Barry, Goldberg, former keyboardist with Bob Dylan at Newport, dead at 83
Barry Goldberg, the acclaimed keyboardist and producer who played with Bob Dylan in his most significant performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, has died at the age of 83.
A representative, Bob Merlis, revealed that Goldberg died in hospice care after a decade-long battle with non-Hoghkin lymphoma. His wife of 53 years, Gail Goldberg, and son, Aram, were at his bedside at the time of his passing.
Goldberg was born in Chicago on Christmas Day, 1942. He threw himself into music from an early age and, as a teenager, sat in with the city’s blues and rock ‘n’ roll pioneers such as Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and Howlin’ Wolf.
In one of his career highlights, he played with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band as they backed Dylan at short notice during his electrified performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Despite the jeers and instant notoriety, it proved pivotal for Dylan and music in general. This short, but game-changing set provides the finale of the Timothée Chalamet-starring biopic A Complete Unknown.
Elsewhere in 1965, Goldberg started the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band with Steve Miller. Later, he formed the band The Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield in 1967, and went on to found The Barry Goldberg Reunion the following year.
Goldberg’s relationship with Dylan was also significant in another way. His 1974 self-titled album, Barry Goldberg, is the only album Dylan ever produced for another artist. 16 years later, Goldberg produced Dylan’s recording of ‘People Get Ready’, which was released on the soundtrack of the movie Flashback.
The late musician also impacted music in other ways, and many of his songs—some of which were co-written with Gerry Goffin—were recorded by legends such as Rod Stewart, Gladys Knight, Joe Cocker, Steve Miller, Gram Parsons, and more.
In 1994, Goldberg and Saul Davis produced Percy Sledge’s Blue Night, which featured a star-studded cast. These included Bobby Womack, Steve Cropper, Mick Taylor and Ed Greene, with songs written by the likes of Fats Domino, Otis Redding, the Bee Gees and Quinton Claunch. It was Grammy nominated.
When Stephen Stills founded the new band The Rides in 2012, he recruited Goldberg, alongside Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Chris Layton. Goldberg would then co-write four songs on that year’s debut album, Can’t Get Enough. The band released their second album, Pierced Arrow, in 2016.
Recalling how he felt after playing at the Newport Folk Festival with Dylan in 1965, in an article Goldberg wrote in the Forward in 2022, he said: “I walked offstage that night feeling like a hero, and I didn’t want anything to break that spell.”
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