Bob Dylan's plug-in 50 years ago is still electrifying

Fifty years ago this month at the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan plugged in an electricguitar and changed the face of pop music forever.

In the early '60s, Bob Dylan's hippie anthems like Blowin' in the Windearned him theadoration of Joan Baez and Pete Seeger and the title Crown Prince of Folk.

• Listen to Dylan Goes Electric onThe Sunday Edition

Afterwowing crowds at the legendary Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in 1963,as Baez'sguest,and 1964,where he was introduced by The Weavers' Ronnie Gilbert, his thirdappearance on July 25, 1965, was hotly anticipated. The audience was estimated at100,000.

The single had only been out for five dayswhen Dylan took the stage at Newport with his Fender Stratocaster.

Accompanied bymembers of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, he ripped into an electric version of Maggie'sFarm.

Legend has it thatthe crowd then ripped into him. He was booed. He was called a sellout.

Dylan's response was to play two more electric songs,Like a Rolling Stoneand ItTakes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.

Allegedly, Seeger was so angry that hethreatened to take an axe and cut the wires to the soundboard.

Looking back on the anniversary of this event, musicologist Rob Bowman says storiesabout the reaction to Dylan's folk revolt seem to be greatly exaggerated. While there wereboos, he explained to Sunday Edition guest host Rachel Giese, some in the crowd cheeredDylan on.

"Pete wantedto pull the cords out, but he didn't grab an axe. Others say that the sound quality wasterrible and that was the real issue. I think that's probably true. The people working atNewport were not used to mixing electric music. Personally, I don't think Seeger would usean axe when he could just pull the plug."

Nonetheless, Bowman says, "that the story even exists and has been repeated so oftenspeaks volumes to the fact that this event was seen as a battle between good and evil. Thisreally was an incredibly, ideologically important moment."

Folk artists and musicians believed acoustic instruments were purer and moreauthentic than electric ones, which were seen as evil tools of modern technology, Bowmansays. "Plugging in was the antithesis of what the folkies believed in."

This low point in Dylan's career, however, would prove to be a high point in the annals ofrock history. His performance had a profound impact on the future of pop music.

"This was a watershed moment," Bowman says. "Between mid-1965 and mid-1966, therewas a shift from the idea that pop music was made by entertainers whose careers mightlast two or three yearsto the idea that pop music was made by artists who were expectedto grow and develop and potentially have careers that go on for decades."

It was after this performance, Bowman says, that rock changedforever.

"Rock artists began to write more complicated lyrics about social issues. Dylan changed thethematic possibilities [of pop music], the type of language it used, its syntactic structure. Heopened the doors for everybody who came after."

• Listen to the full Sunday Edition documentary Dylan Goes Electric

This week on The Sunday Edition

Starting at 9 a.m. July 12 on CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition:

Internet double: Just what happened when Molly met Molly? A documentary by CBC Halifax journalist Molly Segal, who confronts the namesake who haunts her online.

How medical is medical marijuana? An update to a special report on the legal and health issues surrounding the drug, including conversations with Vancouver Coun.Kerry Jang; and Dr. Mark Ware, executive director of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids.

Cricket cuisine: Producer Frank Faulk gets a taste of cricket. Not the sport, the bug. He pays a visit to a farm that's banking on insects as the future of food production.