Bob Dylan Had a Rare Moment of Childish Vulnerability After Getting Booed Onstage

In 1965, a crowd full of Bob Dylan fans were so disappointed in the musician that they booed him. His crime? Plugging in an electric guitar and launching into a raucous version of “Maggie’s Farm.” He spoke nonchalantly about the incident later, but those with him at the time said it had shaken him. When he left the stage, Dylan displayed a rare moment of vulnerability.

Bob Dylan was booed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965

Dylan began his career as an acoustic folk singer, but he grew so tired of the genre that he considered quitting music altogether. 

“I guess I was going to quit singing,” he told Playboy in 1966, per the book Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters. “I was very drained, and the way things were going, it was a very draggy situation — I mean, when you do ‘Everybody Loves You for Your Black Eye,’ and meanwhile the back of your head is caving in. Anyway, I was playing a lot of songs I didn’t want to play. I was singing words I didn’t really want to sing.”

Four days after the release of “Like a Rolling Stone,” which incorporated a new, electric sound, Dylan arrived at the Newport Folk Festival. He played an acoustic set and intended to play another until he heard someone disparaging one of the electric acts.

“F*** them if they think they can keep electricity out of here,” he reportedly said, per The Independent. “I’ll do it.”

Dylan played an electrified version of “Maggie’s Farm,” which the audience did not receive well. The sound quality was poor, which didn’t help, but Dylan’s fans also did not like the new direction of his music. They began to boo him.

He displayed rare vulnerability afterward

When reflecting on the Newport Folk Festival five months later, Dylan appeared nonchalant. 

“I didn’t know what was going to happen, but they certainly booed, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “You could hear it all over the place … I mean, they must be pretty rich, to be able to go someplace and boo. I couldn’t afford it if I was in their shoes.”

In the immediate aftermath, however, those present said it was clear Dylan was not happy when he ended his set. 

“[Dylan] was clearly not in a good mood,” concertgoer Mitch Greenhill told WBUR.

He showed a rare moment of vulnerability with his friend, founder of FOLK New England, Betsy Siggins. She was sitting backstage, and Dylan approached her afterward without saying anything.

“Dylan came back down and sat down in my lap and didn’t say a word,” she said. 

This wasn’t the first time Dylan was booed

At this point, though, Dylan was no stranger to negative audience reactions. In the early 1960s, he received an award from the Emergency Civil Liberty Committee and immediately felt uncomfortable. 

“As soon as I got there, I felt up tight,” Dylan told The New Yorker in 1964. “First of all, the people with me couldn’t get in. They looked even funkier than I did, I guess. They weren’t dressed right, or something. Inside the ballroom, I really got up tight. I began to drink.”

People had been discussing the assassination of John F. Kennedy, so Dylan mentioned Lee Harvey Oswald in his speech. He said that, in some ways, he could relate to him. 

“And, you know, they started booing,” he said. “They looked at me like I was an animal. They actually thought I was saying it was a good thing Kennedy had been killed. That’s how far out they are.”