1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #58. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Label – Columbia
Producer –Bob Johnson
Art Direction – Uncredited
Nationality - USA
Running Time – 51:34

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. Like A Rolling Stone
2. Tombstone Blues
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
4. From A Buick 6
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man
6. Queen Jane Approximately
7. Highway 61 Revisited
8. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
9. Desolation Row

Basically picking up where the electric side of “Bringing It All Back Home” left off, Bob Dylan gathered a full straight ahead rock & roll band – which included guitarist Michael Bloomfield – for his next record “Highway 61 Revisited” . Right out the gate is a true Dylan classic epic "Like a Rolling Stone". What follows is a rapid fire assault through nine songs. They range from more traditional folk-rock on "Desolation Row", almost the blues on "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" to flat-out no holds barred garage band rock on "Tombstone Blues," "From a Buick 6" and the title track.
Many folk purists jumped ship with this record saying Dylan had ‘sold out. With other bands - like yesterday’s review of the Byrds - covering his songs with a rockier feel, it’s no surprise Dylan came to the natural conclusion that he could do the same.
Also with this album Dylan had not only completed the transformation of his sound from folk to rock, but his image was undergoing a major overhaul. When he ditched folk – he ditched that rambling troubadour image for a hippy. Sprinkled in the record are references to drugs and surreal ‘trippy’ images, that became Dylans 60’s trademarks.
In 1995 Highway 61 Revisited was named the fifth greatest album of all time in a poll conducted by Mojo Magazine. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Highway 61 Revisited the 57th greatest album of all time; in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 22. Then in 2003, Rolling Stone magazine placed it fourth on its list of the greatest albums of all time and named "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Highway 61 Revisited" the first and 364th greatest songs respectively.
This is truly one of the great Dylan albums and is highly recommended.


You can purchase the CD here.

ABSOLUTE ROCK BIRTHDAYS FOR FGEBRUARY 5
Al Kooper is 65; Nigel Olsson, drummer for Elton John, is 60; Duff McKagan from Velvet Revolver is 45; Chris Barron from the Spin Doctors is 41;

On this date in 1962 Ringo Starr played his first ever gig with the Beatles, filling in for the ill Pete Best. On this date in 1993 Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood record an MTV Unplugged. On this date in 2008 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop; he was thought to be 91.

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