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Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties Hardcover – July 14, 2015

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 230 ratings

One of the music world’s pre-eminent critics takes a fresh and much-needed look at the day Dylan “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival, timed to coincide with the event’s fiftieth anniversary.

On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band, and roared into his new rock hit, Like a Rolling Stone. The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers. It was the shot heard round the world—Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation—and one of the defining moments in twentieth-century music.

In Dylan Goes Electric!, Elijah Wald explores the cultural, political and historical context of this seminal event that embodies the transformative decade that was the sixties. Wald delves deep into the folk revival, the rise of rock, and the tensions between traditional and groundbreaking music to provide new insights into Dylan’s artistic evolution, his special affinity to blues, his complex relationship to the folk establishment and his sometime mentor Pete Seeger, and the ways he reshaped popular music forever. Breaking new ground on a story we think we know, Dylan Goes Electric! is a thoughtful, sharp appraisal of the controversial event at Newport and a nuanced, provocative, analysis of why it matters.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Provides a deeply researched and entertaining chronicle of the culture clash that Dylan sparked from the Newport stage.” — David Remnick, The New Yorker

“It is a great work of scholarship, brimming with insight – among the best music books I have ever read.” — The Guardian

“Wald contextualizes the deeply divisive event in illuminating detail . . . a major contribution to modern musical history.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Wald is a superb analyst of the events he describes. And his analyses fly in the face of conventional wisdom. Even his introduction includes enough startling context to indicate ‘Dylan Goes Electric!’ will be seeing the old story with new eyes.” — Janet Maslin, New York Times

“Wald’s personal knowledge seems encyclopedic . . . An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Anyone interested in Dylan, folk music, or rock and roll will adore this volume. It might not resolve the questions of what really happened in Newport in 1965, but it comes very close.” — Library Journal

“In this tour de force, Elijah Wald complicates the stick-figure myth of generational succession at Newport by doing justice to what he rightly calls Bob Dylan’s ‘declaration of independence’ . . . This is one of the very best accounts I’ve read of musicians fighting for their honor.” — Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties and Occupy Nation

“What Wald reveals about that most mystified of singer-songwriters and the folk and rock worlds that then surrounded and elevated him changed my own view of a moment I thought I had all figured out-and of the songwriterly 1960s as a whole.” — Ann Powers, author of Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America and, with the artist, Tori Amos: Piece by Piece

“Devastatingly smart analysis . . . Wald is a remarkably sharp and graceful writer, capable of drawing extraordinary connections between artists, genres, and cultural moments. There’s simply no one better when it comes to unpacking not just the mechanics of American music, but the mythology of American music.” — Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm Records

“Elijah Wald’s book reflects the many directions in which America’s music scene evolved in those extraordinary years, 1963-1970-I can’t recommend it enough.” — George Wein, Founder of the Newport Folk Festival

“Concise and entertaining . . . a great story, masterfully told, of how the times were, indeed, a-changin’-and why.” — Ed Ward, rock and roll historian for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross and author of Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero

“Easily the definitive account of Newport ‘65.” — CounterPunch Magazine

“There is no shortage of books about Bob Dylan . . . but Elijah Wald’s heavily researched book manages to offer new information and unique insight into the social context of this controversial moment in music history.” — Buzzfeed

From the Back Cover

On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival. Backed by an electric band, he roared into a blistering version of “Maggie’s Farm,” followed by his new rock single, “Like a Rolling Stone.” The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, boos, and scattered cheers. It was the shot heard round the world—Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation—and one of the defining moments in twentieth-century music.

In Dylan Goes Electric! Elijah Wald explores the cultural, political, and historical roots and impact of this seminal event. He delves deep into the folk revival and its intersections with the civil rights movement, the rise of rock, and the tensions between traditional and groundbreaking music to provide important insights into Dylan’s artistic evolution, his special affinity to blues, his complex relationship to the folk establishment and his sometime mentor Pete Seeger, and the ways he reshaped popular music forever.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0062366688
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dey Street Books; First Edition (July 14, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780062366689
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062366689
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.02 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.3 x 8.3 x 6.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 230 ratings

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Elijah Wald
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For information about Elijah Wald, his books, his recordings, his other writings, and so forth and so on, visit http://www.elijahwald.com

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
230 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book excellent, well-written, and enjoyable. They say it's packed with history, great information, and insights into seminal events in rock and roll. Readers also appreciate the well-observed biography of Dylan and the folk scene. They mention the perspective is nice and balanced, and the author is good at perceiving and explaining all the social fissures.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

19 customers mention "Readability"19 positive0 negative

Customers find the book excellent, well-written, and enjoyable. They appreciate the author's insights and fluid writing style. Readers also mention the book is useful and a seminal work.

"...But, I finally ordered it. Guess what? It was great...." Read more

"If you are a Dylan devotee, this book is a detailed, readable, objective account of Dylan's life through that famous/infamous night at the Newport..." Read more

"...A good read--I'm glad I read it--but not a great read." Read more

"...Well-written and enjoyable overall, especially if like me you love reading about the history of American folk and popular music from around 1945-1965." Read more

16 customers mention "History"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the book packed with history, great info, and insight. They describe it as a superb account of seminal times in American music. Readers also mention the book is well-researched and fascinating.

"If you are a Dylan devotee, this book is a detailed, readable, objective account of Dylan's life through that famous/infamous night at the Newport..." Read more

"...Lots of memories for me, and great background info on so many of the artists who were on the scene at this important time." Read more

"...Instead, it is a brilliant exposition that illustrates how committed yet precious many of the Newport folkies were, yet also how diffident and..." Read more

"...on that movement and on the history of rock and roll, you will find this book fascinating...." Read more

5 customers mention "Biography"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the biography well-observed and good. They also say the author is one of the best musicologists they have ever read.

"...are a Dylan devotee, this book is a detailed, readable, objective account of Dylan's life through that famous/infamous night at the Newport Folk..." Read more

"A bit long, but very well-observed bio of Dylan and the whole folk/blues scene of the '60's that I grew up with in New York City...." Read more

"This is a very good book about Dylan and the folk scene...." Read more

"Elijah Wald is one of the best musicologists I've ever read...." Read more

5 customers mention "Perspective"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the perspective in the book nice. They say it offers a balanced and thoughtful examination of our musical history. Readers also appreciate the author's ability to perceive and explain all the social fissures within the music industry.

"...He's especially good at perceiving and explaining all the social fissures within the broad folk "movement." And having been close enough..." Read more

"...You'll get a great perspective and context on this very important moment in popular music history...." Read more

"...I knew everything about this event, but this book offers a balanced and thoughtful rexamination of our musical history that correctly preserves the..." Read more

"Really nice perspective on how and what happened. I thought I knew the story, but I learned a lot by reading this book...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2015
I thought when I saw this book why would I want to read another Bob Dylan book. I had read every book about him that had been written. But, I finally ordered it. Guess what? It was great. I did learn some things I did not know and I thought this book gave a very honest look at the man we call Bob Dylan. I enjoyed it very much
I saw Dylan at Emory University right after he finished his first album. I was fifteen years old. I had never heard of him . The concert was not in a large hall. My friends and I had front row seats because not that many people were there. The lights went out and a small, young looking man/boy walked on stage carrying a guitar and a stool. He had that funny little cap on. He opened his month and began to play and sing and in that one second I traveled from a southern girl growing up in a very small southern town into something totally different.
I came home and took a bus to Nashville and bought his first and only album. Came back home, put it on the turn table and began to hear Bob's voice float into my room. My daddy came into the room and ask me what was that awful noise, thought he sounded like a communist and took the record away. I never saw it again. But I was hooked. I have seen Bob Dylan more times than I can count, I have every record he every recorded and every book or magazine article written about him. Therefore, I can greatly recommend this book. My daddy was defeated in his quest to stop me from listening to Dylan .
35 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2024
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Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2015
If you are a Dylan devotee, this book is a detailed, readable, objective account of Dylan's life through that famous/infamous night at the Newport Folk Festival. Wald does an excellent job of tracing the times and the people that in sum-total lead to the inevitability of this 20th Century Icon plugging a cord into his guitar. The story articulates: the rise of folk-rock as a synthesis of its foundational forms (including blues), the juxtaposition of Dylan and Pete Seeger leading up to the cultural transformation, and the impact Dylan's music has had on so many musicians (of many genres) who came after him. Only small criticism is that one group, The Grateful Dead, is not mentioned in the discussion, and probably should have been. A great cultural history of the 1960s.
8 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2015
At 50 years, I guess this famous sixties event seems about as pertinent as a Reformation church schism, but the book is entertaining. Wald uses the wide lens and possesses the requisite historical imagination to attempt to describe the campfire crew that was the butt of the joke. This isn't easily done because it's hard to imagine today's analogy to that innocence (Apple fanboys?). I suppose Joe Boyd was a little closer to the mischief in his description in White Bicycles but essentially the small group responsible for the sound seems to have wished to give part of the audience a little poke in the eye before watching it be buried in the sand of history. Dylan comes off like a mist driven by storm, creating what he can with scarcely a thought toward marketability (which was definitely part of the charm) and this is a big turning point in his performing biography: the ensuing ten months or so got nasty enough audience response that drummer Levon Helm quit to work on an oil rig. Dylan persisted to the end (and his motorcycle accident) but seldom seemed comfortable with his audience when he resumed performing ("all I see is dark eyes").

I think Wald had yet a more interesting book but there's such an industry in Dylan biographies that he took the deal he could. He's especially good at perceiving and explaining all the social fissures within the broad folk "movement." And having been close enough to Dave Van Ronk to finish his autobiography Mayor of McDougall Street, Wald certainly has the inside scoop. He understands the commercial angles and he's listened to all the bootleg tapes. Finally, he's enough of a wit that there are plenty of laughs. Not your standard "artist versus audience" triumphal Dylan book and that's a good thing.
16 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2015
If you know the back stories of Pete Seeger and Dylan, you'll find the first half of the book a bit tedious. So much of the book is the back story leading up to the famous concert at Newport. A good read--I'm glad I read it--but not a great read.
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2016
A bit long, but very well-observed bio of Dylan and the whole folk/blues scene of the '60's that I grew up with in New York City. Lots of memories for me, and great background info on so many of the artists who were on the scene at this important time.
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2015
Wald does what so few writers on popular music manage to do--he offers an historical argument. There is as much here about Pete Seeger and the folk revival scene as there is about Dylan. Reflecting his deep immersion in a variety of source materials, Wald contextualizes Dylan's (in)famous electric kiss-off better than any other writer I've read. In the process, he demythologizes and historicizes it. This is no simple-minded paean to Dylan-the-Genius. Instead, it is a brilliant exposition that illustrates how committed yet precious many of the Newport folkies were, yet also how diffident and careless Robert Zimmerman already was by 1965-66. As befits a truly great book, it offers no easy or definitive answers, and leaves the reader with more questions than when he first opened it.
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2017
This is a fantastic book about a moment in popular music that many people, including myself, thought was settled. Wald incorporates multiple source materials to show how the career paths of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan both converged and diverged to culminate in the conflict over folk music that happened in Newport in 1965. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book is when Wald lets various participants, including fans, recount their experience during Dylan's "electric" performance. The reader can then easily see that how music history remembers this moment is tied to the claims and stakes made about folk music. Maybe Wald spends a bit too much time getting to the 1965 performance, but the payoff is immense. Well-written and enjoyable overall, especially if like me you love reading about the history of American folk and popular music from around 1945-1965.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Ken Rockburn
5.0 out of 5 stars Just when you thought there could not be another scrap ...
Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2015
Just when you thought there could not be another scrap of insight wrung from the cloth of Dylan's life, up comes Elijah Wald with new insights into the most seminal moment in Dylan's career…a must read for all Dylanophiles.We Are As The Times Are - The Story of Café Le Hibou
Client d'Amazon
4.0 out of 5 stars For Dylan/ 60s aficionados
Reviewed in France on April 29, 2016
The book is a very complete, although perhaps a bit painstaking, account of many of the issues that come into play when (at long last in the book) Dylan goes electric. One gets some very good perspective on what "folk" meant to the anti-establishment, non-commercial players and fans. It becomes easier to see why so many people were so upset about the move of Dylan going electric. I think the book has more potential to be interesting as a trip down memory land for oldsters than to get young listeners excited about the folk era of the 50's and 60's (downloads of Peter Paul and Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon" or Seeger's "If I had a Hamer" are not likely to soar). But I enjoyed reading this chronicle.

Speaking of which, a better book by far is Dylan's Chronicles, Volume 1, which has a bit more stye and pizazz. And it seems strange that Wald quotes so many lines from this book as verifiably true (since the veracity of autobiographies is notoriously unreliable--and how much mores for a work by Dylan!)
C. Hale
3.0 out of 5 stars Butterfly on a wheel
Reviewed in Germany on December 12, 2015
Interesting only in flashes - unless you have a special fascination for the American folk scene. The insights into Dylan are hardly original. I recognise a labour of love but was often tempted to skip.
John Caruth
5.0 out of 5 stars The Newport story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2015
Elijah Wales book was a very good read. It was well constructed and covered all the bases and more and though I thought it hard on Dylan I also thought it endeavoured to bring what happened and what may not have happened into the clearing for those interested to make their own judgements on events and the people involved. The book is a worthwhile purchase.
Hoops
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coverage of the music and period.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2023
I like the authors balanced and evidence based approach to his various writings. This is in keeping with his 'historian style. This may not suit everyone, especially if you want the highly opinionated perspectives of many 'pop' authors. Recommended.