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.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Like a Rolling StoneBob Dylan | Bob Dylan | Play | 06:09 | 14 MB | 41 MB |
| 6 mins | 14 MB | |||||
| 6 mins | 41 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Bloomfield | Guest Artist |
| 2 | Bob Dylan | Composer, Primary Artist |
| 3 | Bob Johnston | Producer |
| 4 | Al Kooper | Guest Artist |
| 5 | Charlie McCoy | Guest Artist |
| 6 | Tom Wilson | Producer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |