30th August marked 60 years since Highway 61 Revisited, the landmark album that redefined Bob Dylan’s musical legacy. By the mid-1960s, Dylan was stuck between being the artist he was widely perceived as, and the artist that he actually wanted to be. A run of politically charged albums and his influential performance during the 1963 March on Washington meant that Dylan was being heralded as the voice of the folk generation. But the half-acoustic half-electric Bringing it All Back Home, as well as a polarising set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, suggested a musical transformation was imminent, despite growing resentment from the folk community that Dylan had belonged to for the past three years.
Yet, Dylan refused to surrender, ditching the acoustic guitar for electric. No longer did odes to Woody Gutherie or strumming along to ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ interest the troubadour. Instead, on Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan opted to pair his distinctively raw vocals with lyrics focused on social criticism from a much more surreal lens. And he was joined with an impressive entourage of characters: the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Albert Einstein and T.S. Eliot are found among the lyrics of this fantastical 51-minute adventure.
From just the first few piano chords of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, Dylan’s musical evolution to electric rock was solidified. Compiled in a Woodstock cabin, this six-minute stream of consciousness anthem takes the listener on an eccentric, almost dreamlike journey, with a hostile Dylan suggesting his protagonist’s life is filled with shallowness and therefore void of all meaning. Whether this certain ‘Miss Lonely’ is Edie Sedgwick, Joan Baez or even Marian Faithful is up for debate. But what is clear, is that this was Dylan at his most snide yet. To this day, ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ remains Dylan’s best-selling hit.
‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ was, more so than any other song on the album, unlike anything else Dylan had produced before. Here we meet the notorious Mr Jones, whose misfortunes and inability to understand the cultural changes happening around him characterise the song’s six minutes. Dylan’s sombre piano chords combined with Al Kooper’s organ create an unsettling eerie dimension to such a cryptic tale and perfect what is, in my opinion, the most impressive song on the album. But if we’re talking personal favourites, the beautiful simplicity of ‘Queen Jane Approximately’, where Dylan repeatedly asks the mysterious eponymous character to meet with him once she’s abandoned the superficiality that she surrounds herself with, steals the show for me. It’s a much less scornful dig compared to ‘Like a Rolling Stone’¸ and paired with Dylan’s masterful control of the piano (and somewhat startling use of the harmonica), this song cements the album as one of the greats.
It’s no wonder that Highway 61 Revisited haunts so many Best Album of All Time lists, 60 years after its release. The album’s abstract lyricism and masterful instrumentation refused to confine the album to the folk genre that Dylan had inhabited for so many years. Instead, he managed to convince the masses that his music was indeed a-changing. And listeners could either join him on this spectacular journey or be left on the side of the highway.
“dylan, bob- highway 61 revisited” by cdrummbks is licensed under CC BY 2.0.