Bob Dylan Disappointed Folk Music Purists

Like a lot of bloggers, I'm unnaturally drawn to my site statistics. Of course, I like it when the number of visitors spikes up higher than usual — as it certainly has this month. But the real attraction is seeing where visitors come from, how they got to The Celestial Monochord.

You see when somebody's linked to you. I get a lot of hits from Boney Earnest's Suburban Hilltop Tent Revue, Cowtown Pattie, BanjoBanjar, and a lot of other places, especially BoingBoing, who once picked up an entry about my cats. The other day, I noticed somebody from the Weird Al Yankovic discussion list linked to that cat entry. Now and then, something about Dylan is picked up by Expecting Rain, which perks things up considerably.

Mostly, visitors come from Google. There are times when I can tell somebody has seen one of my entries somewhere and they can't remember where. So, they go to Google and they type in whatever they can remember. Why else would you search for something like "hillbilly fulgurite"?

Sometimes, it seems someone is looking for information and I'm gratified to see that they came to the right place — maybe they've searched for "einstein moe asch folkways" or "what causes sundogs". Other times, it's clear they've come to my site hoping to find a certain kind of information and it seems very likely they were disappointed, as when someone was searching for information on the 2006 winner of the Stanley Cup and got this.

But for nearly a year now, somebody's been pissing me off. For some reason, about twice a month EVERY month, somebody goes to Google and types in "In July of 1965, Bob Dylan disappointed folk music purists by "going electric" at their annual gathering in what city.

Apparently, the person would REALLY like to know in what city this occurred, and they have a long-standing curiosity about the answer. However, despite never receiving a satisfactory result, it does not dawn on them that maybe they should change their search terms. Or maybe they should go to a damned library. I can't think of any other reason someone would type the same question into Google over and over and over again, for months. Apparently, this person is waiting for someone to put something on the internet with that exact string of characters, and then answer the question.

Well, that day has arrived, buddy boy. Since I can't think of anything else to write today, let me put a decisive end to this person's curiosity. (And — gentle reader of the Monochord — I'm sorry you have to witness this.)

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Question: In July of 1965, Bob Dylan disappointed folk music purists by "going electric" at their annual gathering in what city?

Answer: NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND! NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND! NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND! NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND!

NEWPORT! NEWPORT! NEWPORT! NEWPORT!

RHODE ISLAND! RHODE ISLAND! RHODE ISLAND! RHODE ISLAND!

Now knock it off, you idiot!

HERE! Now you can find all kinds of interesting links to articles and other resources having to do with this over-blown, irrelevant, piddly little flap that happened FORTY TWO YEARS AGO! Read every single last one of them extremely closely and then drop dead!

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Thank you for your forbearance, gentle reader.

 

Editor's Note: This is installment 23 of a 28-installment marathon. I don't know ... maybe it shows. In any case, I'm trying to post something to The Celestial Monochord every day during the month of February.

 

Comments

[Lyle Lofgren]

Thanks, Kurt --

I'd been wondering about that, particularly since I didn't buy a Dylan album until he went electric. That's because the few times he and I were at the same party, he was still a punk kid who didn't know anything and who was not on speaking terms with facts. Once I heard Highway 61 Revisited, I of course went back and bought his earlier albums. I've never met anyone who grew up as fast as he did.

I entered the magic phrase in Google, and , sure enough, your website came up. But I took the process one step further and then entered "Where is Rhode Island?" What I got was an ad from AuthenticTraders.com, which said: "Find Where is Rhode Island. We have what you need and more."

I noticed that Google ignores words like "what" and "where" in its searches. So the mysterious questioner doesn't understand proper search protocol. And you're probably too late with your posting -- I bet he already bought the answer to "what city" from AuthenticTraders.com.

Lyle