37 years after pulling out an electric guitar and hearing boos from the tight-ass folkies in the Newport Folk Festival crowd, Orpheus returns to Newport Folk Festival for the first time on August 3, 2002 and plays 2-plus hours in a fake beard and wig.
Orpheus opens with Subterranean Homesick Blues — the opening song on his first-ever electric album. Dig it.
The Sixties pop prophet describes a revolution in reverse.
Source: Music Review: Bob Dylan’s ‘Murder Most Foul’ | National Review
Not even Dylan can challenge a culture that refuses to listen, and “Murder Most Foul,” at 17 minutes long, became part of the ceaseless noise that only streaming subscribers have the privilege to admire or ignore. It should have been an event. Instead, its complacent reception shows that our popular culture has simply become indifferent. This new song, a summary of everything Dylan knows, bears witness to cultural revolution that is in fact a revolution in reverse.
Armond White, National Review
July 25, 1965 ~ The Newport Folk Festival. Dylan goes electric and folkies everywhere lose their shit.
July 20, 1965 ~ Orpheus releases “Like A Rolling Stone.”
Dylan struggled with the song. Al Kooper, his keyboard player, suggested a “rock” format and promptly improvised the famous organ riff.
Over the years, it became clear the song was revolutionary in more than its lyrics. It’s considered one of the most influential compositions in rock. It’s #1 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Perhaps the greatest homage comes from The Boss:
“Like a Rolling Stone” feels like a torrent that comes rushing towards you … floods your soul, floods your mind. Alerts and wakes you up instantaneously to other worlds, other lives. Other ways of being. It’s perhaps one of the most powerful records ever made and it still means a great deal to me along with all of Dylan’s work.”
Bruce Springsteen
When we say an all-star band, we truly mean it. Expect to see Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Stephen Stills, Ronnie Wood and Van Morrison are all on stage at once in the clip below.
~ Jack Whatley, Far Out Magazine
Source: Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young sing ‘I Shall Be Released’
In what’s still the largest concert crowd for a solo artist (200,000) Dylan performs at The Picnic at Blackbushe … held on the grounds of a damn airport. A few friends showed up to help.
He ain’t going anywhere – and neither are we.
– Eoghan Lyng
Source: Bob Dylan’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways” – CultureSonar
55 years ago, Dylan struggled with the song. Al Kooper, his keyboard player, suggested a “rock” format and promptly improvised the famous organ riff.
Over the years, it became clear the song was revolutionary in more than its lyrics. It’s considered one of the most influential compositions in rock. It’s #1 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. And, in 2014, the handwritten lyrics from the pencil of Dylan fetched over $2M at auction.
June 15 – 16, 1965: Bob Dylan steps into Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City, and records the greatest – and most important – rock song ever.
Orpheus releases his 18th album on June 15, 1978. Dylan purists run around with their hair on fire — again — this time because he uses female pop back-up singers.
