Yes, today is Friday, but I am posting early because it is was on this day in 1965 that Bob Dylan "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival by opening his set with "Maggie's Farm," backed by members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The event is still controversial in some quarters, as seen in the recent film A Complete Unknown and the book it was based on, Elijah Wald's Dylan Goes Electric. How much did the audience boo the performance, and were they complaining about the electric instruments or the sound quality? Did Pete Seeger really try to take an axe to the cables? The answer to the latter question is that he did not, and the myth was likely started by MC Peter Yarrow, who said that Dylan was looking for an axe, which meant guitar in musician slang (then as now). Anyhow, there is no question that Seeger was distressed by the extra-loud rock music, even though there had been electric instruments by other acts earlier in the festival. Even Seeger had to concede years later that "Maggie's Farm" is a great song. Dylan's live performances have varied it quite a bit over the years, as you can see at the bottom of the post.
Audio only:
Audio only
"We did not rehearse this" (but neither had Dylan at Newport):
Charlie Daniels and Earl Scruggs performed "Maggie's Farm" at the Viet Nam Moratorium March in 1969, but the sound quality is so bad that I am just including their separate studio recordings, audio only. Everyone will have to visualize the cheering anti-war demonstrators in Washington, D.C.
Lester Flatt did not appear at the Moratorium, but he was willing to record the vocal in an apolitical register:
The person who should get more credit for turning folk electric is Roger McGuinn, who took Mr. Tambourine Man from acoustic to electric several months before Newport. My review of A Complete Unknown for a British online:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/02/23/sanitising-bob-dylan/