60 Years Since Newport 1965: Scaduto's `The Dylan Tapes' Revisited (9)

Sixty years ago a singer-songwriter/musician (who, in later years, wrote and recorded a pro-IDF song, "Neighborhood Bully", in the 1980s and, in the early 21st-century, entered into a business agreement with a firm, Victoria's Secret, which the BDS campaign has called for a boycott of), Bob Dylan, was booed by the audience at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

And in 2022 the University of Minnesota Press published a book, titled The Dylan Tapes: Friends, Players, and Lovers Talking Early Bob Dylan, which Stephanie Trudeau edited, that contained some of the transcribed texts of interviews that writer-journalist Anthony Scaduto did, while doing research for his early 1970s biography of Dylan.

According to the text of his interview with Anthony Scaduto in the late 1960s, John Hammond Sr. also recalled the following biographical information about Dylan's pre-Newport Folk Festival 1965 life:

"Bobby [Dylan] had just written `Blowin' in the Wind,' and Peter, Paul and Mary had heard [it]...

"...And so, when Artie Mogull at Witmark heard `Blowin' in the Wind,' he said, `Bobby, I want to sign you right away.' Bobby said, `...I just signed a contract with Duchess Music.'...But Artie Mogull, said `Well, here, Bobby, here's a thousand [equal to around $10,000 in U.S. dollars in 2025]. Why don't you go over and see if you can buy back your contract?'

"...So Bobby went over to Leeds, and...Hy Grill was running the office...

"...Artie insisted Hy took the $1,000 [equal to around $10,000 in U.S. dollars in 2025]...

"Bobby got his contract back and signed with Warner Bros....

"...We completed the second album, and this album started to take off, thanks to `Blowin in the Wind,' and thanks to the...work Peter, Paul and Mary had done with (the song). In fact, we put a special sticker on the second album saying `Featuring Blowin' in the Wind.'...

"I had made one goof...in the signing of Dylan. There's usually an automatic escalation clause on the contract. You know, you start at 4 percent, then you go right to  percent...When the contract came through...there was no escalation clause...

"So, by the time Bob [Dylan]'s contract was finished with Columbia, which was 5 years later--'66--there was a 1 percent thing which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars [equal to millions of U.S. dollars in 2025], which was being held in escrow...

"...You know, the big initial boost to Bob Dylan in this company was Johnny Cash [who entertained U.S. military troops stationed in Asia, on at least 2 USO tours in 1960s]...He was behind him every which way, and they all knew it. He made it known to Clive [Davis]..."

 

60 Years Since Newport 1965: Scaduto's `The Dylan Tapes' Revisited (8)

 Sixty years ago a singer-songwriter/musician (who, in later years, wrote and recorded a pro-IDF song, "Neighborhood Bully", in the 1980s and, in the early 21st-century, entered into a business agreement with a firm, Victoria's Secret, which the BDS campaign has called for a boycott of), Bob Dylan, was booed by the audience at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

And in 2022 the University of Minnesota Press published a book, titled The Dylan Tapes: Friends, Players, and Lovers Talking Early Bob Dylan, which Stephanie Trudeau edited, that contained some of the transcribed texts of interviews that writer-journalist Anthony Scaduto did, while doing research for his early 1970s biography of Dylan.

According to the text of his interview with Anthony Scaduto in the late 1960s, John Hammond Sr. recalled the following biographical information about Dylan's pre-Newport Folk Festival 1965 life:

"...The executive vice-president of our company [CBS's Columbia Records] was furious because I had not signed Joan Baez...Joan had come up, you see, and [Albert] Grossman was representing her. But just before I was with Columbia, I was with Vanguard Records...So Joan came up--and I was at Newport, you know, when Joan was there...Albert [Grossman] was asking a large advance for Joan. I said, `...Albert,...I'll give you a $1,500 [equal to around $16,000 in 2025 U.S. dollars] advance and, of course, top royalties.'

"Vanguard, I understand offered a $3,000 [equal to around $32,000 in 2025 U.S. dollars]. So, she signed with Vanguard. Now this is not for--just turn the machine off for a second.

"...Bob [Dylan]'s first album came out...And so, we had a wonderful publicity guy at that time called Billy James. And Billy and Bob [Dylan] really became very tight. And Billy got Bob [Dylan] full-page spreads in Seventeen and all the Leed publications and made a real character out of Bob [Dylan]. Columbia did a good job in promotions.

"But the first album was a dud...

"...So then, we were working on the second album...Then Bobby came into the office one day and he said, `John, do you know Albert Grossman?'

"I said, `Sure, I know Albert Grossman...' And he said, `Well, Albert has got a deal for me to go over to England and do a pilot for BBC.' And he said, `There's a lot of loot involved'--It was 2,000 bucks [equal to around $21,000 in 2025 U.S. dollars], which I could show you, because I've been lending Bob [Dylan] money...You know $75 [equal to around $800 in 2025 U.S. dollars], $100 [equal to around $1,000 in 2025 U.S. dollars]--things like that, when he needed it. I also got him a publishing deal. Leeds. He didn't have a publisher, and so [to] Lou Levy, I said `Lou, I got a real talented guy here.'...He said, `Send him over, I'll give him a $500 [equal to $5,300 in 2025 U.S. dollars] advance.' So, Bob [Dylan] signed with Duchess Music [an imprint of Leeds].

"He [Dylan] said `What do you think of Albert Grossman?' And I said, `Well, I can work with Albert...If you want to sign with Albert... go ahead.'

"...Turn the tape machine off..."