#58. Highway 61 Revisited | Bob Dylan (1965)

He experimented with it on his last album, Bringing It All Back Home. With Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan fully embraces his new electric sound. When he plugged in at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, his sound sparked controversy amongst folk purists who were demanding he continue to perform songs like "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Now that's irony. Dylan had adapted to a new sound and after the release of this album, his fans would soon follow.

This album opens with the epic "Like A Rolling Stone" and it's really no surprise that Rolling Stone magazine dubbed this the Greatest Song Of All Time. It's just good marketing. It really is a great song, but there are 8 other songs here that range from reflective folk-rock and blues to garage rock. I could spend all day writing about the literary and historical references on each song, but I have to go to work.

I will say that "Queen Jane Approximately" is my new favorite Bob Dylan song. He has this way of sounding condescending and compassionate at the same time. Some argue that "Queen Jane" is actually referring to the Queen of Folk Music, Joan Baez. Apparently, the two had some sort of falling out before Dylan embraced his new rock & roll persona, but here Dylan is offering to help pick up the pieces when "Jane" is through deceiving herself.

"Desolation Row" was Dylan's most ambitious song at the time. Clocking in at nearly eleven and a half minutes, it was his longest song to date. Dylan himself describes this song as "an eleven-minute voyage through a Kafkaesque world of gypsies, hoboes, thieves of fire, and historical characters beyond their rightful time."

Track Listing:
01. Like A Rolling Stone
02. Tombstone Blues
03. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
04. From A Buick 6
05. Ballad Of A Thin Man
06. Queen Jane Approximately
07. Highway 61 Revisited
08. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
09. Desolation Row