Dylan's gone electric!

Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the night that split the 1960s

One of the world's leading music critics brings a fresh perspective to the day Dylan "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival.

On July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan performed at the Newport Folk Festival with an electric band and shouted: "I'm not going to work on Maggie's farm anymore!" The audience of committed folk purists and political activists were shocked, booing their prophet, but there were occasional cheers. It was a 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. In the book!

? Elijah Wald explores the cultural, political and historical context of this pivotal event that epitomizes the transformative decade that is the 1960s. He came up with a new perspective on Dylan's artistic development, his special affinity for the blues, his complex relationship with the folk movement, his one-time mentor Pete Seeger, and the way he changed popular music forever.

The book is currently being made into a film, co-written by Dylan's longtime manager Jeff Rosen and starring rising star Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan.