The evening of July 25, 1965. Newport, RI. The famed Newport Folk Festival.
Bob Dylan had just finished playing "Like A Rolling Stone" for the first time in public.
I remember thinking: "Why?! Why are all these people booing Bob Dylan? What's going on?!?" :huh:
I had no way of knowing at the time, but decades later a PBS documentary on the artist called what I witnessed on stage that night "The most important single event in the development of rock and roll music": The night Bob Dylan went electric.
The boos are controversial as to the reason. Link near the bottom of this thread delves into it. The party line: Bob Dylan was a folk artist, the greatest of his generation, how dare he plug in a guitar!? Me? I had just heard Bob Dylan play " Like a Rolling Stone" for the first time in public. It does not get any better then that. And for free, my friends and I having hopped the stockade fence when the cops weren't looking :dunno:
Here's an excellent copy of that performance. You can detect a restlessness and boos in the crowd as he sets up. And for a second at the end, you can hear the boos begin.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmx...965_shortfilms
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People call say 'beware doll, you're bound to fall'
You thought they were all kidding you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hanging out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ahh you've gone to the finest schools, alright Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You say you never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
A complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ah you never turned around to see the frowns
On the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discovered that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To have on your own, with no direction home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ahh princess on a steeple and all the pretty people
They're all drinking, thinking that they've got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal
How does it feel, ah how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
So why did all those people boo him that night??
http://folkmusic.about.com/od/bobdyl...s-Electric.htm
"The date: July 25, 1965. The event: the Newport Folk Festival. Backed by guitarist Al Cooper and other members of the Paul Butterfield Blues band, along with pianist Berry Goldberg, an earnest 24-year-old Bob Dylan took the stage, an uncommon sight hanging from his shoulder: an electric guitar. The rising star had a major surprise planned for the audience, but he had no clue of the controversy he was about to stir."
"Dylan's performance was innocent enough. Intent on showing off a pocketful of new electric songs, some from his just-released half-acoustic-half-electric album, Bringing it All Back Home, Dylan tore into his music with driven abandon, as he commonly did during acoustic performances. A mix of both cheering and booing started when Dylan launched into “Maggie's Farm,” but the situation continued to melt down as he wound onward through the as-yet unreleased single, “Like a Rolling Stone.” Finally, the hostility climaxed with chants of “Sellout!” as Dylan ran through “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it Takes a Train to Cry.” Things got so sensational and warped that a purple-faced Pete Seeger was allegedly running around backstage with an axe, threatening to chop the wires to the soundboard. Enough was enough; after ending the song, the musicians walked off, somewhat stunned. After all, hadn't Muddy Waters played electric at the festival? Why was the audience open-minded and accepting about some musicians, but not about Bob Dylan?"
The original studio version:
I think Dylan had the last laugh! Last year, Rolling Stone Magazine named "Like A Rolling Stone" "the greatest song of all time" in it's list of the so-called "500 greatest songs".
Bob Dylan had just finished playing "Like A Rolling Stone" for the first time in public.
I remember thinking: "Why?! Why are all these people booing Bob Dylan? What's going on?!?" :huh:
I had no way of knowing at the time, but decades later a PBS documentary on the artist called what I witnessed on stage that night "The most important single event in the development of rock and roll music": The night Bob Dylan went electric.
The boos are controversial as to the reason. Link near the bottom of this thread delves into it. The party line: Bob Dylan was a folk artist, the greatest of his generation, how dare he plug in a guitar!? Me? I had just heard Bob Dylan play " Like a Rolling Stone" for the first time in public. It does not get any better then that. And for free, my friends and I having hopped the stockade fence when the cops weren't looking :dunno:
Here's an excellent copy of that performance. You can detect a restlessness and boos in the crowd as he sets up. And for a second at the end, you can hear the boos begin.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmx...965_shortfilms
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People call say 'beware doll, you're bound to fall'
You thought they were all kidding you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hanging out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ahh you've gone to the finest schools, alright Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You say you never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
A complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ah you never turned around to see the frowns
On the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discovered that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To have on your own, with no direction home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ahh princess on a steeple and all the pretty people
They're all drinking, thinking that they've got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal
How does it feel, ah how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
So why did all those people boo him that night??
http://folkmusic.about.com/od/bobdyl...s-Electric.htm
"The date: July 25, 1965. The event: the Newport Folk Festival. Backed by guitarist Al Cooper and other members of the Paul Butterfield Blues band, along with pianist Berry Goldberg, an earnest 24-year-old Bob Dylan took the stage, an uncommon sight hanging from his shoulder: an electric guitar. The rising star had a major surprise planned for the audience, but he had no clue of the controversy he was about to stir."
"Dylan's performance was innocent enough. Intent on showing off a pocketful of new electric songs, some from his just-released half-acoustic-half-electric album, Bringing it All Back Home, Dylan tore into his music with driven abandon, as he commonly did during acoustic performances. A mix of both cheering and booing started when Dylan launched into “Maggie's Farm,” but the situation continued to melt down as he wound onward through the as-yet unreleased single, “Like a Rolling Stone.” Finally, the hostility climaxed with chants of “Sellout!” as Dylan ran through “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it Takes a Train to Cry.” Things got so sensational and warped that a purple-faced Pete Seeger was allegedly running around backstage with an axe, threatening to chop the wires to the soundboard. Enough was enough; after ending the song, the musicians walked off, somewhat stunned. After all, hadn't Muddy Waters played electric at the festival? Why was the audience open-minded and accepting about some musicians, but not about Bob Dylan?"
The original studio version:
I think Dylan had the last laugh! Last year, Rolling Stone Magazine named "Like A Rolling Stone" "the greatest song of all time" in it's list of the so-called "500 greatest songs".
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