1965's Most Controversial Song Ranked in 'Top 10 Rock Songs Ever' Created a Music Legend
My friends and I often discuss which concert we would like to attend if we could go to any show in history. I have a lot of shows that come to mind, but perhaps my most common answer is Bob Dylan's 1966 show at the Free Trade Hall in England.
The show sits squarely at the end of one of the biggest musical controversies of all time, marking the moment when tensions exploded over and Dylan entered musical mythology. This is the show where a disgruntled fan shouted "Judas" as Dylan stood on stage with his Fender Telecaster and full electric band as opposed to his folk roots. In what I think is one of the coolest things a musician has ever done, Dylan turned to his band (later to become "The Band,") and said:
"Play it f***in loud."
What followed is probably the best live version of the legendary "Like a Rolling Stone," which has a much greater history of upsetting people than just this one moment. There's a long, complicated relationship the music world has shared with this song, which leaves it ranked as the third greatest rock song of all time.
'Like a Rolling Stone'
Dylan rose to prominence as a folk singer soundtracking the civil rights movement of the early to mid 1960s. "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" was really his breakout album, featuring the song "Blowin' in the Wind," which is the song that defined this era of his career the best. Dylan was largely treated as a mouthpiece for his generation, with his young fanbase wanting him to represent the common man and the political strife of the era.
And for a few years, that's just what Dylan did. He did some very compelling political songwriting for the first few albums of his career, and he was a big part of the social movements of that era. Most notably, he performed at the March on Washington just before Dr. King would deliver his "I Have A Dream" speech.
This was the Dylan everyone knew, but he was getting sick of it. He had lost his self image, and there was an expectation on him to be this great political figure. It was a position that was too massive for a musician to fulfill. So for the first time in a long series of stylistic changes, Bob Dylan showed us why you never put expectations on him.
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Dylan would decide to go full rockstar and switch to electric instruments. He debuted this new sound at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he did a quick set of three songs before being booed off the stage. One of these new songs was was most emblematic of this stylistic shift: "Like A Rolling Stone."
The song would go on to be a massive popular success. it revolutionized popular songwriting, and cemented itself as maybe the most important song Dylan would ever write. He had transcended from a folk hero to a rock legend. Part of me wonders where Dylan would sit in the popular consciousness had he just suck to the political roots.
I think with his songwriting talent, he would stand the test of time regardless -- but Dylan proved maybe his most universal fact with this song: you can't pin him down. He would go on to further confound expectations for the rest of his career, making him one of the most enigmatic and beloved rock stars of all time.
Related: Bob Dylan, 83, Breaks Character at Concert Over Antics in Crowd
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This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 11:27 AM.