BOB DYLAN: "Highway 61 Revisited"

Original released on LP Columbia CL 2389

(US 1965, August 30)

Taking the first, electric side of "Bringing It All Back Home" to its logical conclusion, Bob Dylan hired a full rock & roll band, featuring guitarist Michael Bloomfield, for this "Highway 61 Revisited". Opening with the epic "Like a Rolling Stone," "Highway 61 Revisited" careens through nine songs that range from reflective folk-rock ("Desolation Row") and blues ("It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry") to flat-out garage rock ("Tombstone Blues," "From a Buick 6," "Highway 61 Revisited"). Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing melodies to hard, bluesy rock. And that is the most revolutionary thing about "Highway 61 Revisited" - it proved that rock & roll needn't be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)