Five Great Bob Dylan Performances from the Newport Folk Festival That My Grandmother Saw Live
Note: I recommend you watch these videos ASAP, they might get pulled off Youtube. Dylan videos have been hard to find there, lately.
Note 2: I'd really appreciate some more feedback too. Is this a good idea for a thread? How's my writing like these days? Am I too pretentious or is it tolerable
The Newport Folk Festival in the early to mid sixties, were the only cultural happenings of any note to happen in my tiny state of Rhode Island. And, in the early to mid-sixties, my grandmother was a music devotee who went to Newport every festival, from when it started in 59 to about 67. And in that time span she saw, confirmed by her, Dylan the entire time he was on stage at a particular moment, because she was(and still is) a really big fan.
And I'm of the opinion that Dylan's initial performances at Newport were electrifying, and flipped folk on it's head. And everyone there realized it, felt ecstatic and went along into the depths of his brilliant songs.
1. Talkin' World War Three Blues
If Bob Dylan wasn't a gripping live performer in his early days, I don't think he would have became so popular so quickly if he was just a brilliant song writer. See, without having a great voice, he resorted to other tools to reel the audience in. His voice projected brilliantly, with utter clarity, voice filled with a determination, an authenticity present that was missing from the vast majority of singers. The media weren't exaggerating when they called him the voice of a generation. In the early days, with that acoustic guitar, he sounded like the perfect representative of everything young people stood for. He bounced up and down, he would laugh, he had great banter with his audience. Allen Ginsberg commented on his excellent use of breath, and compared it to a shaman chanting their incantations. This song and performance are a perfect example of the whole 'Voice of a Generation' claim. He's joking, enticing in his movement and expressions, poetic, and utterly profound at the end of the song, and then chuckles. Basically, he's a master angler, reeling the audience in, making it seem effortless.
YouTube - Bob Dylan Newport part 3
2. Like a Rolling Stone
Nobody has ever done a better 'f*ck you' to a reactionary crowd of stuck up folkies who would be extremely slow to realize that the electric stuff Dylan was writing was absolutely changing Rock and Roll, shattering it and remaking it in his own image. What they never realized was that Dylan was larger than genre, and that folk was too small to hold him. His songwriting was bigger, more ambitious, exploring territories uncharted in terms of subject matter. They didn't realize that Dylan wasn't a political mouth piece whose job it was to spout leftist anthems they could rally behind. After all, in Dylan's words, those are finger pointing songs, and he's only got ten fingers. I love it when he yells 'How does it feeeeel? How does it feeeel? To be on your own' at the crowd, and for a while they stop their booing, as they realize that Dylan is essentially telling them to kiss his ass. They would've booed louder, but the song was pretty groovy, though they'd never admit that, rock and roll was juvenile and shallow! Only buffoons saw real value in it! So they'd boo after. They're polite like that.
YouTube - LikeaRollinstone(newport.mp4
3. Blowing in the Wind
In the video, skip ahead to 3:55 past Only a Pawn in Their Game,(actually that's a pretty good version too, if you wanna watch both) for the best rendition of Blowin' In The Wind. The background singers, a legendary cast really, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, The Freedom Singers, all of them the biggest names in folk music at the time, their voices swelling and receding like the tide, all rallying behind this young singer-songwriter who was setting the world ablaze. He was Woody Guthrie reborn, the savior that folk needed. With this song, expectations were shoveled onto his shoulders, Voice of a Generation, and being trapped as a political song writer. It was just that good of a song.
YouTube - Bob Dylan Newport part 4
4. Chimes of Freedom
This version is so different, and so much better than the studio version of this song. It really brings out the poetry of the song, and the words fly by at a pretty quick pace, giving you just enough time to think about what he just sang before he moves on. These are one of the top or four or five lyrics he's ever written(Visions of Johanna, It's Alright Ma(I'm Only Bleeding), Gates of Eden, Chimes of Freedom, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, is how I'd order them) This is a great example of the tendency he'd have to bounce, his body moving up and down, as if there was so much energy bundled within he couldn't help but do these charming little fidgets while on stage.
YouTube - Bob Dylan -- Chimes Of Freedom (Live at Newport 1964)
5. Mr. Tambourine Man
I like the beginning interaction with the audience. 'I think you have the wrong man' he says to a man in the audience who's yelling to him. The wrong man, indeed. They ALL pinned him as the wrong man. As I've said many times, they all thought of him as something he wasn't. Mr Tambourine Man is one of the first instances of Dylan branching out and not being political or love oriented in the least, or writing/performing a song reminiscent of some old folk song, like House of the Rising Sun. I love the lyrics, they're poetic but he hasn't become extremely opaque or cryptic. Also, the ending of the video is great, with Johnny Cash talking about how he thinks Bob Dylan is the best songwriter of the age. OR Joan Baez doing an imitation of Dylan, singing a song of his(it's a pretty good nasally impression.)
YouTube - Bob Dylan Newport part 5