Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000024SI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (366 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,556 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Like A Rolling Stone

2. Tombstone Blues

3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train 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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Dylan was virtually gushing great songs when this masterpiece arrived in the summer of 1965. From the epochal opening of "Like a Rolling Stone" through the absurdly apocalyptic closer, "Desolation Row," his command of surrealistic language was daring and amazing. As a vocalist, he was rewriting the rules of the game. Jimi Hendrix made note of Mr. Z's technically suspect pitch and decided that he too was a singer. And the backing, though ragged, is precisely right. Is this the essential Dylan album? It's certainly one of them. --Steven Stolder

Product Description

Audio CD

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

161 of 171 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dylan's Masterpiece September 22, 2004

By Michael J. Raymond

Format:Audio CD

There are many dividing lines in rock and roll. Before Elvis and after Elvis, before The Beatles and after The Beatles, and so on. "Highway 61 Revisted" invites such a watershed moment in rock and roll. Prior to the release people such as Steve Allen would gather great laughs just from reciting the lyrics to rock and roll songs. For example, Steve Allen would read "Be bop a lu bop, she's my baby", and audiences would guffaw loudly. When "61" was released, it was evident that rock and roll had meaning, it was an viable art form. Dylan's fury and wounded ego can be heard throughout the album snarling and pleading to those seemingly unaffected by the times they lived in. "How does it feel", is rock and roll's preeminent and ultimate question. How DOES it feel? This album, in my humble opinion, is the greatest rock album ever produced. Dylan, Bloomfield, and Kooper on organ, transcend popular music and sent it spinning into areas artists are still exploring. Rock's first great masterpiece and Dylan's ticket to immortality.

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not only important, but essential July 12, 2001

By Bill R. Moore

Format:Audio CD

One of the records essential to understanding the genuis that is Bob Dylan. Not his best album, but one of his most defining. An epoch not just in the career of Dylan, but in rock itself. Highway 61 Revisited was a turning point, a defining moment; the point where Bob Dylan dropped the folk mystique and went straight-ahead into rock. The electric half of Bringing It All Back Home (and, in particular, Subeterranian Homesick Blues) took rock in another direction entirely, and this album is the logical extension of that. Backed by a full rock band, Dylan lifts off the album with one of his most instantly-recognizable songs, the epic Like A Rolling Stone (which, significantly, broke radio's "three minute" barrier.) Many people consider this the first actual "rock" song; and, though that is a bit of an exaggeration, it is definately an extremely important early icon of the rock generation. This song is followed by the pure garage rock of Tombstone Blues. Next up is the excellent slow blues, It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry. Other highlights of the album include the hilarously surreal Ballad of A Thin Man, the lyrically and musically avant-garde title track, and the closing, thoughtful, apocalyptic epic Desolation Row. It is obvious even from the titles of the songs that Dylan lyrically was here attempting something very avant-garde and impressionistic. Some of the lyrics are unquestionably profound (Rolling Stone, Desolation Row), others seemingly non-sensical (Thin Man), but all brilliant. The music here is rock rooted in blues, and we get more than a few fine blues licks here and there from guitarist Michael Bloomfield, and some fine acoustic playing on Desolation Row. On top of all this, Dylan would rarely play his harmonica this good again. An absolute must-own.

78 of 88 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen up, Abraham! August 11, 2005

By Preetam Datta

Format:Audio CD

I started listening to Bob Dylan when I was eighteen years old and lived in Calcutta, India. This was before the 'glory' days of corporate globalization and the global brands hadn't painted the nation with its broad strokes of corporate colour. No MTV, just a state controlled basic TV for under 30 hours a week in all meant that we listened to good music and read good books. We realized early that good music, like good literature had no political boundaries, yet so much of it was pure politics.

Arindam Mitra, an old friend of mine, now settled in Mumbai, gave me the vinyl LP and swear to god, I probably listened to it a 100 times in a short span of time. It wasn't my first Dylan album, but it was one that would have an indelible mark on a young mind.

Music, as you know, in its best form, can change your life.

I wonder if there's one performer these days who even comes close to having the ability to make a record of this stature. The words are like burning coal, the music like rolling thunder and hits you like a jet plane.

I do not recommend that you go and buy this album unless you are exploring what real music is all about. On the other hand, if you do decide to listen to Highway 61 for the first time, it may well change your life.

If you do possess this album, go and listen to it again. Mr. Dylan may tell you something completely different this time.