Beck covers Bob Dylan’s ‘Maggie’s Farm’ during surprise Newport Folk Festival set
This year’s edition of the Newport Folk Festival commenced on July 26th, and the day featured a string of excellent performances, especially those from Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker and Wednesday. However, the highlight was a surprising set by Beck, who brought a bit of Bob Dylan back to the celebration.
Concluding on Sunday, July 28th, this year’s Newport Folk Festival has seen a host of other favourites take the stage, including revered folk pioneer Joan Baez – the former girlfriend of Bob Dylan – Orville Peck, and The War on Drugs on July 27th. The final day will boast the likes of The Breeders and Tinariwen.
The Newport Folk Festival played a key role in Bob Dylan’s career. In 1963, Baez brought him there and performed ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ with her and other artists, and he found a wider audience because of it. The following year, he earned further acclaim there, playing tracks such as ‘With God on Our Side’ and ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ to rapturous applause.
However, the Rhode Island festival was also the place where he got the first taste of just how polarising his decision to go electric would be. While he found glory with the acoustic protest folk of his second and third albums, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are a-Changin’, in 1965, he released Bringing It All Back Home, and side one features him playing rock music with a band, a stark change. The second side is just him with an acoustic guitar, but the damage was already done for some people.
Although this move would ultimately lead to Dylan’s most artistically accomplished chapter, many in the folk movement hated his choice to go electric. They saw him as a sort of Judas for foregoing political songwriting. Because of this, at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, some sections of the audience angrily booed him. He would not return until 2002.
Taking to the Quad Stage on Friday afternoon alongside a full band, Beck performed a short set of mostly covers of classic American songs, honouring the festival’s roots. These included Jimmie Rodgers’ ‘Waiting for a Train’ and the traditional ‘Stagger Lee’. He also brought to life a handful of classic 1960s songs and opened his set with Dylan’s ‘Maggie’s Farm’ from side one of Bringing It All Back Home.
To close the performance, Beck played two originals, ‘The Golden Age’ and ‘One Foot in the Grave’, before finishing with his signature song, ‘Loser’.
Beck and Dylan have long maintained mutual respect. The Californian artist sampled the legendary songwriter on ‘Jack-Ass’, and Dylan once claimed that he’d love to make a record with Beck.
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