‘Dylan Goes Electric!’ By Elijah Wald

After watching the Dylan movie ‘A Complete Unknown’ – which was excellent – it was suggested I should read this book about the exact same thing: Dylan playing an electric set at Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

I enjoyed the book.

It didn’t really definitively explain what actually happened on the night in 1965. For example, there were reports of the crowds booing Dylan off stage, the book goes on to say that maybe it did and maybe it didn’t happen. There were reports of Pete Seeger running around with an axe to cut the cables in rage, again, the book goes on to say some people saw it, others, that it never happened.

What the book does give you is a really good understanding of the folk scene at the time, and the struggle of trying to survive in this new world of pop and rock and roll.