Bob Dylan Newport 1965: I Choose Dylan. I Choose Art...

*EDIT/NOTE..."Maggie's Farm" & "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" have been re-uped due to the apostrophe...Enjoy! *EDIT/NOTE* 1/27/07

*EDIT/NOTE...Tracks "Maggie's Farm" & "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" are having problems. They will be fixed by weekends end. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks to Heather over at I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS for letting me know this. *Edit/NOTE* 1/26/2007

For a few years now I've been trying to find recordings of Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk festival. You know the one when he had the Paul Butterfield Blues Band sans Paul Butterfield (Blues Band) backing him and made Pete Seeger want to find an axe to cut the cable. The performance that he was nailed to the wall for.

This was the performance that changed the course of rock music.

Well, recently the desert wind of 2007 brought a recording of the concert to my stoop.

The set list is as follows...

Electric

Maggie's Farm
Like a Rolling Stone
Phantom Engineer

Acoustic

Mr. Tambourine Man
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

The changing of the guard produced a firestorm of criticism. Here's an open letter to Bob Dylan that appeared in the November 1965 1964 issue of Sing Out! magazine.

By: Irwin Sibler Editor of Sing Out! magazine...

Dear Bob:

It seems as though lots of people are thinking and talking about you these days. I read about you in Life and Newsweek and Time and The Saturday Evening Post and Mademoiselle and Cavalier and all such, and I realize that, all of a sudden, you have become a pheenom, a VIP, a celebrity. A lot has happened to you in these past two years, Bob -- a lot more than most of us thought possible.

I'm writing this letter now because some of what has happened is troubling me. And not me alone. Many other good friends of yours as well.

I don't have to tell you how we at SING OUT! feel about you -- about your work as a writer and an artist -- or how we feel about you as a person. SING OUT! was among the first to respond to the new ideas, new images, and new sounds that you were creating. By last count, thirteen of your songs had appeared in these pages. Maybe more of Woody's songs were printed here over the years, but, if so, he's the only one. Not that we were doing you any favors, Bob. Far from it. We believed -- and still believe -- that these have been among some of the best new songs to appear in America in more than a decade. "Blowin' in the Wind," "Don't Think Twice," "Hattie Carroll," "Restless Farewell," "Masters of War" -- these have been inspired contributions which have already had a significant impact on American consciousness and style.

As with anyone who ventures down uncharted paths, you've aroused a growing number of petty critics. Some don't like the way you wear your hair or your clothes. Some don't like the way you sing. Some don't like the fact that you've chosen your name and recast your past. But all of that, in the long run, is trivial. We both know that may of these criticisms are simply coverups for embarrassment at hearing songs that speak directly, personally, and urgently about where it's all really at.

But -- and this is the reason for this letter, Bob -- I think that the times there are a-changing. You seem to be in a different kind of bag now, Bob -- and I'm worried about it. I saw at Newport how you had somehow lost contact with people. It seemed to me that some of the paraphernalia of fame were getting in your way. You travel with an entourage now -- with good buddies who are going to laugh when you need laughing and drink wine with you and insure your privacy -- and never challenge you to face everyone else's reality again.
I thought (and so did you) of Jimmy Dean when I saw you last -- and I cried a little inside me for that awful potential for self-destruction which lies hidden in all of us and which can emerge so easily and so uninvited.

I think it begins to show up in your songs, now, Bob. You said you weren't a writer of "protest" songs -- or any other category, for that matter -- but you just wrote songs. Well, okay, call it anything you want. But any songwriter who tries to deal honestly with reality in this world is bound to write "protest" songs. How can he help himself?

Your new songs seem to be all inner-directed now, innerprobing, self- conscious -- maybe even a little maudlin or a little cruel on occasion. And it's happening on stage, too. You seem to be relating to a handful of cronies behind the scenes now -- rather than to the rest of us out front.
Now, that's all okay -- if that's the way you want it, Bob. But then you're a different Bob Dylan from the one we knew. The old one never wasted our precious time.

Perhaps this letter has been long overdue. I think, in a sense, that we are all responsible for what's been happening to you -- and to many other fine young artists. The American Success Machinery chews up geniuses at a rate of one a day and still hungers for more. Unable to produce real art on its own, the Establishment breeds creativity in protest against and nonconformity to the System. And then, through notoriety, fast money, and status, it makes it almost impossible for the artist to function and grow.

It is a process that must be constantly guarded against and fought.
Give it some thought, Bob. Believe me when I say that this letter is written out of love and deep concern. I wouldn't be sticking my neck out like this otherwise.

Legendary critic Paul Nelson wrote a piece supporting Dylan in the same issue. I unfortunatley could not find the article on the Internet. The extent of the article is as follows...

He notes that "the festival burned with excitement and controversy," Nelson pitched a very stark contrast between Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, representing the old and the new, the idealistic and the selfish, the political and the artistic, ultimately siding with the latter: "It was a sad parting of the ways for many, myself included. I choose Dylan. I choose art. I will stand behind Dylan and his "new" songs, and I'll bet my critical reputation (such as it may be) that I'm right."

ENJOY!

1965 Newport Folk Festival MP3s

Electric

1 Bob Dylan & The Blues Band-Maggie’s Farm (Newport 65)
2 Bob Dylan & The Blues Band-Like A Rolling Stone(Newport 65)
3 Bob Dylan & The Blues Band-Phantom Engineer(Newport 65)

Acoustic

4 Bob Dylan-Mr. Tambourine Man(Newport 65)
5 Bob Dylan-It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Newport 65)

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