Rolling Stone Jonathan Taplin Tour-Managed Rock Royalty. Now He’s Telling His Stories In a new memoir, Taplin recalls what it was like to watch Dylan go electric, George Harrison speed-drive, and Clapton and the Band wrestle with demons and drugs By John Scheele* Jonathan Taplin wasn’t present at the creation, but in rock & roll terms, he came close enough. He witnessed Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, saw Jimi Hendrix and many others at Monterey Pop, flew into Woodstock while working for the Band, helped coordinate George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, and was aboard the famous Festival Express, during which the Band, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and others rode a train around Canada, playing concerts along the way.