Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan goes Electric!!!! OMG! Dylan saw the direction of music was going. he lead the country and the world in that direction. Great album and they clean up the back ground noise.

Bob Dylan was scorned by his politically-conscious faction, who'd initially pinned him as their folk idol, for going electric and becoming a renegade. Their disdain did nothing to derail his intent and herein lies the album where Dylan met a critical challenge. As a linguistics enthusiast, he built the template and opened up the world of potential in songwriting, making it as viable as poetry. On musical grounds, the other great boast he can claim his own is the invention of Rock. It's here that Dylan perfected his electric Chicago blues using rock aesthetic to fit into the mold of his wordplay. This realization would have been inconceivable without the contributions of lead guitarist and comrade Mike Bloomfield. Part of Dylan's genius is he knew instinctively that this was the man to commission. Never more in his career did Dylan capture the tenor of the times than on "Like A Rolling Stone", the most intuitive anthem in rock that was completed in a one-day session. Each time the verses and the chorus of "How does it feel?" arrived, the band unearthed the deepest sources of Dylan's indictment of elitism. Generations later, this anthem of all anthems remains as bracing and as relevant as ever. His cynicism surfaced again in "Ballad Of A Thin Man" whose opaque references darted at a journalist were darn near impossible to decode. Because the banging piano chords were so apt in driving the contents of its message, it eventually clicked. The Dylan-Bloomfield axis attained its summit on the blues shuffle "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" and on two briskly-paced blues: "From A Buick 6" and "Highway 61 Revisited". The frisson in Dylan's vocals on his literary surrealism and Bloomfield's blistering axe solos made these positively intoxicating. But it's the last track, "Desolation Row", that was so terminal that in no way could it have been slotted elsewhere. This song also demonstrates that Dylan didn't completely bail out of the folk idiom. Arguably, this could his best song in his entire canon in which he easily headed that list of greatest songwriters. Dylan painted abstract moods and numerous characters in a sonic Wasteland that was enormous in its scope. T.S. Eliot received special mention here as part of his intrepid Beat concept of the apocalypse. Dylan was ably backed by Nashville guitarist Charlie McCoy who provided an addicting counterpoint to Dylan's own acoustic strumming. Hook-by-hook and line-by-line, every song resonates to this day. As usual, Dylan took a right at the light and took off with his own unfettered instincts to find personal freedom. This rationale secured his status as the catalyst of the rock album becoming an artistic entity and the birth of its consciousness. Dylan could afford to make his appeal in the most anarchistic way because he was never reliant on the moods and whims of his audience share. and, that's how a self-aware man made his mark in the world.

Classic early Dylan, a great addition to my collection.

This is a great album, filled with poetry put to music. I had heard these songs before but the advantage of the CD is being able to adjust the sound to get all the words with clarity. Bob Dylan put all those circus experiences together into a gritty entertainment that's relatable and non-stop. This is reporting from the crusty lower ends of the World and it leaves you empty until you recover from the depths. It's strange but hilariously beautiful, seeing through illusions.

I don't get into ranking rock albums. I don't compare them to eachother and debate who or what is the greatest. It doesn't make any sense. I do however, think there is a certain level of creative greatness that can be achieved by the human mind, and "Highway '61 Revisited" has achieved it. Long reviews rub me the wrong way, so I'll just say that every song on this recording was an historical recording. Nothing else before or after this album has sounded like it. It is in a class all by itself. So many things have already been said about it, so I will write in general terms. These are not songs that are about topics. These are songs about the human mind, the human predicament, and lack of a concrete reality in human experience. Everything we think we know is challenged by the words in combination with the melodies. The best part about it is nothing is challenged directly. In the highest, most artistic way all meaning is conveyed by showing, not telling. We are left to draw our own conclusions, which can only be drawn via sensory experince. Dylan gives no questions and no answers, just situations tied into universal human experiences. Is there any popular song more powerful than "Desolation Row"? Is it the lyrics, the voice matched with the simple chords changes, or the beautiful guitar playing that accompanies Dylan's singing? Is it that it lasts 10 minutes, wth one, heartbreaking harmonica solo? Or, is "Desolation Row" so profound because it follows "Like A Rolling Stone," "Tombstone Blues," "Queen Jane Approximately," or "Just Like Tom Thumb Blues"? How about the lazy, oddly settling "It Takes A Lot to Laugh"? Somehow that loping country song fits with this recording in its otherwise epic grandeur. It works in a way that seems to say, this is still just music, folks. Don't take any of it too seriously. Dylan has so much style every word he utters on this recording means something. There are no insignificant words or notes. It's all a perfect melding of extraordinary elements. It all works, independently and together. No song is about any one thing, but all together the meaning is there. It has as much to do with image and lifestyle as it does with music. Everything matters. It is the human mind in its most profound level of artistic expression.

What can I say, I love Bob Dylan!

The first track was not working but the rest of the cuts on the album are fine. These songs are from his early days, and I hadn't heard them in a while. This is good Dylan. He has his voice and you can appreciate the artistry of his performance and his writing. Aside from the bad section on the CD, it was fine.

It’s a great album one of the finest albums it’s worth getting on CD. I wish I can get the album original one.

Bob Dylan’s best album. With Michael Bloomfield on guitar!

Très bel album

Klassischer Folkpop, Blitzlieferung. Preisgünstig. Vielen Dank.

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