Bob Dylan booed off stage at The Newport Folk Festival

Bob Dylan played a full 'electric' set at The Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island and was booed off stage on July 25, 1965

Retro History for July 25 The 50s 60s 70s 80s

By 1965, Bob Dylan had achieved the status of leading songwriter of the American folk music revival.

On July 20, 1965, Dylan released his single, "Like a Rolling Stone", featuring a rock sound. On July 25, 1965, Dylan performed with a rock band at the Newport Folk Festival. Some sections of the audience booed Dylan's performance. Leading members of the folk movement, including Irwin Silberand Ewan MacColl criticised Dylan for moving away from political songwriting, and performing with an electric band.

On Saturday, July 24, 1965, Bob Dylan performed three acoustic numbers, "All I Really Want to Do", "If You Gotta Go, Go Now", and "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" at a Newport workshop.

According to Jonathan Taplin, a roadie at Newport (and later a road manager for the acts of Dylan's manager Albert Grossman) Dylan made a spontaneous decision on the Saturday that he would challenge the Festival by performing with a fully amplified band. Taplin said that Dylan had been irritated by condescending remarks which festival organiser Alan Lomax had made about the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, when Lomax introduced them for an earlier set at a festival workshop. Dylan's attitude, according to Taplin, was, "Well, fuck them if they think they can keep electricity out of here, I'll do it. On a whim he said he wanted to play electric." Bob Dylan then assembled a band and rehearsed that night at a mansion being used by festival organiser George Wein.

On the night of Sunday, July 25, Bob Dylan's appearance was sandwiched between Cousin Emmy and the Sea Island singers, two very traditional acts. The band that went on stage to back Dylan included two musicians who had played on his recently released single, "Like a Rolling Stone": Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar and Al Kooper on organ. Two of Bloomfield's bandmates from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band also appeared at Newport: bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay, along with Barry Goldberg on piano.

Footage of Bob Dylan's Newport performance can be seen in the documentary films Festival (1967), No Direction Home (2005) and The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965 (2007). The footage begins with Dylan being introduced by Master of Ceremonies Peter Yarrow: "Ladies and gentlemen, the person that's going to come up now has a limited amount of time ... His name is Bob Dylan." In the documentary footage, the sound of both booing and cheering can be heard a few bars into Dylan's first song, "Maggie's Farm", and continues throughout his second, "Like a Rolling Stone". Dylan and his band then performed "Phantom Engineeer", an early version of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", but this song was omitted from The Other Side of the Mirror DVD.

After "Phantom Engineer", Dylan and the band left the stage. The sound of booing and clapping can be heard in the background. When Peter Yarrow returned to the microphone, he begged Dylan to continue performing. According to Robert Shelton, when Dylan returned to the stage, he discovered he did not have the right harmonica and said to Yarrow, "What are you doing to me?"Dylan then asked the audience for 'an E harmonica'. Within a few moments, a clatter of harmonicas hit the stage. He then performed two songs on acoustic guitar for the audience: "Mr. Tambourine Man", and then, as his farewell to Newport, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The crowd exploded with applause at the end, calling for more. Dylan did not return to the Newport festival for 37 years. In an enigmatic gesture, Dylan performed at Newport in 2002, sporting a wig and fake beard

Retro History For The Decade 1980

1989 Brandi Sherwood, of Idaho, crowned 7th Miss Teen USA
1988 Mindy Duncan, 16, of Oregon, crowned 6th Miss Teen USA
1988 Pedro Delgado wins Tour de France
1987 Sherri Martel beats Fabulous Moolah for WWF Woman's Championship Belt
1987 U.S.S.R. launches Kosmos 1870, 15-ton Earth-study satellite
1986 Sikhs extremist kill 16 hindus in Muhktsar India
1985 Spokeswoman for Rock Hudson confirmed he had AIDS
1985 U.S. performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
1985 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear Test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan U.S.S.R.
1985 Uganda suspends constitution following coup
1984 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes 1st woman to walk in space
1983 1st non-human primate, baboon, conceived in a lab dish, San Antonio
1983 Washington Public Power Supply System defaulted $2.25 billion
1982 20th Tennis Fed Cup: USA beats Germany in Santa Clara USA (3-0)
1982 37th U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship won by Janet Anderson
1982 France performs nuclear Test
1981 Voyager 2 encounters Saturn
1980 Train crash at Winsum, 9 die
1980 U.S. performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site

Retro History For The Decade 1970

1979 109 cm rainfall at Alvin Texas (state record)
1978 Bob Lemon replaces Billy Martin as Yankee manager
1978 Cincinnati Red Pete Rose sets NL record hitting in 38 consecutive games
1978 John Lydon forms rock group Public Ltd Image
1976 Annegret Richter runs 100m (11.01)
1976 Susie Berning wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open
1975 "A Chorus Line," longest-running Broadway show (6,137), premieres
1973 George Harrison pays 1,000,000 pounds tax on his Bangladesh concert and album
1973 U.S.S.R. launches Mars 5
1972 43rd All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 4-3 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stad
1972 All star MVP: Joe Morgan (Cincinnati Reds)
1971 Judy Kimball wins LPGA O'Sullivan Ladies Golf Open
1970 "(They Long to Be) Close to You" reaches #1

Retro History For The Decade 1960

1969 1st performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (Fillmore East, New York)
1969 70,000 attend Seattle Pop Festival
1969 Edward Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving scene of an accident a week after the Chappaquiddick car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne
1968 Pope Paul VI encyclical against On regulation of birth
1967 Construction begins on San Francisco MUNI METRO (Market Street subway)
1966 Brian Jones final perfomance as a Rolling Stone
1966 Eric Clapton records guitar tracks for Harrison's "While My Guitar..."
1966 Mao Tse Tung swims Yangtse River
1966 Supremes release "You Can't Hurry Love"
1966 Yankee manager Casey Stengel elected to Hall of Fame
1965 Bob Dylan played a full 'electric' set at The Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island and was booed off stage.
1965 Folk-rock begins, Dylan uses electricity at Newport Folk Festival
1965 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Buckeye Savings Golf Tournament
1964 "Here's Love" closes at Shubert Theater New York City after 338 performances
1964 Beatles' "Hard Day's Night, A," album goes #1 and stays #1 for 14 weeks
1964 Bob Simpson out for 311 at Old Trafford
1964 Race riot in Rochester, New York
1963 Belgian Senate accept Law on language regulations
1963 U.S., Russia and England sign nuclear Test ban treaty
1962 House passes bill requiring equal pay for equal work regardless of sex
1961 Maris hits home runs 37, 38, 39 and 40 in a doubleheader
1960 Company Industrielle et Forestere (Indufor) forms in Brussels
1960 U.S. Republican convention nominates Nixon as presidential candidate


Retro History For The Decade 1950

1957 Monarchy in Tunisia abolished in favor of a republic
1957 Peter Loader takes a cricket hat-trick England vs. WI Headingley
1957 U.S. performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
1956 38th PGA Championship: Jack Burke at Blue Hill CC Boston
1956 Italian liner Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Stockholm
1956 Jordan attacks United Nations Palestine force
1954 Marilynn Smith wins LPGA Fort Wayne Golf Open
1953 New York City transit fare rises from 10 cents to 15 cents, 1st use of subway tokens
1952 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico created (Constitution Day)
1952 Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing U.S. commonwealth

Have a groovy vintage retro day!


- Retro Rebirth

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Vintage Retro Music & Retro Pop Culture is our passion and what we LOVE. We keep it going everyday for the love of producing it for you to enjoy. Thanks for viewing. Much Peace! Bob Dylan booed off stage at The Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965.