In 1965, Bob Dylan played a daring anthem at Newport Folk Festival. Pete Seeger wanted to pull the plug on it
Bob Dylan’s 1965 Newport Folk Festival performance, where he played both acoustic and electric sets, became a defining moment in his move towards rock music. The electric set provoked boos and jeers from parts of the folk audience, reflecting a divide over whether folk musicians should embrace electric instruments.
A lasting story claimed that folk singer Pete Seeger, who had mentored Dylan, tried to cut the sound cables in anger. Seeger later explained that he objected to the distorted sound, which made Dylan’s song “Maggie’s Farm” hard to understand, and said he had threatened to cut the cable if he had an axe. His complaint was about the sound quality, not Dylan playing electric.
In short
- Dylan’s electric set at Newport in 1965 divided the folk audience.
- Seeger said the sound was distorted, not that Dylan went electric.
- His axe remark helped fuel a lasting myth.
Explained simply
The Newport Folk Festival was a major gathering for folk music, a tradition often associated with acoustic instruments and songs rooted in social and political concerns. Bob Dylan had become one of its best-known performers, admired for his songwriting and his place in the folk scene.
In 1965, Dylan’s use of electric instruments brought into view a wider disagreement about how folk music should change. Pete Seeger, an influential folk singer who had encouraged Dylan, later said his objection was to the distorted sound, which made the words difficult to hear, rather than to electric music itself. The episode matters because it became a lasting symbol of the tension between musical traditions and new directions.