Highway 61 Revisited

Highway 61 Revisited is Bob Dylan's sixth studio album, released August 30, 1965 on Columbia Records. Recorded in just six days between June 16 and August 4, 1965 at Columbia Studio A in New York City, it is one of the most consequential records in rock history and the centerpiece of Dylan's extraordinary mid-1960s creative peak.^[1]

The album's title references U.S. Route 61, the 1,400-mile highway running from Dylan's native Minnesota south through the Mississippi Delta to New Orleans. It was deeply personal geography: the road was the spine of American blues music, the very tradition Dylan had absorbed since adolescence. As he later wrote, Highway 61 was the main thoroughfare of the country blues, and it began about where he began.^[2]

The sessions produced a landmark of electric rock. Key musicians included Mike Bloomfield on electric guitar, Al Kooper on organ (famously talked his way into the role during the "Like a Rolling Stone" session), Paul Griffin on piano, Bobby Gregg on drums, and Harvey Brooks on bass. Producer Bob Johnston replaced Tom Wilson after the first session and gave Dylan far greater latitude to experiment and trust his instincts.^[1]

The album opens with "Like a Rolling Stone" and closes with the eleven-minute "Desolation Row," the only acoustic track and a grand summation of everything the album's electric fury was responding to. Rolling Stone ranked it number four on their 500 Greatest Albums list, their highest-ranked Dylan album.^[3]