Iconic Object: Bob Dylan’s 1965 Strat Up For Auction

Via Rolling Stone and the Michael Ochs Archive.

Bob Dylan played a Fender Stratocaster guitar when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. It was a big deal. People booed.

Backing Dylan were Michael Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on lead guitar and Al Kooper on organ, both of whom had played on “Like A Rolling Stone.” Also in Dylan’s band were bassist Jerome Arnold, drummer Sam Lay of the Butterfield Band, and Barry Goldberg on piano.

They played three rock ‘n’ roll songs with his electric band: “Maggie’s Farm,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Phantom Engineer” (an early version of “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”).

Now the guitar that Dylan played at Newport will be auctioned in New York at Christie’s on December 6th. The guitar is expected to sell for around a half million dollars. Five sheets of handwritten and typed fragments of lyrics that would later appear in “In the Darkness of Your Room,” “Absolutely Sweet Marie” and other songs will also be auctioned, according to Rolling Stone. The lyrics, found in the Strat case, could sell for between $3000 and $5000.

Read more at Rolling Stone.

Check out the guitar in this video:

About Michael Goldberg

Michael Goldberg is a distinguished pioneer in the online music space; Newsweek magazine called him an ‘Internet visionary.’ In 1994 he founded Addicted To Noise (ATN), the highly influential music web site. He was a senior vice-president and editor in chief at SonicNet from March 1997 through May 2000. In 1997, Addicted To Noise won Webby awards for best music site in 1998 and 1999, and also won Yahoo Internet Life! awards for three years running as best music site in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Prior to starting Addicted To Noise, Goldberg was an editor and senior writer at Rolling Stone magazine for 10 years. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Esquire, Vibe, Details, Downbeat, NME and numerous other publications. Michael has had three novels published that comprise the "Freak Scene Dream trilogy": "True Love Scars," "The Flowers Lied" and "Untitled" which can be ordered here. His new book, "Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey," can be pre-ordered from HoZac Books. In November Backbeat Books will publish "Addicted To Noise: The Music Writings of Michael Goldberg," which can be be pre-ordered here.

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