SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013
Zentertainment
PAGE 5A
Beer worth big bucks By LISA RATHKE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Tom McNamara/PBS | AP
From left, Elyse Luray, contributor Dawn Peterson and Wes Cowan, of “History Detectives,” pose with Bob Dylan’s guitar. The electric guitar Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 may be the most historic instrument in rock music, and it has sat in a New Jersey attic for 47 years.
$1M for Dylan’s guitar By ULA ILNYTZKY ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — The Fender Stratocaster that Bob Dylan plugged in when he famously went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival sold Friday for nearly $1 million — the highest price ever paid for a guitar at auction. A buyer identified only as a private individual agreed to pay $965,000, including the auction house’s fees, for the sunburst-finish guitar, Christie’s said. Dylan’s legendary performance at the festival in Rhode Island 48 years ago marked his rupture with the folk movement’s old guard and solidified his shift away from acoustic music, like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” toward amplified rock, such as “Like a Rolling Stone.” The raucous, three-song electric set was booed by some in the crowd, and folk purists saw Dylan as a traitor and a sellout. But Dylan’s “going electric changed the structure of folk music,” said Newport Folk Festival founder George Wein, 88. “The minute Dylan went electric, all these young people said, ‘Bobby’s going electric. We’re going electric, too.”’ Christie’s had expected the guitar, which was sold with its original black leather strap and Fender
hard-shell case, to go for far less: $300,000 to $500,000. The previous record for a guitar sold at auction was held by Eric Clapton’s Fender, nicknamed “Blackie,” which sold at Christie’s for $959,500 in 2004. Dylan’s guitar had been in the possession of a New Jersey family for nearly 50 years after the singer left it on a private plane. The pilot’s daughter, Dawn Peterson of Morris County, N.J., said that her father asked Dylan’s management what to do with the instrument, and nobody ever got back to him. Last year, she took it to the PBS show “History Detectives” to have it authenticated, and rock-memorabilia experts matched its wood grain to close-up color photos of Dylan’s instrument at the 1965 festival. Dylan’s attorney and his publicist didn’t respond to email and phone requests for comment. Dylan and Peterson, who declined to be interviewed, recently settled a legal dispute over the items. The terms weren’t disclosed. Dylan’s Newport performance — like Elvis Presley’s above-the-hips appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” or the Beatles’ arrival in America, or Woodstock — is regarded as one of the milestone moments in rock history. By going electric, Dylan
helped lead a movement that gave rock ‘n’ roll lyrics the richness of literature. Exactly what happened at the festival on July 25, 1965, has become enshrouded in legend, and to this day, the debate persists over whether those who booed were angry over Dylan’s electric turn or were upset over the sound quality or the brief set. Backed by a band that included Mike Bloomfield on guitar and Al Kooper on organ, Dylan played such songs as “Maggie’s Farm” and “Like a Rolling Stone.” He returned for an acoustic encore with “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” Legend has it that Pete Seeger, one of the elder statesmen of the folk movement, was so angry that he tried to pull the plug on the electric performance or threatened to cut the cable with an ax. But years later, Seeger said he had nothing against Dylan going electric — he was upset over the distortion-filled sound system. Christie’s also was offering five lots of hand- and typewritten lyric fragments found inside the guitar case — early versions of some of Dylan’s songs. They had a presale estimate ranging from $3,000 to $30,000. But only one of them sold; it went for $20,000 and contained draft lyrics for “I Wanna Be Your Lover.”
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Fancy a pint of Pliny the Elder or Heady Topper double India pale ales, but can’t find it in your neighborhood? Get out your wallet. As craft brews gain an intense following, a black market has bloomed in which some opportunists are selling for hundreds of dollars top-rated beers that are hard to find, in short supply, expensive or illegal to ship. In Vermont, a Burlington woman was charged recently with selling five cases of the popular Heady Topper beer for $825 on Craigslist, which brought about mixed feelings for its brewer. “It’s a compliment in an odd way,” said Jen Kimmich, owner of The Alchemist brewery in Waterbury, which produces Heady Topper. The hoppy concoction, which retails for $3 a can and $72 a case, was recently ranked No. 1 by Beer Advocate magazine out of the top 250 beers in the world. “But at the same time,” she added, “we don’t want to see the consumer being cheated by paying too much and getting a product that hasn’t been taken care of properly.” The beer is so popular that The Alchemist recently closed its retail operation in Waterbury, Vt., to appease neighbors concerned about traffic. In the weeks since, a half a dozen posts have appeared on Craigslist — including from southern California, Chicago, and Boston — clamoring for the stuff. Craigslist did not respond to a message seeking comment. Beer geeks often trade coveted craft brews with no money changing hands to get hard-to-find beers
Photo by Toby Talbot/file | AP
Cans of Heady Topper roll off the line at The Alchemist in Waterbury, Vt. A black market has bloomed as craft brews gain following, allowing opportunists to sell beer for hundreds of dollars. that may only be sold in certain states or countries, in limited amounts or are only in draft form. To get them might require a beer mule, who will transport the brews to the consumer, or someone who will buy them from the brewery and ship them, said Joe Tucker, executive director of the RateBeer website. “It’s done because the rarity of these releases, the prestige of these releases is a huge driver,” he said. Plenty of trading is done illegally, which RateBeer tries to discourage, he said. He said he once got an unsolicited shipment labeled the Belgian Coffee Company that contained the site’s highest-rated beer. The practice of trading beer doesn’t bother most brewers. But buying beer, marking up the price and selling it is another matter. It’s illegal in the U.S. to sell alcohol online without a license. Yet at least hundreds of posts daily last year on eBay offered hard-to-get beers at astronomical prices, said Natalie Cilurzo, coowner and president of Russian River Brewing, in Santa Rosa, Calif. She spotted the brewery’s flagship Pliny the Elder, which sells for $5 a bottle, going for between $15 and $50, and its discontinued Toronado an-
niversary beer, which sold for about $25 at the brewery, being auctioned for about $700 last year. “It was out of control,” she said. “People were running liquor stores on eBay without accountability.” She cited the steps that her company took that black market sellers are skipping: acquiring liquor and business licenses, paying sales, property and other taxes and selling responsibly. She pointed out the dangers of selling to minors or the questions of who would be responsible if a drunk driver who’d bought beer sold illegally online killed someone. She decided she had to stand up for the breweries. “It was not just our beer but a lot of our friends’,” she said. “And I really felt like I needed to be an advocate for everybody.” She went to state regulators, who set up a meeting with eBay. She said eBay was unaware of the practice but committed to ending it. EBay responded to an interview request by referring to its site, which says that it doesn’t allow any container with alcohol, even if it’s considered collectible. While brewers and states might not have the resources to police illegal sales online, beer lovers are doing their part.