Confessions of a Fanboy

I’ve been kicking around what to say about Highway 61 Revisited turning 42 all morning long.

Writing about Dylan is damn difficult to do. People have been doing it for years and many have wound up looking foolish. It’s not that I’m above looking foolish but I’d rather take that risk when there is an equal chance of me coming off like a potty-mouthed genius.

I’d like to queue up Highway on my iPod and move on to something else, but this album deserves more than that, demands more than that. It turns 42 today and attention must be paid.

I haven’t listened to it so many times that I’ve memorized every nook, cranny, note, and word. It may not be like hearing it for the first time every time I listen to it, but it is still fresh for me. The things that usually jump out when I listen to it is the warmth of so many of the sounds, even on CD. Dylan’s voice on “It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” is a great example.

So many writers focus on Dylan’s words – and not without good reason — but lost in the obsessive dissection of his words are the glories of the music. The piano and organ work by Al Kooper, Frank Owens, Paul Griffin, and Dylan himself is mesmerizing. The sound of it, the way it is recorded, always catches my ear. Sam Lay, Howlin’ Wolf’s drummer, keeps the beat while Michael Bloomfield and Charlie McCoy’s guitars chime, ring, sing, churn, fuzz, and groove. Dylan added mastery of rock and blues to his mastery of folk.

If you want to read something more in depth about Highway 61 Revisited, you would do well to pick up a copy of Mark Polizzotti’s book. It’s part of the 33 1/3 series and even though they rejected my submission, it’s still a great series. Polizzotti’s book is impeccably researched and footnoted and you can’t possibly read it without learning something about this landmark record.

Filed under: Tags: A Day Late and a Dollar Short, Bob Dylan