Dylan Returns to Newport Music Fest

[Dave Monroe]

August 2, 2002
Dylan Returns to Newport Music Fest
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:43 a.m. ET

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) -- It was a watershed event in
popular music: Bob Dylan, folk music's young minstrel,
taking the stage with an electric guitar slung over
his shoulder.

To the die-hard folkies at Newport on July 25, 1965,
it was an outrage.

Thirty-seven years later, Dylan is coming back,
headlining Saturday's program at the Apple & Eve
Newport Folk Festival.

His long-awaited return stirs memories of the day when
he ``plugged in,'' was booed mercilessly, by most
accounts, and in the process knocked down barriers
between folk and rock.

``There was an element of extreme Puritanism and
tradition in the folk crowd, who really did feel that
rock 'n' roll was just one big sellout,'' says music
historian Tim Riley, author of ``Hard Rain: A Dylan
Commentary.''

``It was like Dylan showed up at Newport and announced
he was joining the other side.''

[...]

Up to that point, a musical Mason-Dixon line had
divided folk and rock.

[...]

According to some accounts, Pete Seeger had to be
physically restrained from using an ax to cut the
power cable.

[...]

Dylan has never spoken publicly about his reception at
Newport, and declined to be interviewed for this
article.

For 37 years, he never came back to the festival.

But his disastrous performance that day sparked a
music revolution.

``It turns out the people who were booing were the
ones that were in the dark,'' Riley says. ``It's like
a Methodist showing up at a Puritan meeting.
Puritanism is just gone. It's over.''...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Newport-Dylan-Returns.html

And from George Wein, "A Folk Festival's Idol
Returns," NY Times, Saturday, August 3rd, 2002 ...

To create the kind of music festival that would truly
represent the folk world, I knew in 1962 that I needed
someone who had the respect of traditional musicians
as well as contemporary performers. In other words, I
needed Pete Seeger....

[...]

In 1963, Bob Dylan was a skinny kid with a nasal voice
and an iconoclastic, oddball demeanor who had made a
splash in the folk world. But Bob Dylan was not yet a
nationally prominent artist.[...]  That performance
established Bob Dylan as the reigning prince of the
Newport Folk Festival.

Two years later, in 1965, when Bob Dylan last
performed at the festival, he was the linchpin in the
antiwar protest songs movement. We all expected him to
deliver more of these poignant songs during the
festival. But he had made his own decision as to what
he would do....

[...]

He had rehearsed late one night during the festival
with a pick-up group from the Paul Butterfield Blues
Band. When he kicked off his performance with a rock
'n' roll version of "Maggie's Farm," the audience was
totally confused.[...]  Backstage, pandemonium
reigned.[...] someone tapped me on the shoulder and
said, "Pete's really upset, maybe you should talk to
him." I found Peter Seeger sitting in a parked car in
the field behind the stage.

"That noise is terrible!" he cried. "Can't we stop
it?"

I said, "Pete, it's too late. There's nothing we can
do." The legend that Pete threatened to cut the power
cables with an ax is a myth.

[...]

Bob Dylan returns to the Newport Folk Festival today
after 37 years. After receiving invitations from us
for the past 19 years, he finally scheduled an
appearance at our festival. The question is what will
he do at Newport? We have never asked. Whatever it is,
it will be all right with me. 

George Wein is the founder of the Newport Folk and
Newport Jazz Festivals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/03/opinion/03WEIN.html

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