Thread: Highway 61 Revisited - The great Bob Dylan

This song inspires me a lot for no good reason, really. Just wanted to hear some of you're opinions on it, especially the starting verse:

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son."
Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin' me on."
God said, "No."
Abe Said, "What?"
God said, "You can do what you want Abe but the next time you see me comin' you'd better run."
Abe said, "Where ya want this killin' done?"
And God Said, "Out on Highway 61"

Excellent song. I strongly suggest listening to it and would love to know what you think / how you feel about the song!

Been listening to this for about 45 years - on the radio, on somebody's stereo, in my head - think I know all the verses. Highway 61 turns out to be a wild place, outside the rules, set apart from polite society, where you can kill a son, sell a thousand telephones that don't ring, or create a next world war; it's also a place where the second mother can have a clandestine meeting with the seventh son. I've been on Hwy 61; so, I think, have you. Maybe that's why you like this one.

Dylan uses this format in more than one song, e.g., Memphis Blues Again and Desolation Row. In the former, a recurring mood prompted by current events; in the latter, a place very different from Hwy 61 - less wild, more dangerous.

Good to hear what a long-term listener thinks! I was recently at a concert at the JPJ Arena in VA. He's lost his voice and any ability to play more than one note on the harmonica, but the tunes are still very strong.

After you're description another song came to mind.

You walk into the room,
With your pencil in your hand.
You see somebody naked and you,
you say who is that man.
You try so hard, but you,
don't understand,
just what you will say when you get home...

Because something is happening here and you don't know what it is...
Do you? Mr. Jones.

Excellent song titled "Ballad of a Thin Man" REALLY brings Bob's maniac rhythm into focus.

Ballad of a Thin Man came out in '65. Nearly all of the people I knew then are dead now. Most of Dylan's music was not that appealing to African Americans, but "All Along the Watchtower" was one exception ("Blowing in the Wind" was another); Jimmy Hendrix did it better than he did.
Dylan was a big proponent of spontaneity - pushing a recording out the way a freeform writer pushes to finish a piece without thinking. He always insisted on getting the job done once in the studio, no thinking it over, not smoke breaks. He still says he doesn't know where it came from, or that it came from God - which to me is the same thing.
You have to remember that all these superstars are people just like us. By a "simple twist of fate", they have a talent that they can exploit to everyone's advantage, but the rest of their life is just like ours: full of problems, conflicts, regrets, etc. Dylan is no different. I still think "Blood on the Tracks" is his best recording.

Nice info, is there any more I can squeeze out of a sponge such as you?

Haha, indeed, Blood on the Tracks is a very, very excellent recording. My all time personal favorite would be "Tangled Up in Blue". Maggie's Farm, I would like to think, has a very deep rooted point to it all.

I think "Maggie's Farm" is hilarious. The story will be familiar to anyone of my generation (and maybe the next) who worked on a Midwestern farm in younger days. It was backbreaking work with little reward. I've always assumed he got the material from personal experience, or that of someone he knew back then in Minnesota. Not sure if he ever hired out on a farm in his youth (biographies don't mention it), but it was common for kids 12 and older to do this during summer vacation from school, to make money.
"It's All Right, Ma" was one of my favorites. It portrays a young man's disenchantment from the innocence of youth. I've seen him perform it, and it still seems to evoke the feelings he had when he wrote it.

I love this song and album. May be his best as far as I'm concerned!

Originally Posted by wron

... I still think "Blood on the Tracks" is his best recording.

Almost mentioned this one as well.

I think it depends a bit on your era, 'Bob Dylan', 'Freewheeling' and 'Bringing it all back home', I think I know nearly all the words to all the songs, they followed on naturally from Lightning Hopkins, John Mayall and the early Stones. After that I am a bit more hazy, but some things like Mr Jones from 'Ballad of a thin man' stand out. Some of the earliest songs are straight twelve bar blues and adaptations of traditional folk songs. I spent a lot of time in folk clubs around 1960-63.

I think Dylan's talent as a young man was above all his lyrical poetry. Some of it is the kind of work I've spent a lifetime learning to appreciate. There are some very liberal adaptions from classical blues, and the music fits the lyrics well, but it was his lyrics that took popular music to a different level. His competition with the Beatles in this arena (from around the time of Abbey Road) probably brought out the best in both groups. He says he doesn't really know where it came from. I guess it doesn't matter.