In 1965, Bob Dylan made quite a splash with Bringing It All Back Home, which was the first of his albums to move away from his folkier side. He continued this with Highway 61 Revisited, starting with the ever-popular “Like A Rolling Stone”. Here are a few songs from this project that will at least pique your interest. Or better yet, make you fall in love with Dylan’s approach to rock music.
“Ballad Of A Thin Man”
With this one, it seems that Dylan had an organ and a dream. He also had it out for journalists, as the lyrics suggest.
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According to The Washington Post, many people think that this song is a reference to journalists who annoyed Dylan with questions back in the day. The singer-songwriter has even admitted that “Mr. Jones” is a real person. He told Esquire, “He’s a real person. You know him, but not by that name.”
Jive-wise, this track definitely hits the spot. However, it’s not the only track on Highway 61 Revisited with a good groove.
“Tombstone Blues”
This song is groovy, bluesy, and rock in a way that the likes of Chuck Berry would be proud of.
“I felt like I’d broken through with this song, that nothing like it had been done before…” Dylan said of this song in the notes for the Biograph compilation. Apparently, when he wrote this song, Dylan was feeling inspired by some cops’ conversations he’d overheard at a bar he frequented.
“…You’d hear things like ‘the guy should have stuck to ripping off his own people,’ you’d hear stuff like that all the time… I think I wrote this either in that place or remembering some conversations,” he shared.
“It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”
Lyrically, this song is much less intense than the other songs Dylan was writing at the time. It sings of what might be interpreted as sexual frustration. We all remember Dylan’s performance of his more electric-sounding songs at the Newport Folk Festival. Apparently, he was particularly bashed by fans when he played this one, for whatever reason.
However, that didn’t stop the track from being covered by a ton of other artists, including The Allman Brothers Band and Leon Russell.
Photo by: Jacques Haillot/Apis/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images
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