Customer Reviews

Highway 61 Revisited (Rm)

5 star:		(170)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

"Did Dylan have a number one song?" What kind of criteria is that for an album review? Besides, it misses the point that Rolling Stone magazine ranks Like a Rolling Stone as the greatest rock song of all time. That would be number one, don't you think? As for 1965 belonging to the Beatles and the Stones, can't you hear the echoes of Dylan in John Lennon's composition "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away?" Indeed, the Beatles and The Stones would be among the first to take their hats off to Mr. D. for this album and his next, Blonde on Blonde.

A rock album from our Boy, hmm?

Dylan has guitar flash Mike Bloomfield along for this ride, and he adds jets to this whole shebang. If you want to hear Dylan rock, really rock, then you need this album. Forget all the lyrical tricks, the hidden meanings, and just get it because it is electric, it has guitars, and they go fast.

It also has maybe the best rock song of all time, "Like A Rolling Stone". From the opening rim shot to the last note, it is a classic's classic. "How does it FEEL?" asks Dylan, as he takes a former debutante to the woodshed after her world falls in. Misogynistic? Maybe, but so what? It is an awesome track.

"Desolation Row" features two harmonica solos that rise the hair on your arms. The song gradually builds in its stridency, until Dylan can hardly keep from shouting the words. He solos one time, comes back with the last verse in a voice almost shaking in its intensity, then solos again to put an ending to this great, great album. Woof.

In between these two songs lies a set of perhaps the greatest collection of music ever put onto record. If you are a folkie, and electric music makes you nervous, then I'm sure you prefer an earlier Dylan album, or maybe "Blonde on Blonde". If you are a rock and roll person, this disc is the one.

Some people criticize Highway 61 Revisited for being sloppily produced and too weird. On first listen, most might agree with those claims. However, once Dylan's 1965 masterpiece grows on you, these 2 criticisms just add to its charm. I mean, it would be hard to imagine a well-polished version of Tombstone Blues or From a Buick 6... and who would really want songs like that to sound polished? This album was purposely recorded in a spontaneous fashion. Not only were band members brought in on the fly (improvising through most of it), but even Dylan's lyrics were sometimes written just minutes before the tape was rolling. Knowing this just adds to the brilliance of the finished project. This is Bob Dylan at his peak of genius (and probably the peak of his drug use as well). Some argue Blood on the Tracks to be his crowning achievement... to be honest, the guy's got MANY crowning achievements. Highway 61 Revisited, though, is his greatest.

Highway 61 Revisited (Hybr) [HYBRID SACD] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]~ Bob Dylan is an amazing album with stupendous story telling lyrics and with dylan is a great mood. He seems to have a fun time recoding this album and that makes it even better.

Some people criticize Highway 61 Revisited for being sloppily produced and too weird. On first listen, most might agree with those claims. However, once Dylan's 1965 masterpiece grows on you, these 2 criticisms just add to its charm. I mean, it would be hard to imagine a well-polished version of Tombstone Blues or From a Buick 6... and who would really want songs like that to sound polished? This album was purposely recorded in a spontaneous fashion. Not only were band members brought in on the fly (improvising through most of it), but even Dylan's lyrics were sometimes written just minutes before the tape was rolling. Knowing this just adds to the brilliance of the finished project. This is Bob Dylan at his peak of genius (and probably the peak of his drug use as well). Some argue Blood on the Tracks to be his crowning achievement... to be honest, the guy's got MANY crowning achievements. Highway 61 Revisited, though, is his greatest.

If you have any doubts as to the merits of Highway 61, they'll be promptly blown to Hell by the first ten seconds of "Like a Rolling Stone," the album's oppening track. That musical oppening is truly amazing, a gust of wind that blows open your mind. In fact, that whole six-minute epic shows Dylan in full form, with his trademark voice and brilliant lyrical explorations ("Never understood that it ain't no good/ You shouldn't let other people get their kicks for you.") All nine of the album's songs are upbeat electric rockers, mixed in with Bob's typical wild, enthusiastic, attitude. As per usual, the album incorporates blues ("It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"), folk ("Desolation Row") and flat out garage rock ("Tombstone Blues").
All throughout Highway 61 Revisited, Bob's songwriting skills are better than they've ever been. Here he experiments with strange lyrical themes that give the album a surreal feel, as well as brilliant puns ("The sun's not yellow, it's chicken!"). The lyrics range from the profound and meaningful stuff of tracks such as "Desolation Row" and "Like A Rolling Stone" to the downright bizarre, on songs such as "Ballad of a Thin Man," and "Queen Jane Approximately."
Backing Dylan this time are a full-scale garage-rock band. They give the album a sort of speed and rabid intensity that goes excellently with Dylan's fast-paced singing and blistering harmonica. "Tombstone Blues," for example, sounds like the soundtrack to a car chase. There are slower moments, such as the eleven-minute ballad "Desolation Row," which are just as superb as the more hyperactive ones. The afformentioned ballad is beautiful and warm, and so fun to get lost in.
Highway 61 Revisited is by far Dylan's best and most creative work, an album that you will listen to again and again. Absolutely essential.

In 1965, Bob Dylan released HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, arguably the single most important record in 1960s rock. A total break with anything occurring in popular music before (save Dylan's own albums), HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED merged biting, sharp lyricism and great garage-rock and blues. When most other bands were singing about boy-girl topics and writing insubstantial lyrics (in 1965 The Beatles were singing "You're gonna lose that girl"), Dylan combined edgy, hip lyrics with garage rock, blues, and epic folk. His voice, rough hewn and very off-kilter technically, rewrites the rules for rock vocals. As Mark Prindle says, Dylan's voice turned off a lot of people, but influenced a whole lot more.

"Like a Rolling Stone," Dylan's most famous song, kickstarts HIGHWAY 61 with a sledge hammer. Significant as the single that broke the three minute barrier Dylan berates a woman, very much trying to be with the 'in' movement. Filled with images never before conceived with in pop music, this song sets the tone of the rest of the album, and indeed this period of Dylan's life. "Ballad of a Thin Man," however, proves itself to be the really brutal put-down to all those to unwilling to open their minds and see where the counter-culture was headed. "Mr Jones," the acrimonious protagonist, finds himself thrown into a world of freaks, and he simply doesn't know what is happening. He is wealthy, well-read, and in all likelihood corporate - the very materialism and hypocrisy the youth of the 1960s were so ardent to overthrow. (Many 1960s' youth turned into 1980s' yuppies; that is neither here nor there.)

The very confrontational break with the folk community informs this entire work. The folk community were still idolizing Dylan, and Dylan, being Dylan, abandoned the role, much to their anger. Dylan was following his own muse, transforming himself from a protest singer into a cynical, avant-guard musician, very much a counter-cultural icon, exerting enormous influence over the rest of the fellow musicians as well as the growingly despondent youth culture. Ironically, Dylan would likewise abandon this role for a more mellow, country direction, and anger the counterculture just as much as he angered the folk fans, which is why I believe SELF PORTRAIT is the perfect capstone to Dylan's 1960s work. Because it's Dylan being contrary and inscrutable. That album's infamous for a reason folks.

This transformation, while occurring over the past two albums, comes to full fruition here, and with such offerings as the lead off track, "Tombstone Blues," "Ballad of a Thin Man," and "Desolation Row," this is nothing short of essential listening. "Desolation Row," arriving a full year and a half ahead of the other great epic in classic rock, The Doors' "The End," feels like a journey down a twisted, malignant, decaying road through America, with surrealism abounding and one of the best (and most accessible) answers to T. S. Eliot's modernist masterpiece 'The Waste Land." "Tombstone Blues," combining (like the rest of the album) complex, surrealistic imagery and characters given an almost mythological import with seemingly random juxtapositions, rewrote the rules of rock lyrics. It has quite the absurdist touch.

The remaining tracks are just as remarkable. "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, a Train to Cry" musically turns to the blues for its inspiration, but the lyrics are a far cry from the classic blues motifs. "From a Buick Six," based partially on the 1930 Sleeping John Estes "Milk Calf Blues," shows Dylan reinventing the blues with a visceral fist. "Queen Jane Approximately," a dire warning directed to an obviously important woman in the narrator's life, chugs along at a loose, warm, garage frenzy. The narrator warns Queen Jane that she's about to fall apart. Wrapping the message in symbolism, the listener is left wondering if she's a real person in Dylan's life or not. "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," one of my personal favorites (I wrote a story about New York City using these lyrics as inspiration), details a character's descent into a continually more startling and depressing lifestyle, filled with corrupt authorities, shady women, and a haze of drugs and alcohol. Rich with literary allusions, writing like this sets Dylan head and shoulders above any other lyricist. "Highway 61 Revisited," the very song that game the album its name, gives another example of Dylan's surrealistic, stream-of-conscious type of writing, part beat, part symbolist, and undeniably all Dylan. The opening stanza, with its 1960s' reinvention of God telling Abraham to kill his son Isaac, stands as a stroke of genius. Some commentators have pointed out there's Highway 61 in Minnesota, and that Dylan's father's name was Abe. Dylan populates the rest of the song with royalty, roving gamblers, and other colourful characters. One of Dylan's best songs, with a rollicking bit of music to go with the mind-bending lyrics.

Two tracks, recorded during the same sessions and cut very much of the same cloth, would have found a welcome home on this album. "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" a bizaare narrative about a guy trying to win back his love, broke the top 100 but wasn't very successful. Somewhat akin to "I Want You" in the bizaare pop department. "Positively Fourth Street," one of Dylan's biggest hits and one of the nastiest put downs ever committed to tape, shows Dylan totally demolishing a so-called friend. It's one of Dylan's best mid 1960s offerings (and that's saying something, let me tell you) and appears on the first GREATEST HITS album.

HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED's most radical facet is it brought rock and popular music to a totally unprecedented level of sophisticated, artistic mastery. Dylan made music both deeply poetic and complex, redefining rock as we know it. Is it Dylan's best? Maybe. It is certainly one of his most important, not only for his career but for rock in generall. While many people point to The Beatles' SGT PEPPER as the seminal record of the 1960s, HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED is where my money is at.

Great recording and one of Dylan's best. Revolutionary....broke things open for rock.

in 1965 the most amazing thing in all of music took place. bob dylan created the greatest album to ever be recorded up to that point, BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, and then he created an even greater album in the same year HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED.

HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED is one of dylan's two perfect albums, the other being BLOOD ON THE TRACKS.

"like a rolling stone" is one of those moments in music, that dylan is famous for, that is bigger than music. many consider it dylan's greatest song (5/5).
"tombstone blues" is a, fast paced, surreal social commentary, and dylan brings multiple grand images down to a relative level in a way that only he can (5/5).
"it takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry" slows things down, and the contrast is welcome. the lyrics are folky, and the song comes through (5/5).
"from a buick 6" burns with energy, and though the lyrics are fairly simple, they are executed perfectly (5/5).
"ballad of a thin man" is another one of dylan's greatest songs and probably his most under appreciated song. the band really comes through with a chilling atmosphere to match dylan's dumbfounding message (5/5).
"queen jane approximately" has as beautiful a melody as any that's ever been created, and dylan sounds pefect singing over it (5/5).
"highway 61 revisited" is another song that is filled with energy, and similar to "tombstone blues," dylan's lyrics remain complex against a fast paced backdrop. (5/5).
"just like tom thumb's blues" is another song that is melodiously spectacular. the lyrics are abstract yet easy to relate too (5/5).
"desolation row" is another song that is notorius for being one of dylan's most genius moment and rightfully so. it serves as the perfect ending to the perfect album (5/5).

no musical artist has ever had a year like dylan did in 1965, and no musical artist has ever created an album as brilliant as HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED.

Others pledge allegiance to Blonde On Blonde, but this is my favorite 60s Dylan (only Blood On the Tracks is better overall). Not perfect, "Queen Jane Approximately" is fairly average compared to the rest. But average on this album is great compared to most artists. One thing about Dylan, he doesn't sound like the time he is in. He doesn't sound like the Beatles, or the Stones, or the Byrds (even though their covers of Dylan are pretty good), or the Doors, and so on. His music sounds like it could have been recorded in the 50s or the 90s. Once you get past his singing voice, you will be hooked. I was. I had to buy this remastered SACD even though I own the original CD pressing (I don't have a record player and I'm not a vinyl fetishist). MUCH better sound, even on a regular CD player. A classic.