The guitar played by Bob Dylan when he controversially 'went electric' at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival is to go on the auction block.
Dylan caused outrage (to some, at least) when he debuted a new electric sound at the folk festival. Dylan's albums 'Freewheelin' and 'The Times They Are A-Changin' had propelled Dylan to the title of spokesman of the 60's generation, a title that some of his more folk-influenced followers were unwilling to let go of.
On July 20th 1965 Dylan released his single 'Like A Rolling Stone'. This song, which would eventually be seen as one of the music's most enduring compositions, featured a more rock-influenced sound, in direct contrast to Dylan's almost entirely acoustic folk catalogue up to that point. Just five days later, Dylan performed an electric set at Newport and was heavily criticised by a section of his peers for moving away from political songwriting in a direction seen as conformist or mainstream.
Dylan was heavily booed by the crowd at the culmination of the performance. Pete Seeger famously remarked that it he had an axe he would have destroyed the electric cables, forcing Dylan to play acoustic.
Such was the backlash from this concert that Dylan didn't play the festival again for a further 37 years.
The 1964 Fender Stratocaster Dylan used during the set has been in the possession of collector Dawn Peterson for 50 years and she has now decided to part with the piece of rock history. It is expected to fetch somewhere in the region of £333,000 on auction. You can learn more about the guitar, including words from its current owner, by clicking here.
Anyone have that sort of cash lying around and wanna go splitsies?
