The 3 Best Songs From Bob Dylan’s 1965 LP ‘Highway 61 Revisited’

In the 1960s, Bob Dylan helped to redefine what a popular song could be. Using a pen, pad, and an acoustic guitar, he took American folk music to the next level, bringing a new, vivid lyrical quality to traditional songs and song structures.

In the middle of the decade, Dylan released his classic record Highway 61 Revisited. The album not only includes a swath of great songs but it helped to reshape what Dylan had already reshaped. And these are the three best songs from Bob Dylan’s 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited.

“Like A Rolling Stone” (Track 1, 6:13)

If Bob Dylan needed any more fame and attention, he got it with the release of this track. “Like A Rolling Stone” was, in many ways, Dylan’s moment to say that even though he rose to acclaim with an acoustic guitar, he could go electric and play music that both spoke to him and would help change the world. Keep moving—that is the job of the artist. Stagnation is the only death. That’s what this song explains in so many words.

“It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry” (Track 3, 4:09)

And yet… Bobby D. always knew he could turn back to the acoustic. On this song, he uses the six-string, along with the piano and a laid-back band, to sing his blues. Dylan tells stories that are both simple and dreamlike. Stories that somehow showcase little frames of life and still all of the human experience. On this tune, he weaves between images of the moon, a train, death, and much more. All with a poet’s facility.

“Desolation Row” (Track 9, 11:21)

When songwriters sit down in an attempt to write the greatest song ever, this is a track they’re trying to emulate. It’s simple and largely unadorned, save a lilting lead guitar. What makes this song sing are the almost painstakingly vivid lyrics, characters, and plotlines that Dylan presents. It’s a nearly 12-minute track describing a world you can somehow fall into so easily but never return to without Dylan in the room singing it back to you.

Photo by William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images