Up to this point, Dylan had been perceived as the natural (if not anointed) heir to Woody Guthrie, the iconic figurehead of the American folk movement. But America hadn’t reckoned on anyone biting the hand that had inspired and influenced him. In one night, across a few noisy, amplified songs, Dylan dragged folk music kicking and screaming into the realms of rock and pop.

It was, writes American author Elijah Wald in his superb book, Dylan Goes Electric! – Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties, “the iconic moment of intersection, when rock emerged – separate from rock’n’roll – and replaced folk as the serious, intelligent voice of a generation”.

The guitar is back in town for the 50th anniversary. Is Dylan also in town? We'll see....

https://www.denverpost.com/sportsco...-later-dylans-electric-guitar-returns-newport

Audio Stream for the 2015 Newport Folk Festival.

https://zumic.com/music-videos/1927...ival-live-stream-exclusively-on-tunein-radio/

 

[Red]

By the author of "Dylan Goes Electric":

https://time.com/3968092/bob-dylan-electric-newport/

"On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in black jeans, black boots, and a black leather jacket, carrying a Fender Stratocaster in place of his familiar acoustic guitar. The crowd shifted restlessly as he tested his tuning and was joined by a quintet of backing musicians. Then the band crashed into a raw Chicago boogie and, straining to be heard over the loudest music ever to hit Newport, he snarled his opening line: “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more!”

What happened next is obscured by a maelstrom of conflicting impressions: The New York Times reported that Dylan “was roundly booed by folk-song purists, who considered this innovation the worst sort of heresy.” In some stories Pete Seeger, the gentle giant of the folk scene, tried to cut the sound cables with an axe. Some people were dancing, some were crying, many were dismayed and angry, many were cheering, many were overwhelmed by the ferocious shock of the music or astounded by the negative reactions.

As if challenging the doubters, Dylan roared into “Like a Rolling Stone,” his new radio hit, each chorus confronting them with the question: “How does it feel?” The audience roared back its mixed feelings, and after only three songs he left the stage. The crowd was screaming louder than ever—some with anger at Dylan’s betrayal, thousands more because they had come to see their idol and he had barely performed. Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, tried to quiet them, but it was impossible. Finally, Dylan reappeared with a borrowed acoustic guitar and bid Newport a stark farewell: “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue….”

 

[candrew]

Saw Dylan in 89 with The Dead. He opened up with one his hits and the crowd went nuts, then he went on and played 7 or 8 non-descript songs in a row that no one's ever heard of. It was clear he didn't give a rats *** that people were paying good money to see him play. Then The Dead came out and they did Watchtower and that was it.

Now I'm to understand that he plays his hits when performing but he changes the phrasing or arrangement around so it sounds nothing like the original version. There's a few videos of it up on YouTube, I'm not going to bother looking for them.

So it's pretty clear he's never cared what his audience has wanted.

Even still, I started re-listening to "Desire" recently - it's a masterpiece.

 

[Red]

Yeah, what you're describing is how I understand it as well, as far as how he does his old stuff. As a poet, songwriter, bard, he was incomparable for a spell. From what I've read, the material just wrote itself, poured out of him in single sittings. That's the muse for ya. Strong rumors that he's in Newport for the reprisal of 1965 in Sunday's performance. I'm not. It's a hellava festival these days. Some of my family sail to the site, anchor off Ft. Adams with hundreds of other vessels for a free weekend of good music. Was talking to a cousin today. He remembered it the same, hanging from the stockade fence watching that set in 65.