Dr. John Rudoff is a cardiologist in Oregon, but before he entered medical school, he was the staff photographer at The Main Point, a coffeehouse in Bryn Mawr, PA associated with the early 1960s folk revival in the Philadelphia area. His photographs of the Philadelphia folk scene include unidentified local folkies, but also touring folk singers such as Dave van Ronk and John Hammond. Eventually, Rudoff got a press pass to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he took photos of Mary Travers sharing a moment with Mimi and Dick Fariña and Joan Baez with a pre-psychedelicized Chambers Brothers, but the most amazing discovery of all are the photos of when Bob Dylan "went electric." And now you can see Rudoff's whole collection, thanks to the magic of Flickr.
posted by jonp72 on May 7, 2009 - 13 comments

I wonder if Odetta will sing backup on "Debaser". The Pixies will do their first acoustic set ever this summer, and what more appropriate place than where Dylan plugged in and changed the rules? That's right, Newport, baby!
posted by barjo on Jun 16, 2005 - 14 comments

Fancy Helping Rearrange The Deckchairs On The S.S.Nation? Witness the lavish excesses of Newport's "gilded age" as you visit the summer cottages of the Vanderbilts, Astors and Morgans; relive the fairy-tale wedding reception of Jacqueline Bouvier at her childhood summer home, Hammersmith Farm... Got a few thousand dollars to spare? Fancy a luxury cruise, leisurely discussing the evils of globalisation and the Bush administration with the likes of George McGovern, Howard Zinn, Katha Pollitt and the editorial gang of The Nation? Welcome aboard! Or perhaps Sir or Madam would feel more at home rubbing elbows and spilling eggnogs with Kenneth Starr, Milton Friedman, Dan Quayle, Tom De Lay on the S.S.National Review. What?! Still too left wing? Well, go ahead and join Oliver North, the NRA and other soft-spoken voices of moderation on their Freedom Cruise to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the glorious liberation of Grenada! Your own private tour of the island, conducted by Ollie himself, is included.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Aug 19, 2002 - 8 comments

Bob Dylan Live at Newport, 1965: Maggie’s Farm. 10 MB Quicktime mp3 A notorious and historic moment, that began a legendary year of touring , stolen moments of which are available in several sometimes bootlegged formats .Sometimes, perhaps revised , stories differ at what happened, and, now, post-ironically enough, He appears at Newport again this Saturday.
posted by y2karl on Aug 2, 2002 - 35 comments

Mel Lyman 1938-1978. Mel Lyman was controversial. He was the brilliant folk musician who soothed the Dylan-ruffled crowd at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the Fort Hill guru whose prose in the undergound newspaper Avatar shocked conservative Bostonians of the late 60s... Many years of collecting, and help from numerous people has resulted in the large collection of articles reproduced here. Some say Lyman was God... others that he was a devil... but most of these articles show him as a charismatic individual somewhere between those two extremes. An exhaustively authoritative page about a very interesting harmonica player who became God. And, man, does this bring back the 60s...(Details within)
posted by y2karl on Mar 24, 2002 - 21 comments