Good morning, folks.
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When I was thinking of a topic for today’s MOT diary I was sort of in the mood for a little folk music. I thought, why not look at the Newport (RI) Folk Festival? I wanted to get a selection of groups but nearly everything that appeared in the suggestions were Bob Dylan songs. Further, they were Dylan pieces from various years. C’mon, Youtube, other groups do play there. Then I came upon the Pete Seeger vid. I decided there was a story there. Back in the ‘60s, if there was one singer who could be counted on to stick to acoustic instruments it was the singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
There’s an old light bulb joke that goes, How many bluegrass musicians does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Five. One to change the bulb and the rest to complain it’s electric. That joke would work just as well for folk singers.
So was our old friend Pete really spitting mad because Dylan picked up an electric guitar? Actually, no, he wasn’t. He knew his friend was going to plug in. What happened was Dylan was doing his beautiful song “Maggie’s Farm” and the sound system wasn’t doing the music justice. That accounts for Seeger’s little dust up with the sound guy. He wanted to cut the cables in two with a fire axe.
So now you know the story. Of course, that rumor didn’t hurt the value of Dylan’s Fender Stratocaster from that day. The most hated guitar in history recently went at auction for a cool $965,000.
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