THE CALL FROM THE CIRCLE(Bernie Martin) It is the 17th May 1966
Dylan throws something controversial into the mix
but it's not like people didn't know what would happen.
At Newport those booing outnumbered those clappin'

The Free Trade Hall, three days after my sixteenth birthday
Dylan cast as villain in a modern passion play.
Music would be changed forever as folk became rock.
No longer would it be in an acoustic headlock.

For the first half Dylan performs a respectful set.
Relieved, talk in the break is that he's seen sense - and yet
the first song of the second half is Tell Me Momma.
Loud, incendiary. To me it is Nirvana.

Others, bewildered, she'll shocked, start a slow handicap.
Then the call comes from the circle - Judas and that hurt.
What has he betrayed? Do they want him in a hairshirt?

His response is a juggernaut - Like A Rolling Stone.
I stay, willing witness to what is like a cyclone.
Eye opening, electric, revolutionary.
Has Dylan sold out or is he a missionary?

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