Last Update: 04/05/2026 at 2:50 PM EST
Dylan And Seeger Split Over Folk Change
Coverage from Mojo, Far Out Magazine, and others
Articles
7
Latest Article
02/17
Active Days
979
Executive Summary
Pete Seeger backed Bob Dylan early on, but their friendship frayed as Dylan moved from protest folk to electric rock
- Mojo curated Dylan songs with picks from musicians including Mike Scott, Badly Drawn Boy, Beck, Bono, and Paul McCartney
- Selections span Dylan's career from Time Out Of Mind and Love And Theft to his recent work in Shadow Kingdom
- Pete Seeger supported Dylan from Greenwich Village to Newport and helped expose his early protest songwriting
- Seeger said Dylan's Only A Pawn In Their Game captured the links between Black sharecroppers and poor whites
- Reports say Seeger was not violently opposed to Dylan's 1965 electric Newport set and later praised some electric songs
- The Seeger Dylans rift centered on protest music, with Seeger favoring direct folk messaging and Dylan broader ambiguity
- A Complete Unknown depicts Seeger as a mentor figure, though the account says parts of that relationship were dramatized
Quick Facts
- What: A friendship and musical rift over Dylan's electric shift
- Where: Greenwich Village, Newport Folk Festival, and New York
- Why: Dylan moved beyond protest folk while Seeger favored direct activism
- Who: Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, with many musicians weighing in
- When: From Dylan's early 1960s rise through and after 1965
Coverage Timeline: 979 Days
Featured Article
Mojo4Music publishes this year a feature listing Dylan's greatest songs selected by fellow musicians on the Mojo4Music site.
Additional Articles
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Pete Seeger recalls Dylan's rise from Greenwich Village to Newport in 1965.
Pete Seeger did not oppose Dylan's 1965 Newport electric set in Newport, Rhode Island, with references to his blacklisting era and a 1980 Washington Post interview.
Dylan and Pete Seeger clash over protest music during the 1960s folk revival in the United States.
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James Mangold's 2024 biopic A Complete Unknown portrays Pete Seeger mentoring Bob Dylan in New York's Greenwich Village and at the Newport Folk Festival.
Bob Dylan wrote in his 2004 memoir that Pete Seeger’s 1940s-era folk performances in Greenwich Village demanded audience participation and communal involvement.
Bob Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island; a 1990s Seeger letter clarifies the event, now displayed in Tulsa.