Acclaimed blues-rock musician Barry Goldberg, who was part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band when it backed Bob Dylan during his legendary electric outing at the otherwise-acoustic Newport Folk Festival in 1965, died on Jan. 22.
He was 83.
Goldberg, who also performed/recorded with Steve Miller, Muddy Waters, Leonard Cohen, Stephen Stills and many other famed musicians, “died in hospice care after a 10-year struggle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” according publicist Bob Merlis. “Gail Goldberg, his wife of 53 years, and son Aram were at this bedside.”
The tremendous blues-rock keyboardist, who was also a bandleader, songwriter and producer, was born on Christmas Day of 1942 and grew up in Chicago, where he’d nurture his love of music and quickly rise through the ranks of Windy City keyboardists. As the story goes, Goldberg was still a teenager when he shared the stage with such Chicago blues legends as Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Howlin’ Wolf.
Goldberg was also still a high schooler when he’d meet and befriend ace guitarist Mike Bloomfield and the two aspiring artists soon made names for themselves on the Chicago blues scene. They’d eventually join the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which would help shock the folk music world — and a goodly part of the rest of the globe — when they backed Bob Dylan when he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
That electric moment, which is now widely considered to be one of the most famous/infamous performances in popular music history, is prominently featured in the Oscar-nominated Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”
Goldberg would go on to co-produce albums/songs for Percy Sledge, Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, the Textones and even Dylan himself. An accomplished songwriter, Goldberg wrote songs that were later recorded by Rod Stewart, Gladys Knight, Joe Cocker, Steve Miller, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Gram Parsons, B. J. Thomas and others.
Despite his many different roles in the music business over the decades, Goldberg remained, first and foremost, a Chicago bluesman. As such, he was the ideal choice to help lead the Chicago Blues Reunion, a group that also featured Sam Lay, Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Corky Siegel, Tracy Nelson, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Vivino, Marcy Levy and other artists over the years.
In lieu of flowers, Goldberg’s family is asking that donation be made in the acclaimed musician’s name to The Bear League via savebears.org.