The MG Album Club #17: Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

[Unsomnambulist]

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)



This is my favorite Bob Dylan album. I'm not one to normally pay too much attention to song lyrics, but the writing on this album is mind blowing-- just unsurpassed by any other album I've heard. I remember reading an interview with Dylan in his later years where he lamented the fact that he could no longer write like that.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Spotify link:

 

[Nickyboy]

Oooh, I haven't listened to that one in many, many years. This will be fun!

 

[Old Uncle Toe]

I listened to it yesterday morning. It's so familiar that I feel like I've memorized all the songs. Like you, Unsom, I often let lyrics go in one ear and out the other. But as you also say, Bob is a poet and this is worth paying attention to. And I have.

This is a great album. A classic. For good reason, it was the soundtrack to the '60's. Bob is an amazing lyricist. The backup band is good (Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper!) and the song styles are nicely varied. I was pretty young when this came out but later in life, listening to Bob's catalog, I was glad he made the jump to electric and towards rock-n-roll. The folk genre was very limiting.

The only problem is Stairway to Heaven syndrome. From my own listening and the radio, I've listened to these songs so many times that I'm burned out on them.

The good news is that it drew me to listen to The Times They Are A Changin' -- which I haven't memorized. I enjoyed that very much.

 

[lpfreak1170]

Don't even need to listen to this one. classic!! "Desolation Row" gets

Edit: But I will listen.

Edit 2: "Queen Jane Approximately"...sigh...

 

[Ojai Sam]

The only problem is Stairway to Heaven syndrome. From my own listening and the radio, I've listened to these songs so many times that I'm burned out on them.

I like that turn of phrase and wish I had said it. Come to think of it, I probably will.

 

[axolotl]

I like that turn of phrase and wish I had said it. Come to think of it, I probably will.

That reminds me of a certain anecdote.

Oscar: I wish I had said that, Whistler.

Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

That reminds me of a certain anecdote.

and it's a great Monty Python skit as well

 

[Ojai Sam]

OUT is right about this album inducing Stairway To Heaven Syndrome*. It’s hard to listen to it with fresh ears but I did come up with some insights that were new to me, though they may be obvious to you.

The title refers to the highway that ran north from New Orleans to Minnesota and the Canadian border. It was the primary escape route for rural African Americans leaving the south for better paying factory jobs. As a result, it got name checked a lot in prewar blues songs. As a Minnesotan, Dylan reversed the journey by incorporating blues heavily into his style.

The cover was shot at manager Albert Grossman’s Manhattan townhouse. It sold recently for $23 million, not exactly Highway 61. But then Zimmy always played with the disconnect between art and artifice with everything from his name change to his decision to plug in.

That guy in the background is sidekick Bob Neuwirth. Dylan is holding a pair of sunglasses, although some sources say it is either a capo or a nuclear detonator.

The songs themselves are like nothing he or anyone else ever recorded before. Back in the day, top 30 radio truncated “Like a Rolling Stone”, playing either the first half or the second half to stay under 3 minutes. Blasting out of the radio on my mom’s LeSabre after The Beatles and before The Four Tops, it was all part of the musical landscape along with “Strangers In The Night”.

And maybe that’s why we can’t hear it afresh: because it’s always been there. But it’s no less brilliant for that.

Inspired choice, Unsom.

stars on the Sam-O-Meter.

* Paradoxically, “Stairway To Heaven” itself doesn’t trigger the syndrome for me, because I never listened to it that much. But I digress.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Blasting out of the radio on my mom’s LeSabre after The Beatles and before The Four Tops, it was all part of the musical landscape along with “Strangers In The Night”.

Doo-be-doo-be doo

 

[Unsomnambulist]

* Paradoxically, “Stairway To Heaven” itself doesn’t trigger the syndrome for me, because I never listened to it that much. But I digress.

I can say that about the entire Led Zeppelin oeuvre as when the kids at my school were listening to that, I was listening to Floyd.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Fantastic album - a true classic. Still, wanted to also spin it with "fresh ears".
Interestingly I though, I have heard every song on this album on classic rock stations in the past - there are not many albums one can truly say that about (I mean, even Led Zeppelin IV, I've never heard, say, "Four Sticks" on the radio, same can be said for Beatles Albums too). Although, familiarity sometimes (as stated above) might be a downer, I though this observation really speaks to what a tremendous album this is.

Another thought, two of my favorites on this albums are "Just Like Tom Thumb Blues" and (especially) "Ballad of a Thin Man" (which probably would be in my top 10 Dylan track list). Interestingly, I didn't really enjoy/appreciate "Like A Rolling Stone" (gasp - not the #1 song on the Acclaimed Music series) during my high school/college years where it was all classic rock all the time. Though I've had this album and enjoyed this one from those days (as opposed to say Blonde on Blonde which took me ears to appreciate fully), Dylan has definitely aged well with me - Over the past 10 years, I've listened to Dylan much more than decades past.
But, yeah, I didn't really like "Like A Rolling Stone" but not see it's wonder. I do admit that I still look at my watch a bit during "Desolation Row" as good a song as it is lyrically (ditto "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" on Blonde on Blonde).

Rating - well duh -

 

[lpfreak1170]

I do admit that I still look at my watch a bit during "Desolation Row" as good a song as it is lyrically...

I don't even know you anymore...

 

[axolotl]

...(as opposed to say Blonde on Blonde which took me ears to appreciate fully...)

It took me ears to appreciate much of Dylan, too.

 

[Nickyboy]

4/5 stars. It takes a train to laugh, it takes a Nickyboy to rate it.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

It took me ears to appreciate much of Dylan, too.

Oops

Well it’s true isn’t it?

 

[Ojai Sam]

Oops

Well it’s true isn’t it?

Aye, matey.

 

[axolotl]

Oops

Well it’s true isn’t it?

From your ears to God's mouth, or something.

 

[axolotl]

I had never heard this album, straight-through and from start-to-finish, until now. At least, I don't remember having done so.

That said, I know each and every one of the songs. I had heard the more well-known songs on the radio, of course.

I give it a hearty , but recognize its place as a album.

Finally, the reference below is so oblique that I do not want to put it directly into my evaluation of Route 61 Revisited:

Spoiler

Listening to this album reminded me of words penned by Paul Williams to Michael (?) in the liner notes of Procol Harum's Shine On Brightly, in pertinent part, to wit:

I like especially "My Moonbeams" and "Shine On Brightly," which already run through my minds, and I like especially the whole show, as a whole show. Have you noticed how much the first Procol album (which was so influenced by Blonde on Blonde) influenced Music from Big Pink? This album here will affect so many of us so deeply that I wonder that you're not just bursting with pride at your involvement with it. I know I am.

http://www.procolharum.com/phalbum2.htm

Music was proliferating back in those days, with perhaps more weave, interplay, and interrelation than we might readily notice. It is true, again. In fact, the more I learn and listen to music, the more I perceive that this is true in all musical periods.

...with the exception of Disco.

Nobody should ever say (again), "Have you ever heard Bob Dylan's disco album?" So, may it never be. Amen and amen.