Highway 61 Revisited is Bob Dylan’s sixth studio album and a defining moment in rock history. Released in 1965, it marked Dylan’s full embrace of electric instrumentation after his transitional album Bringing It All Back Home. With its biting lyrics, surreal imagery, and raw rock-and-roll energy, the album reshaped popular music’s sense of what a song could be.
The album reached #3 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and #4 on the UK Albums Chart. Its lead single, “Like a Rolling Stone,” became Dylan’s biggest hit, peaking at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
The opening track “Like a Rolling Stone,” is an acknowledged masterpiece – a six-minute single with a sneering vocal and memorable organ riff that shattered expectations for what could succeed on AM radio.
With this album Dylan abandoned the folk revival’s acoustic purity, using a full rock band to create a hard-edged, blues-infused sound. The songs weave satire, absurdity, and social commentary into dense, cinematic narratives—ranging from carnival-like chaos (“Desolation Row”) to biblical-blues parables (“Highway 61 Revisited”).
Highway 61 Revisited is widely hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time, regularly appearing near the top of “best album” lists. It set the template for ambitious rock records, proving popular music could be literate, confrontational, and epic in scope.
Medal Winners
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Listen Here)
Highway 61 Revisited (Listen Here)
Ballad of a Thin Man (Listen Here)
Like a Rolling Stone (Listen Here)
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Listen Here)
Bonus Tracks
Highway 61 Revisited by Johnny Winter (Listen Here)
Twist and Shout by The Beatles (Listen Here)
#BobDylan #Highway61Revisited
#LikeARollingStone #1960sRock #ClassicRock #FolkRock #MusicHistory
#VinylRecords #RockLegends #AlbumAnniversary
This is in my upper echelon of great rock albums and it gets 5 stars with a bullet from me, so your 4- and 3-star ratings caught me a little off-guard. Like Rubber Soul and Revolver with the Beatles, I go back and forth between this and Blonde on Blonde as Dylan’s “best” (or my “favorite”). I feel that both albums helped define what rock and roll was at the time, and what it would transition into, and I tend to think of 1965-66 Dylan as being a major catalyst for transforming “rock ‘n’ roll” into “rock.”*
That said, I lean toward the decidedly un-rock-like but incandescent “Desolation Row” as my gold medal choice. Admittedly, it has a lot to do with Charlie McCoy’s magnificent guitar fills, but the amazing lyrics are, for me, some of Dylan’s most evocative and (unlike Robert) I always find it a treat to listen to, with or without the rest of the album. Despite its overfamiliarity, I have to go with “Like a Rolling Stone” for my silver. It’s still a juggernaut of a rock song. “Highway 61” takes the bronze for its energy, its over-the-top chutzpa and the sheer joy it brings me every time I hear it.
Ultimately, I could easily recommend Highway 61 Revisited as an introduction to Dylan.
By the way, I think “Rolling Stone” was blocked from #1 on the Billboard singles chart by none other than the Beatles’ “Help!”.
*More of my thoughts on that, if anyone’s interested: https://derbingle.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-birth-of-rock-sans-roll-1965-66.html