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= = = Gerald Gardner 's Wica : 1939 – 1966 = = =

Gerald Gardner ( 1884 – 1964 ) , the man largely responsible for propagating the Wiccan religion in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s and the founder of the Gardnerian tradition , never used the term Wicca in either sense that it is used today . He referred to the religion as the " cult of witchcraft " or " the witch @-@ cult " , the latter likely being a term borrowed from Margaret Murray , who wrote a book entitled The Witch @-@ Cult in Western Europe ( 1921 ) . Gardner did use the term Wica , which he always spelled with only one c in his writings , but this did not refer to the religion itself , instead referring to the religion 's practitioners in a plural sense .
What are [ the witches ] then ? They are the people who call themselves the Wica , the " wise people " , who practise the age ‑ old rites and who have , along with much superstition and herbal knowledge , preserved an occult teaching and working processes which they themselves think to be magic or witchcraft .
In contrast with this plural use of the word , in a 1954 article written by Arnold Field , a reporter for the Daily Dispatch , Gardner had apparently explained to him that " there are man and woman witches . Each is called a wica . " This quote offers the only piece of evidence that Gardner also referred to Pagan Witches individually as a wica . It is possible that Field misunderstood what Gardner was saying by not capitalising Wica , and that therefore Gardner might have never used Wica in a singular sense .
In his book The Meaning of Witchcraft ( 1959 ) Gardner states that he first heard the term Wica while being initiated into the New Forest coven in September 1939 , stating that " I realised I had stumbled on something interesting ; but I was half @-@ initiated before the word Wica which they used hit me like a thunderbolt , and I knew where I was , and that the Old Religion still existed . " This account was repeated in his biography , Gerald Gardner : Witch ( 1960 ) , written by Idries Shah but attributed to Jack L. Bracelin , in which he is quoted as saying that " it was halfway through when the word Wica was first mentioned ; and I knew that that which I had thought burnt out hundreds of years ago still survived . " If Gardner 's account was accurate and the New Forest coven had really existed , then the fact that Gardner spelled the word as Wica would not necessarily indicate that the coven members had spelled it the same way . As he relates , from Gardner 's account , " it seems that he had heard rather than read the word in the midst of his initiatory rite " and that , " suffering from a poor grasp of spelling , punctuation , and grammar , something caused by the fact that he was self @-@ educated and possibly also influenced by dyslexia " , he would have therefore spelled the word phonetically as Wica .
In The Meaning of Witchcraft , Gardner also notes the term Wica 's resemblance to the Old English word wicca , stating that " It is a curious fact that when the witches became English @-@ speaking they adopted their Saxon name ' Wica ' . " In his published writings , Gardner propounds the idea that his Pagan Witchcraft religion dated back at least to the Anglo @-@ Saxon period , when Old English was the dominant language .
Wica soon became an accepted term among the early Gardnerians , as Gardner 's followers and initiates became known . Patricia and Arnold Crowther , a Gardnerian High Priestess and High Priest who operated a coven in Sheffield , use the term in their book The Witches Speak ( 1959 ) , writing that " [ T ] he Red Queen told Alice that she made words mean what [ she ] wanted them to mean . She might very well have been talking about witchcraft , for today it is used to describe anything that one wishes to use it for . From the simple meaning ' the craft of the Wica ' , it is used in connection with Black Magic , Satanism , Black Masses ... "

= = = Charles Cardell 's Wiccen : 1958 – 1960 = = =

Charles Cardell ( 1892 – 1977 ) was the founder of a Pagan Witchcraft tradition that rivalled that of Gerald Gardner 's in southern England during the 1950s . A psychologist and stage conjurer , Cardell ran a company named Dumblecott Magick Productions from his home in Charlwood , Surrey , from where he also controlled a local coven that was spied on by the press , leading to a well @-@ publicised court case . Having been involved with Spiritualism as well as Pagan Witchcraft , Cardell initially befriended Gardner , but in 1958 they had an argument , and in 1964 Cardell tried to discredit him by publishing much of the then @-@ secret Gardnerian Book of Shadows .
Cardell used the term Wiccen to refer not just to members of his own tradition , but to all followers of the Pagan Witchcraft religion , placing an advert in Light magazine , the journal of the College of Psychic Science , entitled " The Craft of the Wiccens " in 1958 . The advert asked fellow Wiccens to get in contact with him . This advert shows that Cardell was responsible for the propagation and possibly invention of the term Wiccen .
It is possible Cardell had also used the term Wicca , evidenced by the fact that Margaret Bruce , the owner of a mail @-@ order business selling occult titles , wrote a letter to her friend Gerald Gardner on 23 February 1960 , in which she consoled him on the attacks made against him by Cardell and included a poem in which she referred to " the ' Wicca ' " . In Melissa Seims ' opinion , this use of Wicca was explicitly in reference to the Cardellian Craft , and therefore meant " that this spelling , along with ' Wiccan ' , was used by Cardell . " However , it is also possible that Bruce was referring to " the Wicca " as " a community of Pagan Witches " , in which case it would be a misspelling of Gardner 's " the Wica " .

= = = The emergence of Wicca : 1962 – 1970 = = =

The term Wicca appears to have developed within the Pagan Witchcraft community during the early 1960s , as increasing numbers of Pagan Witches learned of the Old English term wicca , the etymological origin of the Modern term witch . This etymological fact had been referred to five times in Gerald Gardner 's book The Meaning of Witchcraft ( 1959 ) , as well as in other early texts propagating Pagan Witchcraft , such as Doreen Valiente 's Where Witchcraft Lives ( 1962 ) and Justine Glass ' Witchcraft , The Sixth Sense – and Us ( 1965 ) . None of these specifically referred to the Pagan Witchcraft religion as Wicca .
The earliest known published reference for the word Wicca is within an advertisement published in a 1962 issue of Fate magazine ; in this , a Cardiff @-@ based group of Pagan Witches advertised a tradition as " Wicca – Dianic and Aradian " . The advert may have been linked to Charles and Mary Cardell because Mary was allegedly born in Wales and Cardellian Witchcraft had apparently venerated a goddess under the name of Diana . However , many Pagan Witchcraft groups would have adopted the deity name Diana and Aradia , these being the goddesses featured in the American folklorist Charles Leland 's supposed account of a Tuscan witch tradition , Aradia , or the Gospel of the Witches ( 1899 ) . Another early use could be found from December 1965 , in the penultimate issue of Pentagram , the newsletter of the Witchcraft Research Association . Here , a small column on Halloween made reference to " the Craft of the Wiccan " , apparently referring to the entire Pagan Witchcraft community . The author 's name was not printed , although it had probably been produced by one of the figures involved in editing Pentagram , such as Gerard Noel or Doreen Valiente . In July 1968 , a group of British Gardnerians began publishing a magazine titled The Wiccan , while Welshman Gavin Frost founded the Church of Wicca in the United States that same year .
In the 1960s , the Gardnerian initiate Alex Sanders founded his own tradition , which became known as Alexandrian Wicca ; he used the terms Wicca and the Wicca in reference to the entire Pagan Witchcraft religion . One of Sanders ' initiates , Stewart Farrar , describes Wicca as " the witches ' name for their Craft " in his book What Witches Do ( 1971 ) . The widespread adoption of Wicca in reference to Pagan Witchcraft would have brought benefits to its practitioners , who were widely maligned and faced persecution for their practice of witchcraft ; an emotive term often associated with Satanism that had negative connotations in the Western imagination . Doyle White argued that the practitioners ' presentation of themselves as Wiccans rather than witches removed some of the social stigma that they faced .

= = Popularisation = =


= = = Developments in North America : 1970 – 1990 = = =

From 1970 onward , increasing numbers of books teaching readers how to become Pagan Witches were published ; the earliest was Paul Huson 's Mastering Witchcraft ( 1970 ) , which made no reference to Wicca . This was followed by Raymond Buckland 's The Tree : The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft , in which he propagated his newly developed tradition of Seax @-@ Wica ; utilising Wica as the name of the tradition , he also referenced the Wicca as the name of the religion as a whole . Contrastingly , during the 1970s the term Wicca was rejected by feminist Pagan Witchcraft groups in the United States , in particular the Dianic tradition ; the term does not appear in the early works of Zsuzsanna Budapest and Starhawk , although the latter would adopt it by the 21st century .
This was part of a phenomenon that took place during the 1970s and 1980s , as the term Wicca became increasingly associated purely with Gardnerianism and Alexandrianism ( together known as British Traditional Wicca in North America ) , rather than with other variants of Pagan Witchcraft . This was encouraged by elements within the Gardnerian and Alexandrian communities who wished to emphasise what they perceived as their special position within the Pagan community . The word Wicca first appeared in a book title in 1981 as Wicca : The Ancient Way ; written by Janus @-@ Mithras , Nuit @-@ Hilaria and Mer @-@ Amun and published in Canada . It discussed a Gardnerian @-@ based tradition .

= = = Increasing popularisation and reaction : 1990 – 2010 = = =

In ensuing years , many other authors would publish books containing Wicca in their titles which advocated solitary practice of Pagan Witchcraft ; best known were Scott Cunningham 's Wicca : A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner ( 1988 ) and Silver RavenWolf 's Teen Witch : Wicca for a New Generation ( 1998 ) , but other examples included Gerina Dunwich 's The Wicca Garden ( 1996 ) , D. J. Conway 's Wicca : The Complete Craft ( 2001 ) , Raymond Buckland 's Wicca for Life ( 2004 ) and Wicca for One ( 2004 ) , Arin Murphy @-@ Hiscock 's Solitary Wicca for Life ( 2005 ) and Ann @-@ Marie Gallagher 's The Wicca Bible ( 2005 ) . It was also adopted by American novelist Cate Tiernan as the title of her series of young adult novels .
The term Wicca was employed in an increasingly eclectic manner by authors like RavenWolf , who considered it to be a synonym for witchcraft . In turn it began to be adopted on a wider scale , being popularised in India by Ipsita Roy Chakraverti and being adopted by a French Luciferian group , Le Wicca Française . Becoming widely known in western popular culture , it was utilised by the script writers of two popular American television shows , Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed ; the first episode of the latter was titled " Something Wicca This Way Comes " while the tenth was titled " Wicca Envy " .
Reacting against the increasingly inclusive use of the term were Pagan Witches who instead characterised their practices as forms of Traditional Witchcraft . Many Pagan Witches who considered themselves to be Traditional Witches exhibited an us @-@ and @-@ them mentality against Gardnerianism and allied traditions , for whom they reserved the term Wicca . Doyle White suggests that they had done so in order to distance themselves from the increasing influence of the New Age movement over the Wiccan mainstream with its " iconographical emphasis on white light " , instead embracing the traditional European view that associated witchcraft with darkness . Historian Ronald Hutton states that he knew of three Wiccan covens founded in the 1980s who began to describe themselves as Traditional Witches in the 1990s .

= = = Etymologies = = =



= Bob Dylan =

Bob Dylan ( / ˈdɪlən / ; born Robert Allen Zimmerman , May 24 , 1941 ) is an American singer @-@ songwriter , artist and writer . He has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades . Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when his songs chronicled social unrest , although Dylan repudiated suggestions from journalists that he was a spokesman for his generation . Nevertheless , early songs such as " Blowin ' in the Wind " and " The Times They Are a @-@ Changin ' " became anthems for the American civil rights and anti @-@ war movements . After he left his initial base in the American folk music revival , his six @-@ minute single " Like a Rolling Stone " altered the range of popular music in 1965 . His mid @-@ 1960s recordings , backed by rock musicians , reached the top end of the United States music charts while also attracting denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement .
Dylan 's lyrics have incorporated various political , social , philosophical , and literary influences . They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture . Initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie , Robert Johnson , and Hank Williams , Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres . His recording career , spanning more than 50 years , has explored the traditions in American song — from folk , blues , and country to gospel , rock and roll , and rockabilly to English , Scottish , and Irish folk music , embracing even jazz and the Great American Songbook . Dylan performs with guitar , keyboards , and harmonica . Backed by a changing lineup of musicians , he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour . His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career , but songwriting is considered his greatest contribution .
Since 1994 , Dylan has published six books of drawings and paintings , and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries . As a musician , Dylan has sold more than 100 million records , making him one of the best @-@ selling artists of all time . He has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards , a Golden Globe Award , and an Academy Award . Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , Minnesota Music Hall of Fame , Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame , and Songwriters Hall of Fame . The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for " his profound impact on popular music and American culture , marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power . " In May 2012 , Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama .

= = Life and career = =


= = = Origins and musical beginnings = = =

Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman ( Hebrew name שבתאי זיסל בן אברהם [ Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham ] ) in St Mary 's Hospital on May 24 , 1941 , in Duluth , Minnesota , and raised in Hibbing , Minnesota , on the Mesabi Range west of Lake Superior . He has a younger brother , David . Dylan 's paternal grandparents , Zigman and Anna Zimmerman , emigrated from Odessa , in the Russian Empire ( now Ukraine ) , to the United States following the anti @-@ Semitic pogroms of 1905 . His maternal grandparents , Ben and Florence Stone , were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902 . In his autobiography , Chronicles : Volume One , Dylan wrote that his paternal grandmother 's maiden name was Kirghiz and her family originated from Kağızman district of Kars Province in northeastern Turkey .
Dylan 's parents , Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice " Beatty " Stone , were part of a small but close @-@ knit Jewish community . They lived in Duluth until Robert was six , when his father had polio and the family returned to his mother 's hometown , Hibbing , where they lived for the rest of Robert 's childhood . In his early years he listened to the radio — first to blues and country stations from Shreveport , Louisiana and later , when he was a teenager , to rock and roll . He formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School . In the Golden Chords , he performed covers of songs by Little Richard and Elvis Presley . Their performance of Danny & the Juniors ' " Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay " at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone . In 1959 , his high school yearbook carried the caption " Robert Zimmerman : to join ' Little Richard ' . " The same year , as Elston Gunnn [ sic ] , he performed two dates with Bobby Vee , playing piano and clapping .
Zimmerman moved to Minneapolis in September 1959 and enrolled at the University of Minnesota . His focus on rock and roll gave way to American folk music . In 1985 , he said :
The thing about rock 'n'roll is that for me anyway it wasn 't enough ... There were great catch @-@ phrases and driving pulse rhythms ... but the songs weren 't serious or didn 't reflect life in a realistic way . I knew that when I got into folk music , it was more of a serious type of thing . The songs are filled with more despair , more sadness , more triumph , more faith in the supernatural , much deeper feelings .
He began to perform at the Ten O 'Clock Scholar , a coffeehouse a few blocks from campus , and became involved in the Dinkytown folk music circuit .
During his Dinkytown days , Zimmerman began introducing himself as " Bob Dylan " . In his memoir , Dylan acknowledged that he had been influenced by the poetry of Dylan Thomas . Explaining his change of name in a 2004 interview , Dylan remarked , " You 're born , you know , the wrong names , wrong parents . I mean , that happens . You call yourself what you want to call yourself . This is the land of the free . "

= = = 1960s = = =


= = = = Relocation to New York and record deal = = = =

In May 1960 , Dylan dropped out of college at the end of his first year . In January 1961 , he traveled to New York City , to perform there and visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie , who was seriously ill with Huntington 's disease in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital . Guthrie had been a revelation to Dylan and influenced his early performances . Describing Guthrie 's impact , he wrote : " The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them ... [ He ] was the true voice of the American spirit . I said to myself I was going to be Guthrie 's greatest disciple . " As well as visiting Guthrie in hospital , Dylan befriended Guthrie 's acolyte Ramblin ' Jack Elliott . Much of Guthrie 's repertoire was channeled through Elliott , and Dylan paid tribute to Elliott in Chronicles : Volume One .
From February 1961 , Dylan played at clubs around Greenwich Village . He befriended and picked up material from folk singers there , including Dave Van Ronk , Fred Neil , Odetta , the New Lost City Ramblers , and Irish musicians the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem . In September , Dylan gained public recognition when Robert Shelton wrote a review in The New York Times of a show at Gerde 's Folk City . The same month Dylan played harmonica on folk singer Carolyn Hester 's third album , which brought his talents to the attention of the album 's producer , John Hammond . Hammond signed Dylan to Columbia Records in October . The performances on his first Columbia album — Bob Dylan — in March 1962 , consisted of familiar folk , blues and gospel with two original compositions . The album sold only 5 @,@ 000 in its first year , just enough to break even . Within Columbia Records , some referred to the singer as " Hammond 's Folly " and suggested dropping his contract , but Hammond defended Dylan and was supported by Johnny Cash . In March 1962 , Dylan contributed harmonica and back @-@ up vocals to the album Three Kings and the Queen , accompanying Victoria Spivey and Big Joe Williams on a recording for Spivey Records . While working for Columbia , Dylan recorded under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt , for Broadside , a folk magazine and record label . Dylan used the pseudonym Bob Landy to record as a piano player on The Blues Project , a 1964 anthology album by Elektra Records . As Tedham Porterhouse , Dylan played harmonica on Ramblin ' Jack Elliott 's 1964 album , Jack Elliott .
Dylan made two important career moves in August 1962 : he legally changed his name to Robert Dylan , and he signed a management contract with Albert Grossman . ( In June 1961 , Dylan had signed an agreement with Roy Silver . In 1962 , Grossman paid Silver $ 10 @,@ 000 to become sole manager . ) Grossman remained Dylan 's manager until 1970 , and was notable for his sometimes confrontational personality and for protective loyalty . Dylan said , " He was kind of like a Colonel Tom Parker figure ... you could smell him coming . " Tensions between Grossman and John Hammond led to Hammond 's being replaced as producer of Dylan 's second album by the young African @-@ American jazz producer , Tom Wilson .
Dylan made his first trip to the United Kingdom from December 1962 to January 1963 . He had been invited by TV director Philip Saville to appear in a drama , Madhouse on Castle Street , which Saville was directing for BBC Television . At the end of the play , Dylan performed " Blowin ' in the Wind " , one of its first public performances . The film recording of Madhouse on Castle Street was destroyed by the BBC in 1968 . While in London , Dylan performed at London folk clubs , including the Troubadour , Les Cousins , and Bunjies . He also learned material from UK performers , including Martin Carthy .
By the time of Dylan 's second album , The Freewheelin ' Bob Dylan , in May 1963 , he had begun to make his name as a singer and a songwriter . Many songs on this album were labeled protest songs , inspired partly by Guthrie and influenced by Pete Seeger 's passion for topical songs . " Oxford Town " , for example , was an account of James Meredith 's ordeal as the first black student to risk enrollment at the University of Mississippi .
The first song on the Freewheelin ' album , " Blowin ' in the Wind " , partly derived its melody from the traditional slave song , " No More Auction Block " , while its lyrics questioned the social and political status quo . The song was widely recorded by other artists and became a hit for Peter , Paul and Mary . Another Freewheelin ' song , " A Hard Rain 's a @-@ Gonna Fall " was based on the folk ballad " Lord Randall " . With veiled references to an impending apocalypse , the song gained more resonance when the Cuban Missile Crisis developed a few weeks after Dylan began performing it . Like " Blowin ' in the Wind " , " A Hard Rain 's a @-@ Gonna Fall " marked a new direction in songwriting , blending a stream @-@ of @-@ consciousness , imagist lyrical attack with traditional folk form .
Dylan 's topical songs enhanced his early reputation , and he came to be seen as more than just a songwriter . Janet Maslin wrote of Freewheelin ' : " These were the songs that established [ Dylan ] as the voice of his generation — someone who implicitly understood how concerned young Americans felt about nuclear disarmament and the growing movement for civil rights : his mixture of moral authority and nonconformity was perhaps the most timely of his attributes . " Freewheelin ' also included love songs and surreal talking blues . Humor was an important part of Dylan 's persona , and the range of material on the album impressed listeners , including The Beatles . George Harrison said of the album , " We just played it , just wore it out . The content of the song lyrics and just the attitude — it was incredibly original and wonderful . "
The rough edge of Dylan 's singing was unsettling to some but an attraction to others . Joyce Carol Oates wrote : " When we first heard this raw , very young , and seemingly untrained voice , frankly nasal , as if sandpaper could sing , the effect was dramatic and electrifying . " Many early songs reached the public through more palatable versions by other performers , such as Joan Baez , who became Dylan 's advocate as well as his lover . Baez was influential in bringing Dylan to prominence by recording several of his early songs and inviting him on stage during her concerts .
Others who had hits with Dylan 's songs in the early 1960s included the Byrds , Sonny & Cher , the Hollies , Peter , Paul and Mary , the Association , Manfred Mann and the Turtles . Most attempted a pop feel and rhythm , while Dylan and Baez performed them mostly as sparse folk songs . The covers became so ubiquitous that CBS promoted him with the slogan " Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan . "
" Mixed @-@ Up Confusion " , recorded during the Freewheelin ' sessions with a backing band , was released as a single and then quickly withdrawn . In contrast to the mostly solo acoustic performances on the album , the single showed a willingness to experiment with a rockabilly sound . Cameron Crowe described it as " a fascinating look at a folk artist with his mind wandering towards Elvis Presley and Sun Records . "

= = = = Protest and Another Side = = = =

In May 1963 , Dylan 's political profile rose when he walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show . During rehearsals , Dylan had been told by CBS television 's head of program practices that " Talkin ' John Birch Paranoid Blues " was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society . Rather than comply with censorship , Dylan refused to appear .
By this time , Dylan and Baez were prominent in the civil rights movement , singing together at the March on Washington on August 28 , 1963 . Dylan 's third album , The Times They Are a @-@ Changin ' , reflected a more politicized and cynical Dylan . The songs often took as their subject matter contemporary stories , with " Only A Pawn In Their Game " addressing the murder of civil rights worker Medgar Evers ; and the Brechtian " The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll " the death of black hotel barmaid Hattie Carroll , at the hands of young white socialite William Zantzinger . On a more general theme , " Ballad of Hollis Brown " and " North Country Blues " addressed despair engendered by the breakdown of farming and mining communities . This political material was accompanied by two personal love songs , " Boots of Spanish Leather " and " One Too Many Mornings " .
By the end of 1963 , Dylan felt both manipulated and constrained by the folk and protest movements . Accepting the " Tom Paine Award " from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy , an intoxicated Dylan questioned the role of the committee , characterized the members as old and balding , and claimed to see something of himself and of every man in Kennedy 's assassin , Lee Harvey Oswald .
Another Side of Bob Dylan , recorded on a single evening in June 1964 , had a lighter mood . The humorous Dylan reemerged on " I Shall Be Free No. 10 " and " Motorpsycho Nightmare " . " Spanish Harlem Incident " and " To Ramona " are passionate love songs , while " Black Crow Blues " and " I Don 't Believe You ( She Acts Like We Never Have Met ) " suggest the rock and roll soon to dominate Dylan 's music . " It Ain 't Me Babe " , on the surface a song about spurned love , has been described as a rejection of the role of political spokesman thrust upon him . His newest direction was signaled by two lengthy songs : the impressionistic " Chimes of Freedom " , which sets social commentary against a metaphorical landscape in a style characterized by Allen Ginsberg as " chains of flashing images , " and " My Back Pages " , which attacks the simplistic and arch seriousness of his own earlier topical songs and seems to predict the backlash he was about to encounter from his former champions as he took a new direction .
In the latter half of 1964 and 1965 , Dylan moved from folk songwriter to folk @-@ rock pop @-@ music star . His jeans and work shirts were replaced by a Carnaby Street wardrobe , sunglasses day or night , and pointed " Beatle boots " . A London reporter wrote : " Hair that would set the teeth of a comb on edge . A loud shirt that would dim the neon lights of Leicester Square . He looks like an undernourished cockatoo . " Dylan began to spar with interviewers . Appearing on the Les Crane television show and asked about a movie he planned , he told Crane it would be a cowboy horror movie . Asked if he played the cowboy , Dylan replied , " No , I play my mother . "

= = = = Going electric = = = =

Dylan 's late March 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home was another leap , featuring his first recordings with electric instruments . The first single , " Subterranean Homesick Blues " , owed much to Chuck Berry 's " Too Much Monkey Business " ; its free association lyrics described as harkening back to the energy of beat poetry and as a forerunner of rap and hip @-@ hop . The song was provided with an early video , which opened D. A. Pennebaker 's cinéma vérité presentation of Dylan 's 1965 tour of Great Britain , Dont Look Back . Instead of miming , Dylan illustrated the lyrics by throwing cue cards containing key words from the song on the ground . Pennebaker said the sequence was Dylan 's idea , and it has been imitated in music videos and advertisements .
The second side of Bringing It All Back Home contained four long songs on which Dylan accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica . " Mr. Tambourine Man " became one of his best known songs when The Byrds recorded an electric version that reached number one in the US and UK . " It 's All Over Now , Baby Blue " and " It 's Alright Ma ( I 'm Only Bleeding ) " were two of Dylan 's most important compositions .
In 1965 , heading the Newport Folk Festival , Dylan performed his first electric set since high school with a pickup group mostly from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band , featuring Mike Bloomfield ( guitar ) , Sam Lay ( drums ) and Jerome Arnold ( bass ) , plus Al Kooper ( organ ) and Barry Goldberg ( piano ) . Dylan had appeared at Newport in 1963 and 1964 , but in 1965 met with cheering and booing and left the stage after three songs . One version has it that the boos were from folk fans whom Dylan had alienated by appearing , unexpectedly , with an electric guitar . Murray Lerner , who filmed the performance , said : " I absolutely think that they were booing Dylan going electric . " An alternative account claims audience members were upset by poor sound and a short set . This account is supported by Kooper and one of the directors of the festival , who reports his recording proves the only boos were in reaction to the MC 's announcement that there was only enough time for a short set .
Nevertheless , Dylan 's performance provoked a hostile response from the folk music establishment . In the September issue of Sing Out ! , Ewan MacColl wrote : " Our traditional songs and ballads are the creations of extraordinarily talented artists working inside disciplines formulated over time ... ' But what of Bobby Dylan ? ' scream the outraged teenagers ... Only a completely non @-@ critical audience , nourished on the watery pap of pop music , could have fallen for such tenth @-@ rate drivel . " On July 29 , four days after Newport , Dylan was back in the studio in New York , recording " Positively 4th Street " . The lyrics contained images of vengeance and paranoia , and it has been interpreted as Dylan 's put @-@ down of former friends from the folk community — friends he had known in clubs along West 4th Street .

= = = = Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde = = = =

In July 1965 , the single " Like a Rolling Stone " peaked at two in the U.S. and at four in the UK charts . At over six minutes , the song altered what a pop single could convey . Bruce Springsteen , in his speech for Dylan 's inauguration into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , said that on first hearing the single , " that snare shot sounded like somebody 'd kicked open the door to your mind " . In 2004 and in 2011 , Rolling Stone listed it as number one of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time " . The song opened Dylan 's next album , Highway 61 Revisited , named after the road that led from Dylan 's Minnesota to the musical hotbed of New Orleans . The songs were in the same vein as the hit single , flavored by Mike Bloomfield 's blues guitar and Al Kooper 's organ riffs . " Desolation Row " , backed by acoustic guitar and understated bass , offers the sole exception , with Dylan alluding to figures in Western culture in a song described by Andy Gill as " an 11 @-@ minute epic of entropy , which takes the form of a Fellini @-@ esque parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of celebrated characters , some historical ( Einstein , Nero ) , some biblical ( Noah , Cain and Abel ) , some fictional ( Ophelia , Romeo , Cinderella ) , some literary ( T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound ) , and some who fit into none of the above categories , notably Dr. Filth and his dubious nurse . "
In support of the album , Dylan was booked for two U.S. concerts with Al Kooper and Harvey Brooks from his studio crew and Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm , former members of Ronnie Hawkins 's backing band the Hawks . On August 28 at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium , the group was heckled by an audience still annoyed by Dylan 's electric sound . The band 's reception on September 3 at the Hollywood Bowl was more favorable .
From September 24 , 1965 , in Austin , Texas , Dylan toured the U.S. and Canada for six months , backed by the five musicians from the Hawks who became known as the Band . While Dylan and the Hawks met increasingly receptive audiences , their studio efforts floundered . Producer Bob Johnston persuaded Dylan to record in Nashville in February 1966 , and surrounded him with top @-@ notch session men . At Dylan 's insistence , Robertson and Kooper came from New York City to play on the sessions . The Nashville sessions produced the double album Blonde on Blonde ( 1966 ) , featuring what Dylan called " that thin wild mercury sound " . Kooper described it as " taking two cultures and smashing them together with a huge explosion " : the musical world of Nashville and the world of the " quintessential New York hipster " Bob Dylan .
On November 22 , 1965 , Dylan secretly married 25 @-@ year @-@ old former model Sara Lownds . Some of Dylan 's friends , including Ramblin ' Jack Elliott , say that , immediately after the event , Dylan denied he was married . Journalist Nora Ephron made the news public in the New York Post in February 1966 with the headline " Hush ! Bob Dylan is wed . "
Dylan toured Australia and Europe in April and May 1966 . Each show was split in two . Dylan performed solo during the first half , accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica . In the second , backed by the Hawks , he played electrically amplified music . This contrast provoked many fans , who jeered and slow handclapped . The tour culminated in a raucous confrontation between Dylan and his audience at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England on May 17 , 1966 . A recording of this concert was released in 1998 : The Bootleg Series Vol . 4 : Bob Dylan Live 1966 . At the climax of the evening , a member of the audience , angered by Dylan 's electric backing , shouted : " Judas ! " to which Dylan responded , " I don 't believe you ... You 're a liar ! " Dylan turned to his band and said , " Play it fucking loud ! " as they launched into the final song of the night — " Like a Rolling Stone " .
During his 1966 tour , Dylan was described as exhausted and acting " as if on a death trip " . D. A. Pennebaker , the film maker accompanying the tour , described Dylan as " taking a lot of amphetamine and who @-@ knows @-@ what @-@ else . " In a 1969 interview with Jann Wenner , Dylan said , " I was on the road for almost five years . It wore me down . I was on drugs , a lot of things ... just to keep going , you know ? " In 2011 , BBC Radio 4 reported that , in an interview that Robert Shelton taped in 1966 , Dylan said he had kicked heroin in New York City : " I got very , very strung out for a while ... I had about a $ 25 @-@ a @-@ day habit and I kicked it . " Some journalists questioned the validity of this confession , pointing out that Dylan had " been telling journalists wild lies about his past since the earliest days of his career . "

= = = = Motorcycle accident and reclusion = = = =

After his tour , Dylan returned to New York , but the pressures increased . ABC Television had paid an advance for a TV show . His publisher , Macmillan , was demanding a manuscript of the poem / novel Tarantula . Manager Albert Grossman had scheduled a concert tour for the latter part of the year .

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