Bob Dylan Stopped By Cops Who'd Never Heard Of Him

Please tell me you have heard of Bob Dylan.If not, you won't get the article's lead:

"Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood."

If this NPR story didn't make me feel so OLD, it would be funny. Instead it is just poignant.

I may have missed Woodstock but I was at the Newport Folk Festival in July of 1965 when Bob Dylan came out on the stage with a band (he'd always played solo) and - God forbid - an electric guitar.

Over our grumbling, my dear parents had gotten me and my step-sisters there early that Sunday morning so even at 10 pm that night we still had great seats near the front.

Some in the audience booed as he sang and after what seemed like an abbreviated set (it WAS really late and everyone needed to get home), Dylan and the band left the stage. Then the booing got really loud!

I wasn't shocked because I'd already attended his concert at McCormick Place in Chicago in June so I knew he'd gone electric but the die hard folk music types were truly unhappy. The MC pleaded for him to come back and eventually he did return - alone - with an acoustic guitar but the wrong harmonica. He asked plaintively if anyone had an E harmonica and it was sight I will never forget!

Up out of the audience near the stage must have come 40 harmonicas, plopping down on the stage like huge locust. Dylan picked one up and sang a couple of his more familiar folk songs.

We all came to love Dylan's electric phase but it was a surreal night. You can read more abut the moment HERE. Now the police don't even know who he is. I think police cadets maybe need to be exposed to a fewe more Humanities courses! Here is a great take on the incident.