Vincent Boland: Dylan ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more after $300m deal

Popular culture – movies, music, football, cricket, GAA matches – is simply a collection of assets to be bought and sold. That is the context in which the entertainment industry now operates

At 79, with an epic career reaching its close, worldwide adulation and a Nobel prize for literature, Bob Dylan does not have to answer to anybody, except perhaps himself. Picture: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

One evening in the summer of 1965, Bob Dylan took to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island for one of the most resonant gigs in the history of rock ’n’ roll. Instead of his usual acoustic guitar, he went electric. For some of his fans, the world ended right there. Their idol had sold out.

Reports of the crowd’s reaction on the night differ. Yet that only adds to the moment’s ...