Bob Dylan: From Folk Troubadour to Electric Rocker

July 25th marks the 58th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s mind blowing first electric rock concert at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Rock music historian Richie Unterberger returns to the JCCSF to present a program highlighting the mercurial singer-songwriter’s prime. It will feature film clips of vintage Dylan performances of such masterpieces as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and “Hurricane.” We’ll trace his early career from his emergence in the early 1960s as a protest folk singer through his startling change to electric folk-rock in the mid-1960s; his country-rock phase in the late 1960s; and his mid-1970s comeback with the Blood on the Tracks and Desire albums. 

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley, and 1960s folk-rock. He teaches courses on rock and soul music history at several Bay Area colleges. His latest book, San Francisco: Portrait of a City, was published by Taschen earlier this year.