Bob Dylan – Mr. Tambourine Man (Live at Newport Folk Festival) Review

This is it. The big one. A performance which would define Bob Dylan as the star of the decade. Few artists can say they made history on the stage in just one performance, but Dylan did it more than a few times. His advancements at the time, where the electric boom or the weight of his lyrics were first heard, feel expected now. But such is the impact of a man who reshaped music for those to follow in his footsteps. Dylan covered what so many would later continue in the 1960s, and his performance of Mr. Tambourine Man at Newport Folk Festival is a powerhouse. It is beyond just another live recording. Fan or no fan, this is a monumental moment to capture on camera and is a rare slice of evolving musical sound put to film and tape. We are lucky to have it, but beyond this, it serves as a reminder of how much can be done with what is, on paper, the basics. 

A man and his guitar can do much more than churn out noise for those willing to listen. Mr. Tambourine Man is a shockwave of a song and this is not lost on Dylan or the Newport Folk Festival crowd here. It is understood by audiences after this performance, that the words and weight of which Dylan performs is something few lyricists are maintaining now. There are a few, but their scope is limited by what has already been uncovered. It means unexplored avenues are riskier, but greater in their reward. There are no major waves to be made but little currents, corners to explore and flood with great work. But we only get there from the earliest recordings and the seismic moment of this, Mr. Tambourine Man, can still be felt today. This is about audience subversion as much as it is about expectation. 

Because this was not the place to debut a song of this character, but a workshop for the charming, light works of his earliest moments. That is the crucial difference. Light. It can be heard in those pre-electric recordings where the context of the song or the whimsical characteristics bring on bursts of laughter. Like it or loathe it, Dylan was very much the voice of a generation. He did not deserve to be saddled with the debts this would bring but Mr. Tambourine Man shines the light on him and keeps it there, burning him from inside out. Dylan does not go out to please the crowd now, nor did he at Newport Folk Festival all those decades ago. This is a head above the work he had written at the time, a move away from expectation. 

It is what kept him ahead of the rest and to that end, what provided him with the demands of a generation morally unequipped to deal with what was to come. Mr. Tambourine Man at Newport Folk Festival is a charming performance. A piece of work filled with the intensity and energy which would soon come to light on the albums immediately following its release. This is a watershed moment not just for Dylan but in music history. Contemporary roads paving their way through the future can be traced back to here or The Beatles. Such were the influences of the time and its knock-on effect. Mr. Tambourine Man is the first domino in a large chain for many artists – and it could be argued it all started here, when Dylan decided to shift his image and his ideas into what he, and only he, wanted to perform.