Plugging In: Dylan Goes Electric

In this writer's humble opinion, perhaps the single most important performance that shaped the evolution of rock & roll music was Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Certainly, not on a national media scale like Elvis or The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but more important as to how music would evolve. The songwriter was about to take center stage, and with him bring the album & FM radio.

Now, in 1965 Bob Dylan was no unknown. He was perhaps the biggest star of the folk scene, and was already being hailed as the "Poet of His Generation." He wrote & sang for a cause, most importantly the Civil Rights Movement. He idolized Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger. He was a contemporary of Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, Richie Havens, and Judy Collins. He was the voice of the Bohemian movement from Greenwich Village. Young folkies came to stay at The Earle Hotel like Dylan, & to play alongside at clubs like The Gaslight. However, by 1965 the weight had become enormous. Dylan felt used, manipulated, and constrained by those in the folk scene. After meeting The Beatles after a show in NYC in which the music was virtually inaudible over the crowd (which assuredly DID NOT go down like this -or did it?), Dylan decided the best way to reach a new audience, fresh clay to mold if you will, was to buy a Fender Stratocaster which he did right away.

Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home in March of 1965, which one side was all acoustic and included "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and "Mr. Tambourine Man." The other side, however, was all electric & featured the classics "Maggie's Farm" & "Subterranean Homesick Blues." The album signaled the dawn of a new era and was noticed by all, but the trick was to break from the Greenwich scene. That would come on July 25th, 1965.

Now, Dylan was no novice when it came to rock & roll. He idolized Chuck Berry, he had sat face to face with Howlin' Wolf & Muddy Waters, and The Beatles had become fast friends & mutual admirers. Dylan had been a good folkie the previous day at Newport by playing all acoustic at a workshop, yet the master plan was to unfold on a rainy July 25th. Accompanied by a pickup band that would gone to fame as The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, as well as legendary organist Al Kooper, Dylan threw together a set that kicked off with "Maggie's Farm." You would have thought hell had just frozen over though....

Boos cascaded from the crowd (and from backstage). Their folk hero whose integrity they admired had just sold out to the man. Pete Seeger, Dylan's hero was furious & went to a car to sit with his hands over his ears. The band launched into "Like A Rolling Stone" next. More boos & heckling. A flustered Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary) - the show's MC and Dylan's former roommate, coaxed Dylan back onto the stage after Dylan & his band had walked off after the third song (they had only rehearsed three). After making his statement & going electric, Dylan returned with an acoustic for an impromptu set. "Anybody got an E harmonica?" Dylan asked the crowd, still stung over their Messiahs turn. Harmonica's showered the stage in a surreal statement of stubbornness by the folk faithful. He finished with "Mr. Tambourine Man," a somewhat wry kiss-off to what he had become to the unbending folk scene. Dylan would not appear at Newport for another 37 years, when he played in a wig & fake beard.

Dylan continued to tour with his half-acoustic, half-electric show in 1965. One of the most famous lines ever in the history of rock music was uttered at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England the following May, when a heckler screamed, "Judas!" Dylan responded, "I don't believe you, you're a liar," and turned to his band exclaiming to the world, "Play it fucking loud!" as they ripped into "..Rolling Stone."

Two significant things happened as a result of Bob Dylan plugging in. First, his influence over John Lennon was immediately apparent with the release of Rubber Soul in December of 1965. Dylan had met with Lennon, and basically told him "you're music is great but you've got nothing to say." Gone from Lennon's repertoire were the poppy numbers, although Paul McCartney continued to write "granny music" like "Drive My Car" much to Lennon's chagrin. Lennon moved beyond romantic themes with songs like "Nowhere Man" & "Norwegian Wood" and The Beatles to evolved as the most iconic group ever.

Second, Dylan killed the stranglehold the elitist, traditionalist Greenwich Village had on the whole Bohemian movement. Songwriters like John Phillips, John Sebastian, Roger McGuinn, & David Crosby set sail from The Earle and moved west to California where it was safe to be free and experiment...both musically & chemically. As groups like The Byrds, The Lovin' Spoonful, & The Mamas & The Papas flourished in the California sun, Brian Wilson & his Beach Boys took notice and were suddenly motivated to write better songs...resulting in Pet Sounds. Up north, San Francisco way, the Bohemian counter-culture from Greenwich & Cambridge came together with their counterparts from Berkeley and found a home on the corner of Haight-Ashbury...except now they were being labeled "hippies" (short for "hipsters" which the Beatniks had also been referred to in NY). Former Greenwich singer/songwriters like Richie Havens were now holding court on their own terms (meaning there were no rules) & kids followed from all walks of life & all parts of the world with dreams to start a band and get something off their chests.

Bob Dylan literally shocked the world in 1965 when he plugged in an electric guitar. Ever since, however, the literary & thematic boundaries in rock & roll song writing have been pushed to no end. Anything is fair game - any subject, any style...anything. You've just got to be true to yourself and your own beliefs. That is why Bob Dylan was successful then on July 25, 1965 even though he was nearly booed off stage. The youth of the world already had a sound, they just needed a voice. He beat it into our brains and we're all better for it. Thanks, Bob.