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18.6.08

I Sing the Dylan Electric

Man, people really got bent out of shape when Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in '65. The story of what happened is the stuff of legends. From the wonderful Wikipedia article "Electric Dylan Controversy":
In the documentary footage, the sound of loud booing and sporadic cheering begins just a few bars into Dylan's first song, "Maggie's Farm", and continues throughout the second, Like A Rolling Stone and "Phantom Engineer", (which evolved into "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry " released on Highway 61 Revisited).

After playing "Phantom Engineer", Dylan told the band, "Let's go, man. That's all", and walked off-stage. The sound of loud booing and clapping can be heard in the background. Peter Yarrow returned to the microphone and begged Dylan to continue performing. Apparently desperate to appease the audience, he assured them that Dylan was "just getting his axe" even before it was clear whether or not he was willing to return solo.

Dylan was, by some accounts, highly distressed. Eventually coaxed back onstage by Yarrow and Joan Baez, he realized he didn't have the right harmonica, and lashed out at Yarrow--"What are you doing to me," he demanded. [4] It was a reasonable question. Yarrow's public hectoring of Dylan to return to the stage was clearly a spur of the moment ploy to soothe the crowd. The band couldn't return (Kooper admitted they had only mastered the three songs they played[5]), so Dylan was essentially being forced to perform an impromptu acoustic set on a night when plugging in was a major artistic statement. And Dylan, his voice betraying real nervousness and distress, had to beg the audience for 'an E harmonica'. Within a few moments a clatter of harmonicas hit the stage. He snapped one up out the darkness and returned to the spotlight with a Chaplinesque flourish that got a laugh, but certainly the atmosphere was still tense. He then sang two songs to the now-silent audience, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "Mr. Tambourine Man", clearly relishing the kiss-off theme of the former. The crowd exploded with applause at the end, calling for more. Dylan did not return to the Newport festival for 37 years, and in an oblique nod to the events that transpired in 1965, his 2002 appearance was the only time he's performed in a wig and fake beard.
[emphasis mine]

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