I'm not as anti-Bob Dylan as some people (Hi Mom!). I like some of his music. That song about hurricanes is good, although the lyrics are pretty obtuse. That song he did for the Wonder Boys soundtrack is excellent- it even won him an Academy Award. I can take certain Bob Dylan tracks in small doses. But an entire album of his warbling? Yeesh.
Again, ranting before listening...
Well, the album starts off with one of Bob's infamous mega-hits, "Like A Rolling Stone". I'm pretty sure I read a Rolling Stone Magazine story once upon a time that named this the greatest song of all time. Seriously- Rolling. Stone. Magazine. (As an aside, number 2 on the list was... "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones. Ugh) So maybe this song is a bit overrated, and it's definitely way too long. 6 minutes? Really? A verse shorter would be better, especially since I have no idea what the fuck Bobbie is talking about, and musically the verses don't vary. I don't hate it, but I certainly have my complaints.
I was a bit worried after the second song "Tombstone Blues" was another acoustic blues piece that goes on and on and on for six minutes that the whole album would be like that. Turns out there are a couple short and easy rocker tracks on this album, but most of the songs are really long and rambling. "Queen Jane Approximately" is a hammy off-key rock ballad. I say off-key because it sounds like Mr. Dylan forgot to tune his guitar to the rest of the band- or to itself for that matter. Now that I've been listening to that song for 6 minutes I can honestly say it's really terrible, maybe the worst Bob Dylan song I've heard in my life. The title track is next and it's not doing much to make me feel better. Aside from having no clue what Bobbie's going on about, the song features a bit too much slide-whistle.
The closing track "Desolation Row" is a long long long long LONG acoustic folk song. I don't mind it too much, because the song doesn't try to do too much. It's just Bob Dylan singing over an acoustic progression while another guitar fills over the background. It certainly could have ended seven minutes earlier without losing anything, but I still kinda liked it. It felt more honest than any other Bob Dylan song I've heard in my life. Not sure what I really mean by that. Maybe with a lot of other songs I feel like Bob Dylan is trying to be really epic ("Hurricane" or "Like A Rolling Stone") or purposefully hokey ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). A simple number like "Desolation Row" feels more real to me.
The sound on Highway 61 Revisited is pretty poor and washed out. I don't know what happened in the mid-60s that caused all the big pop stars to be recorded with such shitty quality. OK, so I complained a lot about this album but I didn't hate it. I almost maybe kinda liked it. It helps that the music features lots of acoustic guitar. So I'll be nice to Bob Dylan and give this album 3 stars.
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