Though 1966’s BLONDE ON BLONDE is usually singled out as the most innovative Bob Dylan album, its predecessor HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED is the one that definitively marks Dylan’s transformation from progressive folk singer to visionary rock poet. It’s Dylan’s first fully electric album, powered by the manic intensity of Mike Bloomfield’s skull-and-crossbones blues-rock guitar leads and Al Kooper’s rich organ fills.

While many of the songs are presented in a traditional 12-bar blues format, the lyrics find Dylan finally abandoning conventional linear narrative in favor of poetic abstraction, surreal imagery, and biting sarcasm. In the rock world, there has never been a lambasting harsher or more cathartic than the excoriation of “Ballad of a Thin Man,” and no challenge more bold than that offered in the iconic “Like a Rolling Stone.” When Dylan invokes the names of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot towards the end of the poetic epic “Desolation Row,” he’s not just name-dropping; he’s merely delineating the company in which a work as rich and ground-breaking as HIGHWAY 61 belongs.

Tracklisting
1. Like A Rolling Stone
2. Tombstone Blues
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Lot To Cry
4. From A Buick 6
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man
6. Queen Jane Approximately
7. Highway 61 Revisited
8. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
9. Desolation Row

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.88) – Ranked #4 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” – “…One of those albums that, quite simply, changed everything…”

Q (7/01, p.45) – “…Dylan is in stinging form…”

Q (Magazine) (p.110) – “[A] dizzying rush of moody disquiet, surreal imagery and freakshow characters culminate in the mighty ‘Desolation Row.’”

NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) – Ranked #14 in NME’s list of the “Greatest Albums Of All Time.”

Related Posts
Bob Dylan – Desire

DESIRE was the studio realization of the Rolling Thunder revue’s sound. The musicians involved in this mid-’70s Dylan project were more than a backup band; they forged a distinctive musical vision, loose and swirling, the perfect aural equivalent of the traveling gypsy/carnival image they affected onstage. Drummer Howie Wyeth, who possessed an uncannily sympathetic ear for accompanying singer-songwriters, and violinist Scarlet Rivera, built their careers on the foundation of the Rolling Thunder band.

Many critics balked at Dylan’s lyrical collaborations with Jacques Levy on this album, but their reservations were just glorified xenophobia. Levy’s flowing, colloquial style suited Dylan’s music and delivery perfectly, and the two produced several gems. “Isis” is an exotic tale of intrigue that turns out to be a unique love story. “Hurricane” breathlessly tells the true story of Ruben Carter, a boxer framed for murder and acquitted years after DESIRE’s release. It still stands as one of Dylan’s most exciting, emotional tunes.

Tracklisting
1. Hurricane
2. Isis
3. Mozambique
4. One More Cup Of Coffee
5. Oh, Sister
6. Joey
7. Romance In Durango
8. Black Diamond Bay
9. Sara

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.136) – Ranked #174 in Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time”

Q (Magazine) (p.111) – “[I]t’s probably best known for ‘Hurricane,’ a rousing account of boxer Rubin Carter’s wrongful conviction for murder.”