On This Day In Rock: 53 Years Ago: July 25, 1965: Dylan Goes Electric At Newport

On the night of Sunday, July 25, 1965, Dylan's band at Newport included two musicians who had played on his single which had come out 5 days earlier: "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, bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay, (both formerly of Howlin' Wolf's band), also appeared with Dylan that day, accompanied by Barry Goldberg on piano.

The first song was "Maggie's Farm", featuring blistering guitar from Bloomfield. The band went on to play "Like A Rolling Stone" and an early version of "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry"... then suddenly left the stage, to the chagrin of the crowd, who were expecting a full set from the evening's headliners. Dylan was persuaded to come out and play two solo acoustic songs, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".

People have been arguing over the crowd's reception ever since. Some people loved it, some people hated it. Some booed because Dylan was playing electric music with a rock band at a folk festival, appearing to "sell out" folk's pure values. Other booed because of a terrible sound system or because it was too loud or because the set was too short or because they thought it was cool to boo Dylan, the former "voice of his generation".

But everybody saw it as a turning point for folk and rock and the youth movement in general.

Here's the first song from Newport, "Maggie's Farm"...