BOB DYLAN
Bringing it all back home
It was Dylan’s 5th studio album released on
March 1965. This album was really important in these years, because for the
first time in history of Folk-Rock music Dylan used a full Rock band in the
recordings. The album is divided in 2 parts. On the first side all the songs
are ‘electric’, meaning that a Rock band was used. On the second side all the
songs are ‘acoustic’, which means that Dylan sings only with his guitar. Also
in this album Dylan has started to move away from the protest/political songs,
and his lyrics became more personal and abstract. This triggered two things:
The fans of Folk-Rock music and protest ballads were annoyed with Dylan’s
change, they were alienated, and ‘turned their backs’ on him. But on the other
hand, Dylan ‘opened the doors’ to a wider audience, those of Rock music.
And
as history has shown, he did very good!
Many of the songs in this album were written
in the summer of ’64, when Bob Dylan was staying together with Joan Baez at a
farm in the little town of Woodstock, close to New York.
Upon it’s release, the album was praised by
critics and the media, and that continued also in the years to come. It peaked
at No.6 in the USA albums charts, and No.1 in UK.
Songs
like ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’, Mr.Tambourine
Man’, It’s Alright Ma (I’m only bleeding)’ and ‘It’s all Over now Baby Blue’
would be considered as ‘classics’ in the Rock history, and in the years to come
many bands would make cover versions, attaining great success because of these
songs. (For example ‘The Byrds’ with Mr.Tambourine Man).
‘Bringing
it all back home’ is ranked at No.31 of Rolling Stone magazine’s list with the ‘500 greatest albums of all
time’…
Highway 61 Revisited
That’s Bob Dylan’s 6th album,
released in August 1965. The name comes from one of the greatest North American
Highways, which connects Dylan’s birthplace in Minnesota to the Southern cities.
(St.Louis, Memphis, New Orleans etc...).
The experiment that Dylan started with his
previous record (making one side of the album acoustic and the other side
electric) continues and expands here. With the exception of the 11-minute
acoustic ‘Desolation Row’, the rest of the album was recorded with the support
of a full Rock band.
Many great musicians were involved in the
recordings, with Mike Bloomfield (guitars) and Al Kooper (keyboard, piano),
being among them.
The
album contains two of Dylan’s most famous songs: ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and
‘Ballad of a Thin Man’. ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is a legendary song in the
history of Rock music, whilst ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ is considered as one of the strongest protest
songs ever recorded.
‘Highway 61’ peaked at No.3 in the USA album charts and in No.4 in UK.
It was also ranked at No.4 at Rollıng Stone’s magazine list with the ‘500
greatest albums of all time’.
The single ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ peaked at No.2 in USA and No.4 in UK. It has
been praised by the critics and it was at No.1 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list
with the ‘500 greatest songs of all time’.
Maybe
the highlights of this album are these 2 songs, but there are also many other
songs that are great: ‘It takes a lot to
laugh, it takes a train to cry’ ‘Queen Jane approximately’ and ‘Highway 61
revisited’ are some of them.
I
will conclude this post with the comments of another great protest-folk singer,
Phil Ochs.
When ‘Highway 61’ was released, Phil Ochs
stated in the ‘Broadside’ magazine : "Dylan produced the most important and
revolutionary album ever made". 5 years later, again Phil Ochs while speaking
to a journalist said: "I put ‘Highway 61’ and I laughed, and I said it is so
ridiculous. It’s impossibly good, it just can’t be that good! How can a human
mind do this?!"
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