This Day in Music Spotlight – Bob Dylan Goes ‘Electric’
July 25, 1965
Andrew Vaughan
07.25.2010
Before rock and rollers dipped into the folk music world in the mid-’60s, the folk scene was largely academic with students and professors studying rather than feeling the American traditional music of yesteryear. That would all change in the’60s, of course, as artists like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds and Neil Young and other young rock and rollers fused and blended folk, blues, country and rock and roll into a new dynamic music scene. But the longhaired hippy revolution was still in its gestation period in 1965 when the young Bob Dylan was booked for the Newport Folk Festival. Dylan had quickly risen through the ranks and was something of the new darling of the folkie crowd thanks mostly to his tune “Blowin’ in the Wind” that had been a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary.
The folk crown had a new, young hero and a champion, or so they thought, for traditional, pure folk music. So when the young hopeful came on stage on Sunday night, July 25, 1965, and played “Maggie’s Farm” on an electric guitar, parts of the crowd were in shock. Backed by Mike Bloomfield on guitar and some of the Paul Butterfield Blues band plus Al Kooper, Dylan was booed by a section of the audience. The jeering continued through his second song, “Like a Rolling Stone” and then “Phantom Engineer,” after which Dylan said “Let’s go, man. That’s all,” and walked off stage as the jeering and booing – and some clapping, it should be noted – continued.
Coaxed back on stage, Dylan then performed two songs without the band – not because of the booing but because they had only rehearsed the three songs. He sang “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” to a mostly silent and still stunned audience. Finally, after “Mr. Tambourine Man,” the tension was released and the crowd applauded and cheered wildly. Dylan would never be accepted again by some in the folk music fraternity, but he had made a significant move towards rock music, a genre he would profoundly influence over the next few decades.
Dylan did not return to the Newport festival for 37 years.
