# Deep Tracks - Bob Dylan - "Highway 61 Revisited"



## Guest (Sep 24, 2018)

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Next up is - Bob Dylan - "Highway 61 Revisited"

"Highway 61 Revisited" is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965 by Columbia Records.

Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album, except for the closing track, the 11-minute ballad "Desolation Row".

Critics have focused on the innovative way Dylan combined driving, blues-based music with the subtlety of poetry to create songs that captured the political and cultural chaos of contemporary America. Author Michael Gray has argued that, in an important sense, the 1960s "started" with this album.

Dylan named the album after the major American highway which connected his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota, to southern cities famed for their musical heritage, including St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, and the Delta blues area of Mississippi.

"Highway 61 Revisited" peaked at No. 3 in the United States charts and No. 4 in the United Kingdom.

The album was ranked No. 4 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". "Like a Rolling Stone" was a top-10 hit in several countries, and was listed at No. 1 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Two other songs, "Desolation Row" and "Highway 61 Revisited", were listed at No. 187 and No. 373 respectively.

In his memoir Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan described the kinship he felt with the route that supplied the title of his sixth album: "Highway 61, the main thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I began. I always felt like I'd started on it, always had been on it and could go anywhere, even down in to the deep Delta country. It was the same road, full of the same contradictions, the same one-horse towns, the same spiritual ancestors ... It was my place in the universe, always felt like it was in my blood."

In the British music press, initial reviews of Highway 61 expressed both bafflement and admiration for the record.

New Musical Express critic Allen Evans wrote: "Another set of message songs and story songs sung in that monotonous and tuneless way by Dylan which becomes quite arresting as you listen."

The Melody Maker LP review section, by an anonymous critic, commented: "Bob Dylan's sixth LP, like all others, is fairly incomprehensible but nevertheless an absolute knock-out."

The English poet Philip Larkin, reviewing the album for The Daily Telegraph, wrote that he found himself "well rewarded" by the record: "Dylan's cawing, derisive voice is probably well suited to his material ... and his guitar adapts itself to rock ('Highway 61') and ballad ('Queen Jane'). There is a marathon 'Desolation Row' which has an enchanting tune and mysterious, possibly half-baked words."

"Highway 61 Revisited" has remained among the most highly acclaimed of Dylan's works.

Biographer Anthony Scaduto praises its rich imagery, and describes it as "one of the most brilliant pop records ever made. As rock, it cuts through to the core of the music-a hard driving beat without frills, without self-consciousness."

Michael Gray calls Highway 61 "revolutionary and stunning, not just for its energy and panache but in its vision: fusing radical, electrical music ... with lyrics that were light years ahead of anyone else's; Dylan here unites the force of blues-based rock'n'roll with the power of poetry. The whole rock culture, the whole post-Beatle pop-rock world, and so in an important sense the 1960s started here."

In the opinion of PopMatters critic Hank Kalet, the album was the most "electrifying" rock and roll record ever and "one of a handful of albums (including the Beatles' Rubber Soul and Revolver) that gave literate rockers the green light to create a kind of intelligent, probing rock music that had not existed before".

"This seminal folk-rock classic" showcased "Dylan's seething, not-quite-out-of-control vocal delivery and a rough-and-tumble instrumental attack", as well as his "transformation from a folk singer to a rock and roller", Sam Sutherland wrote in High Fidelity.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine described Highway 61 as "one of those albums that changed everything", and placed it at number four in its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

The Rolling Stone list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" ranked "Highway 61 Revisited", "Desolation Row" and "Like a Rolling Stone" at number 373, number 187, and number one, respectively.


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2018)

"*Like A Rolling Stone*" -






"*Tombstone Blues*" -





 - (Acoustic Live Version)

"*It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry*" -






"*From A Buick 6*" -





 - (Live version)

"*Ballad Of A Thin Man*" -





 - (Live version)

"*Queen Jane Approximately*" -






"*Highway 61 Revisited*" -






"*Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues*" -






"*Desolation Row*" -





 - (Live version)


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Gotta re-listen to this one. I have a bunch of Dylan albums but I only listen to them once a year.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Not my favourite Dylan album (that particular accolade goes to Blood on the Tracks) but a decent effort. Like a Rolling Stone is the standout track for me but others have done it better (especially Johnny Winter and Hendrix).


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

A landmark album in Bob's stellar career.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

An almost perfect album.


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