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12/6/2024

‘Dylan Goes Electric’: This Bob Dylan Audiobook Returns to Charts on Heels of Upcoming Biopic Release

The book follows the uproar that ensued after Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival in 1965 backed by an electric band, rather than his usual acoustic setup.

By Tim Chan

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Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties

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The new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, doesn’t hit theaters until Christmas Day, but hype for the new movie has propelled a seven-year-old audiobook about the singer back onto the charts.

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Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties was originally released in 2017, but the audiobook has returned to the top of Audible’s music charts on the heels of the upcoming film release.

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'Dylan Goes Electric:' Read Bob Dylan Audiobook Ahead of Biopic Film

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Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties

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Written by music historian and journalist Elijah Wald (and narrated by Sean Runnette), Dylan Goes Electric follows the uproar that ensued after Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 backed by an electric band, rather than his usual acoustic setup. Kicking off his set with an amplified version of “Maggie’s Farm,” Dylan then roared into his rock and roll hit, “Like a Rolling Stone,” much to the chagrin of what the book describes as “folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet.”

Dylan Goles Electric traces the genesis of that performance and tracks the resulting fallout from the show, described as “a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers.” The singer did not return to the Newport Festival for 37 years after that night. Was Dylan indebted to the folk community for making him their star? Or did the artist have free reign to explore his musical independence and blaze a bold new path?

As Wald writes in the book, “It was the shot heard round the world – Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation – and one of the defining moments in 20th-century music.”

The publisher notes, meantime, write that “Wald explores the cultural, political, and historical context of this seminal event that embodies the transformative decade that was the sixties,” diving “deep into the folk revival, the rise of rock, and the tensions between traditional and groundbreaking music to provide new insights into Dylan’s artistic evolution.”

Dylan Goes Electric is available now on audiobook for $15 through Amazon. But you can listen to the book for just $0.99 as part of a new Audible deal, that gets you three months of access for just $3. Offer ends December 31 so we recommend signing up for the Audible promo while it’s still live. See full details here.

The Dylan Goes Electric audiobook has a run time of 11 hours and 56 minutes. The Timothee Chalamet-led A Complete Unknown, meantime, hits theaters December 25.

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