Transcript
Lindsey Graham (0:00)
There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery app as a member of Noiser plus at noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts@ebookist.com It's February 6, 1958, at a high school in Hibbing, Minnesota. The school's auditorium is packed with the entire student body in attendance for the coronation of the school's homecoming queen. A full roster of performances is already underway. The students are watching on as the marching band plays. Meanwhile, backstage, the next act prepares for their turn in the spotlight. These aspiring musicians are a group of awkward looking adolescents who have coined themselves the Golden Chords. At the center of the band is a wiry boy with hair stuck up as high as possible. This this 16 year old is Bob Zimmerman, a music fanatic obsessed with making it to the big time. Eventually, his dream will come true after Bob finds fame as a singer songwriter under the name of Bob Dylan. But at Hibbing High School, Bob Zimmerman is somewhat of an outcast. Still, he's managed to find a sense of belonging on stages like this one. This is not his first school performance. He's presented several various iterations of his band in the past. None of them have been warmly received by his peers, but Bob doesn't care. He just presses on. While his bandmates tune their instruments, he tests a few chords on the school's decaying piano, preparing to open their set with a wild rendition of a song entitled Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay. As the marching band finishes their final piece, the auditorium erupts in applause, but the clapping falters. As the Golden Chords come on stage, a group of gawky teenagers immediately looks out of place. But as always, Bob is undeterred by the whispers and laughter rippling through the auditorium. Without hesitation, he nods to his drummer and kicks their performance into action, his head held high. Even in his sleepy Midwest town, the nation's growing counterculture and the music accompanying it had found their way to Bob Zimmerman. Having already grown a disdain for authority and society's many mainstream establishments and norms, Bob has found his release in music, listening to artists like Elvis Presley and Little Richard and allowing them to inspire his own art. His performance at Hibbing High School will show off all his passion and angst. Growing so energetic and frenzied that he accidentally kicks the pedal off his school's piano, Bob will eventually have his mic cut and the curtains closed on him mid song by his principal. It will be one of the first in a line of characteristically strong willed performances that that will define his career as a singer songwriter and throughout his breakthrough years in the cultural epicenter of New York's Greenwich Village, Bob will hone his lyrical talents, singing of issues ranging from race relations to nuclear war and becoming a voice of a generation. His anti establishment attitude will earn him intense adoration, but it will also bring him much ire, especially after Bob challenges the folk establishment itself, changing his sound and ushering in a new genre when he ditches his trademark acoustic guitar at the Newport Folk Festival and Goes Electric on July 25, 1965 Sally from Finance loves fly fishing. She used to spend her weekend surrounded by receipts. Then she switched her company to ramp. Now spend is all under control, all in one place. Her team submits their expenses with a text and she can close the books without all the busy work. So Sally's weekends are all her own, surrounded by fish, not receipts. Switch your business to ramp.com and love finance again.