"A Date which will live in infamy." Well, ok, maybe not. Nonetheless, the Dylan performance at Newport in 1965 when he played an electric set to a less-than-appreciative crowd has passed into history; I've heard conflicting stories about the actual crowd reaction. For example, in a radio interview Al Kooper said that the audience was shocked and surprised, but he heard no booing. Today's NYT has a column from the founder of the Festival which says there was indeed a hostile reaction. The reason this comes up is that, for the first time in 37 years, Dylan will appear again at the Newport Folk Festival today.
More music: "We live surrounded by music, from torch songs at Starbucks to the Beatles in the elevator, and the barrage may be turning our minds to mush." That's from this article, which appeared in the March 2000 issue of The Atlantic (yeah, yeah...I'm still digging through back issues). It makes the argument that we never learn anything from music except "the emotional power of music," and that it is not quite the highest expression of art some like to think. It's a provocative article, one well worth reading.
Posted by Linkmeister at August 3, 2002 10:14 AM