Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan (1962)
1. You're No Good 1:40
2. Talkin' New York 3:20
3. In My Time Of Dyin' 2:40
4. Man Of Constant Sorrow 3:10
5. Fixin' To Die 2:22
6. Pretty Peggy-O 3:23
7. Highway 51 Blues 2:52
8. Gospel Plow 1:47
9. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down 2:37
10. House Of The Risin' Sun 5:20
11. Freight Train Blues 2:18
12. Song To Woody 2:42
13. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean 2:43
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Highway 61 Revisited is a landmark — recorded in 1965, during the same tumultuous summer that had seen him plugging in his electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, Highway 61 Revisited is Bob Dylan diving head-first into the rock and roll maelstrom, backed by the studio prowess of Al Kooper, Michael Bloomfield and others on such devastating classics as the epochal "Like A Rolling Stone."
From cduniverse:
Recorded in Columbia Studios, New York, New York in June-August 1965.
Though 1966's BLONDE ON BLONDE is usually singled as the most innovative Bob Dylan album, its predecessor HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED is the one that definitively marks Dylan's transformation from progressive folk singer to visionary rock poet. It's Dylan's first fully electric album, powered by the manic intensity of Mike Bloomfield's skull-and-crossbones blues-rock guitar leads and Al Kooper's rich organ fills.
While many of the songs are presented in a traditional 12-bar blues format, the lyrics find Dylan finally abandoning conventional linear narrative in favor of poetic abstraction, surreal imagery, and biting sarcasm. In the rock world, there has never been a lambasting harsher or more cathartic than the excoriation of "Ballad of a Thin Man," and no challenge more bold than that offered in the iconic "Like a Rolling Stone." When Dylan invokes the names of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot towards the end of the poetic epic "Desolation Row," he's not just name-dropping; he's merely delineating the company in which a work as rich and ground-breaking as HIGHWAY 61 belongs.
Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano); Michael Bloomfield Charlie McCoy (guitar); Al Kooper, Paul Griffin (piano, organ); Frank Owens (piano); Harvey Goldstein, Russ Savakus (bass); Bobby Gregg (drums).
Engineers include: Peter Dauria, Roy Halee, Frank Laico.
AMG review by by Stephen Thomas Erlewine:
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.
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Dylan was virtually gushing great songs when this masterpiece arrived in the summer of 1965. From the epochal opening of "Like a Rolling Stone" through the absurdly apocalyptic closer, "Desolation Row," his command of surrealistic language was daring and amazing. As a vocalist, he was rewriting the rules of the game. Jimi Hendrix made note of Mr. Z's technically suspect pitch and decided that he too was a singer. And the backing, though ragged, is precisely right. Is this the essential Dylan album? It's certainly one of them. --Steven Stolder
Tracklist:
1. Like A Rolling Stone 6:13
2. Tombstone Blues 5:58
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry 4:09
4. From A Buick 6 3:19
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man 5:58
6. Queen Jane Approximately 5:31
7. Highway 61 Revisited 3:30
8. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 5:31
9. Desolation Row 11:21
Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde (1966)
Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde (1966)
If Highway 61 Revisited played as a garage rock record, the double album Blonde on Blonde inverted that sound, blending blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound. Replacing the fiery Michael Bloomfield with the intense, weaving guitar of Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan led a group comprised of his touring band the Hawks and session musicians through his richest set of songs. Blonde on Blonde is an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical and musical revelations on each play. Leavening the edginess of Highway 61 with a sense of the absurd, Blonde on Blonde is comprised entirely of songs driven by inventive, surreal, and witty wordplay, not only on the rockers but also on winding, moving ballads like "Visions of Johanna," "Just Like a Woman," and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Throughout the record, the music matches the inventiveness of the songs, filled with cutting guitar riffs, liquid organ riffs, crisp pianos, and even woozy brass bands ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). It's the culmination of Dylan's electric rock & roll period -- he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again. [In 2003, Columbia/Legacy reissued 15 selected titles from Dylan's catalog as hybrid SACDs, playable in both regular CD players and Super Audio CD players. Each title is packaged as a digipack, containing the full original artwork. On each of the titles, and on each of the layers, the remastered sound is spectacular, a considerable upgrade from the initial CD pressings. Blonde on Blonde was one of five titles that also included a 5.1 Surround Sound mix.]
~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Tracklist:
1 Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 4:36
2 Pledging My Time 3:50
3 Visions of Johanna 7:33
4 One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) 4:54
5 I Want You 3:07
6 Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again 7:05
7 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat 3:58
8 Just Like a Woman 4:53
9 Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) 3:30
10 Temporary Like Achilles 5:02
11 Absolutely Sweet Marie 4:57
12 4th Time Around 4:35
13 Obviously 5 Believers 3:35
14 Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands 11:19[/size]
Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (1967)
1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 4:39
2. Blowin' In The Wind 2:49
3. The Times They Are A-Changin' 3:16
4. It Ain't Me Babe 3:37
5. Like A Rolling Stone 6:10
6. Mr. Tambourine Man 5:29
7. Subterranean Homesick Blues 2:21
8. I Want You 3:08
9. Positively 4th Street 3:56
10. Just Like A Woman 4:54