Toward the end of “A Complete Unknown,” a good biopic about Bob Dylan that opened on Christmas, there is a key scene in which Dylan manager Albert Grossman barks at folk music legend Pete Seeger, “You’re pushing candles, and he’s selling lightbulbs,” to which Seeger retorts, “You’re the only one selling anything here, Albert!”
The scene portrays the eve of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and it is pregnant with innuendo. They are all sitting in a hotel room, and Seeger is all but begging Dylan to play protest folk music at the festival the next day. Dylan’s music is so powerful that it might tip things societally—help end the Vietnam War, end segregation, bring social justice, etc. Or so says Seeger.
As we find out in the following scenes, Dylan does what he wants, and performs three songs on his electric guitar: “Maggie’s Farm,”…
