Folk Rogue

A thoughtfully arranged compilation based around recently upgraded/uncirculating stereo soundboard recordings from the Newport Folk Festival. The tracks vividly document Dylan's shuffle from acoustic to electric.
The opening track, It Ain't Me Babe, is a duet from Baez's evening set on the 24th. The performance at times borders on the hysterical, with Dylan clearly playing the clown. Baez seems uncharacteristically less self assured on this one, possibly because its a new song to her, Dylan having only just premiered it at the afternoon workshop.
The next four tracks come from Dylan's own set on the 26th, his vocal is crystalline, strained almost to the point of shattering and yet at the same time, confrontational and defiant. The performances are fresh and unhurried, majestic and captivating.
Don't Think Twice is from the 'still acoustic' 1965 Uk tour, the recording having featured on a DA Pennebaker radio programme, this is taken from the radio station acetate and, aside from the occasional acetate click, is in excellent stereo. The performance too is bright and lively. All I Really Wanna Do returns us to the Newport Folk Festival one year on - the 1965 workshop sessions. Another excellent stereo recording, though this time incomplete. And then it's on to the infamous' Dylan goes electric' set from the 25th. Dylan plugs in and the world shifts a little on its axis - except that it all seems so innocent when you listen to it now. None of the bitter twisted vitriol that was to espouse from the 1966 sets, it sounds perfectly palatable, even a little naive in places. Astounding music, not fully polished but that adds rather than detracts from its appeal. These days its hard to see where all that animosity could have taken root
After this historic electric set of course, Dylan returned for an acoustic two song finale, but for the moment the disc slips into a time warp and we're propelled forward a month and a bit to the Hollywood Bowl to catch up on the two electric tracks that appeared after this tape made its initial appearance, (the bulk of the show appeared on Electric Black Nite Crash - this completes the currently circulating recording of that concert - oh what fun those tape collector elitists must have, circulating down graded incomplete recordings, the hours must just fly past). The recordings are strangely delightful to listen to - not so bland that you'd call them bubblegum but full of light and space as opposed to the darker corners that you come to associate with Dylan's music. These two tracks, though out of chronological sequence, from a listening point of view extend the electric set (in reality grouping the electric tracks together rather than adding these tracks onto the end as 'filler') and the next two tracks return us to the Newport 65 performance and Dylan's final two acoustic songs that close his set and this disc.

In all, an overview of Dylan's move from acoustic to electric - strangely nostalgic. in a sense the first fumblings into the electric arena. A pleasant listen and momentously historical.

Tfeb 5