Alice’s Restaurant Just in Time for THANKSGIVING! One good turkey deserves another.

Arlo Guthrie Playing Alice’s Restaurant, Newport Folk Festival. Photo Lenny “Lensworth Frieling

As it has for so many years, Newport, Rhode Island hosted the Newport Folk Festival. Famous for presenting days of the best of the best in folk music extant, it played host to a long list of Boulder musicians over decades. International Fame was enhanced when in 1965, a young Bob Dylan took the stage. He’d played the folk festival before, in 1963 playing Blowin’ In The Wind.  His 1965 acoustic set was enthusiastically greeted.

THEN Mr. Dylan broke a rule of Folk Music. You don’t use electric guitars. And here was the ultimate folkie coming out strapped behind a Fender Stratocaster. I imagine, I don’t really remember this, that he played with his back to the audience, as he almost always has done over the years.

Not only did he come out playing an electric “Maggie’s Farm,” he had the further foresight to be joined by a band including Michael Bloomfield, one of the superstars of electric blues guitar, Al Kooper, organist of unmatched talent and fame, and some member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The best of the best. They were, and they were! Simply amazing. Too good to be totally true.

It is true. While many of us were cheering and clapping in awe, a large part of the audience was booing!  At the time it seemed like the boo’s outnumbered the cheers by quite a bit. I was mortified. Horrified. And baffled! Bob Dylan also did not react well, leaving the stage. Apparently, backstage, Peter Yarrow talked him into taking the stage again, which he did, sans Strat  acoustically, playing Mr. Tambourine Man followed by It’s All Over Now Baby Blue.

This article is not about Bob Dylan, but he’s always worth writing about. It is however about Arlo Guthrie! Loved in Boulder for so many great reasons including Boulder Theater concerts and so much more.

Arlo Guthrie at the Boulder Theater Photo Lenny “Lensworth” Frieling

The Newport Folk Festival was the weekend of July 17, 1967. The format of the Newport Folk Festival has been “workshops” in the afternoon and concerts at night. That has evolved over the years, with there now being multiple stages.  In 1967, a workshop could be anything from a mini-concert, a lesson, or anything else. Arlo performed “in concert” for close to an hour. He had been listed in the program as “Topial Songs.” Which happily included “I don’t want a pickle, I just wanna ride on my motorcycle.”

Judy Collins at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival listening to Arlo Guthrie

I was at the afternoon workshop, along with Jan Zeff, my then girlfriend, then wife, then friend again, and got this picture, (actually developed it and printed it myself)  and years later gave the prints to my then wife Jan Zeff. She had been with me  for the festival, including at the workshop and concerts. She kept the photos, lending them back to me so I could scan them. The small group was perhaps 60 people, including Jan and me, and another loved-in-Boulder entertainer, Judy Collins. So now we have two people who would be Boulder lifetime residents quite soon, moving here in1973 & 1975, and two entertainers close to the heart of Boulder, gathering as Boulderites will, in wonderful places for great music!

Boulderites who have performed at the Newport Folk Festival include our own Greg Brown, Elephant Revival, the Lumineers, and Nathaniel Rateliff. [list boulder musicians who have played Newport]

Arlo played every minute of every bar of Alice’s Restaurant. He’d been working on the  song for two years before playing it for a group this large. Then, at night, on the big and only stage, he played it “for the first time in front of people.”

What did we do right? We showed up!

Shared Knowledge Is Power!

Lenny “Lensworth” Frieling

Lenny Frieling Pen Of Justice

• Multi-published and widely syndicated blogger and author.
• Most recently published by Amazon, his first book, "Lensworth"a book of his prize-winning photos.
• University lectures at University. of Colorado, Boulder, Denver University Law School, Univ. of New Mexico, Las Vegas NM, and many other schools at all levels. Numerous lectures for the NORML Legal Committee
• Former Judge
• Media work, including starring in episodes of Fox’s Power of Attorney, well in excess of many hundreds media interviews, appearances, articles, and podcasts, including co-hosting Time For Hemp for two years.
• Life Member, NORML Legal Committee, Distinguished Counsel Circle.
• Photographer of the Year, AboutBoulder 2023
• First Chair and Originator of the Colorado Bar Association’s Cannabis Law Committee, a National first.
• Previous Chair, Boulder Criminal Defense Bar (8 years)
• Twice chair Executive Counsel, Colorado Bar Association Criminal Law Section
• Life Member, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar
• Board Member Emeritus, Colorado NORML, and prior chair during legalization, as well as pre and post legalization
• Chair, Colorado NORML, 7 years including during the successful effort to legalize recreational pot in Colorado
• Senior Counsel Emeritus to the Boulder Law firm Dolan + Zimmerman LLP : (720)-610-0951
• Board member, Author, and Editor for Criminal Law Articles for the Colorado Lawyer, primary publication of the Colorado Bar Assoc. 7 Years, in addition to having 2 Colorado Lawyer cover photos, and numerous articles for the Colorado Lawyer monthly publication.
• http://www.Lfrieling.com