Plugged In: How Bob Dylan Electrified the Music World at Newport

Last week, we brought you the story of one of the most electric guitar collections we have ever heard of – the famed Irsay collection.

In that issue, we briefly touched on the story of how a single Bob Dylan concert changed music by simply plugging in.

Today, we’ll look into that infamous (or famous, depending on where you stand) show in detail.

But first, we want to remind you that Kin has another guitar drop to check out. Check it out here and sign up for future drops.

Now back to Bob Dylan. In order to set the stage, we’ll pick this story up in 1963 when Bob Dylan played at the Newport Folk Festival.

That year began a three-year string of appearances at the folk festival.

Newport started with an idea from George Wein - who already founded and started the well-known Newport Jazz Festival. As a club owner (he owned Storyville located in Boston), Wein started to catch onto the emerging and red-hot Folk Revival movement and invited key figures in the movement to a place to play at his club.

With Newport Jazz already under his belt, Wein tried to envision a world where these folk singers and musicians could play at the festival. But, jazz musicians were strident in their belief that such a move be a clear commercial play and would go against many in the jazz world.

This line of thinking from those in the jazz community led Wein to think about creating and putting on a completely separate music festival. Because of the rising popularity of the genre, there were enough musicians and fans that could turn out to make it its own successful festival.

So, the Newport Folk Festival was born and the first annual one began in 1959. The first one played at Frebody Park and featured Earl Scruggs, Pete Seeger, the Kingston Trio, Jacob Niles, and Odetta – amongst others. The biggest shock of the festival was a surprise appearance by Joan Baez, a guest of Bob Gibson. Her set featured a duet of “Virgin Mary Had One Son” and “We Are Crossing Jordan River.”

The year 1963 was virtually the one that can be considered Dylan’s big arrival.

Playing at a workshop, people could get close to musicians and mingle. A young, 19-year-old Dylan was there writing and workshopping songs in front of a crowd of no more than a hundred.

One eyewitness, photographer Rowland Scherman, was a virtual eyewitness to the event. With little clients to his name, Scherman stepped up to Dylan and asked if he could photograph him. Dylan was affirmative: “Yeah, that’d be cool.”

Over the next few hours, Scherman had a front-row seat to a duet session that had people all over talking, and one that spiraled Dylan into the greater conscienceless.

Scherman recalls:

_{American photographer Rowland Scherman photographed many of the iconic musical, cultural, and political events of the 1960s, including the Beatles’ first US concert, and Woodstock. In 1963, he covered the Newport Folk Festival, where musician Bob Dylan appeared for the first time, on stage with Joan Baez.}

A little later the workshop began and Bob tuned up his guitar and started playing the songs he wrote. There might have been a hundred or so people in the crowd, sitting on the grass in front of the stage. Just one or two songs into the set, folk superstar Joan Baez pulled up a chair next to Bob and started harmonizing with him. I hadn’t known they were pals, but she sure knew all his songs. The crowd immediately swelled impressively. The harmonies Joan effortlessly and beautifully inserted into Dylan’s songs gave them a gravitas few had heard before.

I went closer and pretty soon I was on the stage, positioning myself behind them. I couldn’t help myself. I knew I was where I ought to be, that I was experiencing some music that was really important. Sometimes you know. Stage left, I was really close to them. The only reason I wasn’t summarily kicked off the stage was, I now assume, was that I had several cameras and appeared to know what I was doing.

The audience response was terrific—just as mine was. This was important music. Was this crowd, now several hundred, the biggest audience he’d ever had? After the set, Bob was happy to see blues singer Victoria Spivey backstage and gave her a smooch. I found out much later that Bob had played harmonica and did backup vocals for her on her own label the year before.

One thing was certain: the buzz about Dylan’s duet went viral. Everyone at the festival was talking about, asking about, and wishing they were part of the small and intimate crowd that saw it unfold live.

The viral duet raised his stock for the following evening’s main-stage performance. Thousands that had been hearing about it descended to hear Dylan croon his folksy protest songs and his more bluesy, upbeat material.

As if the weekend couldn’t help launch this young crooner into the stratosphere, he had one more feat. On the closing night on Sunday, he was asked back up to the main stage for help on a Peter, Paul, and Mary encore. Instead of doing backup vocals, Dylan was the lead singer joined by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Pete Seeger, Theo Bikel, the Freedom Singers, and Joan Baez. Bob Dylan was a relative unknown outside of Greenwich Village and pockets of the Upper Midwest.

Not anymore.

Things Get Amped at Newport in 1965

Things changed in 1965.

Bob Dylan performed twice during the 1965 installation of the Newport Folk Festival, on July 24 and July 25. His setlists for both are below, including an image from the festival brochure.

Bob Dylan performed twice during the Festival, on Saturday during an afternoon workshop, and his infamous amped-up show on Sunday evening.

Saturday 24 July 1965 "Contemporary Songs" Afternoon Workshop

All I Really Want To Do

Tombstone Blues

Mr. Tambourine Man

If You Gotta Go, Go Now

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

Sunday 25 July 1965

Maggie's Farm*

Like A Rolling Stone*

Phantom Engineer (It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry)*

It's all Over Now, Baby Blue

Mr. Tambourine Man

*Bob Dylan (vocal & electric guitar), Michael Bloomfield (electric guitar),
Barry Goldberg (organ), Al Kooper (organ), Jerome Arnold (bass), Sam Lay (drums).

Dylan’s Saturday performance was otherwise unremarkable – there would be no hint of the mayhem and rock history made the following evening.

Yet, on the evening of Sunday, July 25 – all hell broke loose.

Dylan took the stage, clutching his Fender Stratocaster and wearing a black leather jacket. Instead of just strumming an acoustic guitar, Dylan’s tool for changing the rock and folk movement simultaneously was the Fender and an amp. He plugged in and began to launch into an electrified version of “Maggie’s Farm.” He followed that up with a world premiere of “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Today, it’s still one of the most talked about sets in rock and music history. It’s still debated to this very day.

There were a few notable elements to Dylan’s amped-up and electrified set:

• It was the first time he performed “Like a Rolling Stone”

• It’s often debated - half the crowd cheered, the other half booed. Either way, the performance was electrically polarizing to some, enthralling and reinvigorating to others.

• The performance, although generating huge controversy at the time from festival organizers and fans in the audience, was a watershed moment for Dylan and the music genre. It signified a distinct shift from folk to rock and helped shape both these musical universes for decades to come.

• The Fender Strat that Dylan used would go on to sell at auction for close to $1 million - the highest ever paid for a guitar at the time.

• Books and articles have been written dissecting the setlist.

• And, most importantly, it unlocked a sense for artists, musicians, and fans that loud, amplified rock music had an opportunity to unleash unimagined poetic possibilities previously thought of in the quiet, hushed, acoustic world of folk.

Joey Burns of Calexico recalls that evening as a moment to stand against established norms and thinking.

“It’s the true American spirit to rebel against the establishment – a moment of turning things upside down and questioning and rebelling and being true to oneself. Dylan being true to oneself as an artist. And, also reinventing oneself.” Burns said.

Pete Yarrow (one-third of the trio Peter, Paul, and Mary) was the emcee and introduced Dylan to the stage. Coming from the folk world, Yarrow understood how an electrified performance could shock and possibly infuriate purists in the audience.

Here you have a folk poet in Dylan, who was rapidly reaching new levels of fame, plugging in and blanketing the crowd with a dense sound they were unprepared for. It was shocking to the emotions and their deeper sense of what folk meant.

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone (Live at Newport 1965)

"The audience cared so much about his music and its meaning in the world of that time," Yarrow said. "To them, it was a breach of faith." Listeners wondered whether Dylan had become a sellout, he says, someone who had decided to "go commercial and let the suits determine what you're going to sound like."

Now, remember that Dylan was not the first to play an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. This was not unchartered territory. But, it was an amalgamation of the singer (Dylan), who many in the audience had come to revere as a folk hero holding a loud instrument they saw as part of the commodification of rock music.

At the same time, many were looking up to Dylan for answers. He was the one who wrote their anthems, and it was increasingly falling on his shoulders to be the one to bridge their world to the scary political climates that were shaping America’s domestic affairs. So, when the walls of this new role were closing in on Dylan, he felt like he had an opportunity to shake things up his way.

Author Elijah Wald breaks down the complicating factors between what was happening with Dylan on stage and the audience’s reaction. It goes far beyond the simple act of plugging in a guitar and hearing the cheers and boos from half the audience:

Legend has it that Pete Seeger, one of the festival organizers, had threatened to take an ax to the power cord. Most of the crowd was overwhelmed, never having heard a sound that loud. Many of the boos that rained down on the stage were because the distortion was so foreign and loud – the band was overpowering Dylan and the acoustic comforts his fans had gotten to know him for. Some of the crowd thought this intense new sound was too much. Making things even more complicated was that the band was brought together hours before they took the Newport main stage.

Still, others appeared to be booing because Dylan’s set was so short. He was coaxed back to the stage from Yarrow to play two more songs, and then it was all over – relegated to second-hand stories that have changed hands over decades.

Today, the story has taken on a legend of its own and retains different meanings for different folks. Either way, it’s a classic tale as old as time: A 24-year-old rising star attempts to challenge the authority figures in charge. In the process, he took a stand, questioned authority, challenged his role in the ever-changing political and rock climate, and reinvented himself.

Dylan’s Return to Newport

After his 1965 performance, Dylan did not play at the Newport Folk Festival for 37 years until the current century.

He appeared during the 2002 edition of the Newport Folk Festival sporting a wig and a fake beard.

In 2015, the festival celebrated the 50th anniversary of his now-famous set. There were several details to that installment of the Newport Folk Festival, including a secret lineup of artists who were only revealed once they took the stage and a discussion with the authors of a book published that year, “Dylan Goes Electric” by Elijah Ward about the impact of Dylan’s set on that electric evening.

And one exceptional guest appeared - the Fender Stratocaster Dylan played in that 1965 set.

Taylor Goldsmith, David Rawlings, and Gillian Welch joined the stage – Goldsmith was honored to play the Fender. While Dylan was sent an invite, he chose not to attend, but one of the most famous debates in rock history was undoubtedly rehashed and debated once again.

Taylor Goldsmith and his indie band Dawes also got to jam with the Fender paying homage to Dylan’s iconic performance with “Maggie’s Farm” – the song he opened that set with 50 years ago.

In addition, Dawes organist Al Kooper was part of Dylan’s backing band that same night in 1965.

In the end, there is no doubt that the night Dylan went electric changed the face of rock music forever.