Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 05/29/2001
Run Time: 48:49
Taking the first, electric side of
Bringing It All Back Home to its logical conclusion,
Bob Dylan hired a full
rock & roll band, featuring guitarist
Michael Bloomfield, for
Highway 61 Revisited. Opening with the epic
"Like a Rolling Stone," Highway 61 Revisited careens through nine songs that range from reflective
folk-rock (
"Desolation Row") and
blues (
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry") to flat-out
garage rock (
"Tombstone Blues," "From a Buick 6," "Highway 61 Revisited").
Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the
folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing melodies to hard, bluesy
rock. And that is the most revolutionary thing about
Highway 61 Revisited -- it proved that
rock & roll needn't be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
;)
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