“My God, it’s hard to get in tune when they’re booing": when Bob Dylan faced down his detractors with a Strat and made rock n' roll history

Bob Dylan plays a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar for the first time on stage as he performs at the Newport Folk Festival with guitarist Mike Bloomfield on July 25, 1965 in Newport, Rhode Island.

Late in the evening of 25 July, 1965, Bob Dylan strode out onto a darkened stage at Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island wearing black jeans, black boots and a black leather jacket. This was his first ever performance playing electric guitar and strapped around his neck was a 1964 sunburst Fender Stratocaster. Dylan was flanked by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, organist Al Kooper and various members of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. What followed has become the stuff of legend.

Dylan and the band tore straight into a storming version of Maggie’s Farm, from Dylan’s fifth album Bringing It All Back Home, released in March that year. Between each of Dylan’s vocal lines, Bloomfield reeled off searing Chicago blues-style lines on his Telecaster.