10 Perfect Protest Songs In Rock History

The rock scene was definitely changing around the mid '60s, and standing right at its center was Bob Dylan. While Dylan was not really your traditional rock star or anything, his handle of folk tunes had a huge impact on the artists that came after him, inspiring John Lennon to get more introspective with his lyrics and even lighting a fire in Lou Reed to create the Velvet Underground. When you get up on that high a pedestal though, you're going to want to come down at some point.

Going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan was greeted with boos from the crowd thinking that he had sold out and gone rock. Dylan wasn't going to take it on the chin though, and Like a Rolling Stone kicked off his next album with an even bigger chip on his shoulder. Though most of his lyrics have either been introspective or pointing out the hypocrisy of people in power, this song feels like Dylan taking one of his friends to task about what happens when they've got everything they wanted and are still dissatisfied.

For most fans, you can easily see this as Dylan looking at himself, but it goes a bit deeper than that. Since most of his fans were seeing him as a hero with an acoustic guitar, this was where Dylan made his own point of no return, going rock and never returning to the safe waters of folk music. The musical revolution was already underway, but Dylan was now rebelling against the very thing he created, and it was up to us where the scene was going to go next.