Album: Highway 61 Revisited
Artist: Bob Dylan
Born: Duluth, Minnesota
Released: August 1965
Genre: Folk Rock
Influenced: The Beatles, The Byrds, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel
Like A Rolling Stone, and the album, opens with a gunshot snare that sounds now like the starting gun for the sixties revolution. 1965 was the year everything changed in pop music, and it was the ultimate changeling himself, Bob Dylan, that unleashed these forces. Not only did he kill Tin Pan Alley and the hit factories of teenage love songs, but Dylan's longer, more literate songs also put the emphasis on what was being said over how singers said it. The lyrics on Highway 61 Revisited, or "chains of flashing images" as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg called them, brought a new maturity and experimentalism to pop music that hadn't existed before, with an album clocking in at nearly an hour rather than the standard 30mins. Like A Rolling Stone, released as a single, was twice as long as most hit singles.
Many Dylanologists (and Dylan attracts the nerdier type of pop fan like no other) have tried to figure out what his songs are "about", but no attempt will be made here in this short blog; suffice to say his experiments in automatic writing on this album (and the album sleeve) are sometimes barely comprehensible, and don't match the simpler, more refined poetry of later Dylan albums. What makes Highway 61 Revisited so important and brilliant though is that it's the first album that allows the unconscious mind to seep into its lyrics and sound, and on Like A Rolling Stone, whether he's talking about a girl (possibly Edie Sedgwick), his country or himself, is not as important as the brilliant imagery he summons up and that "thin wild mercury" sound of his mid-60s work.
As well as Like A Rolling Stone, which makes a strong claim to be the best pop song ever recorded, other highlights for me (on an album that has no lowlights) are the title track and Desolation Row. Also, there are two historical notes worth making; first, that the album was recorded in summer 1965, after Dylan had returned from a gruelling UK tour, and second, that in between the two main recording sessions for this album, Dylan made his legendary, controversial performance at Newport Folk Festival. Two things to remember about Newport, which reveal the short-sighted piety of the US folk music scene, are that the acoustic guitar had only recently become a staple of the folk music scene, and that Dylan wasn't just influenced by Guthrie, but also rock & roll and poetry too. On Highway 61 Revisited, he allowed those influences to take full effect, and there was no looking back for him or pop music.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Born: Duluth, Minnesota
Released: August 1965
Genre: Folk Rock
Influenced: The Beatles, The Byrds, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel
Many Dylanologists (and Dylan attracts the nerdier type of pop fan like no other) have tried to figure out what his songs are "about", but no attempt will be made here in this short blog; suffice to say his experiments in automatic writing on this album (and the album sleeve) are sometimes barely comprehensible, and don't match the simpler, more refined poetry of later Dylan albums. What makes Highway 61 Revisited so important and brilliant though is that it's the first album that allows the unconscious mind to seep into its lyrics and sound, and on Like A Rolling Stone, whether he's talking about a girl (possibly Edie Sedgwick), his country or himself, is not as important as the brilliant imagery he summons up and that "thin wild mercury" sound of his mid-60s work.
Dylan's run of albums from 65-66 (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde) is unmatched in terms of songwriting, sound and influence. Highway 61, the mythical road that connects Dylan's hometown in the cold north to the musical source in the Deep South, represents the mixture of blues, folk and rock & roll that inspired this album's sound, and it's always been the most consistent and essential of the three albums for me. Today, it's hard to appreciate why Dylan going electric would cause such strong feelings in the folk community, where Dylan first emerged as a songwriter during his Woody Guthrie phase in the early 60s. For this group, focused around Greenwich Village and led by figures like Pete Seeger, rock & roll lacked a consciousness and was a passing fad for the unthinking masses. This earnestness was a put-off for Dylan, who wasn't comfortable being the anointed voice of a generation (listen to the brilliant Maggie's Farm for his own take on why he needed to escape). He was just a song & dance man.
As well as Like A Rolling Stone, which makes a strong claim to be the best pop song ever recorded, other highlights for me (on an album that has no lowlights) are the title track and Desolation Row. Also, there are two historical notes worth making; first, that the album was recorded in summer 1965, after Dylan had returned from a gruelling UK tour, and second, that in between the two main recording sessions for this album, Dylan made his legendary, controversial performance at Newport Folk Festival. Two things to remember about Newport, which reveal the short-sighted piety of the US folk music scene, are that the acoustic guitar had only recently become a staple of the folk music scene, and that Dylan wasn't just influenced by Guthrie, but also rock & roll and poetry too. On Highway 61 Revisited, he allowed those influences to take full effect, and there was no looking back for him or pop music.
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