Although Blonde On Blonde (1966) is widely regarded as the most groundbreaking Bob Dylan record, predecessor Highway 61 Revisited shows its definitive transition from progressive folk singer to visionary rock poet. For the first time ever, electric instruments dominate his songs in the form of Mike Bloomfield's manic electric guitar licks and Al Kooper's throbbing Hammond thrusts. While most of the
… songs have a traditional 12-bar blues scheme, lyrically Dylan lets go of convention to get lost in poetic abstractions, surreal images and biting sarcasm. Never in the rock world have alienation and ignorance been expressed so harshly as in Ballad Of A Thin Man and no one has ever been so poignantly and relentlessly put down as in the iconic Like A Rolling Stone. When Dylan is finally alone again with acoustic guitar and harmonica, in the epic Desolation Row, the names of Ezra Pound and TS Eliot resound. Certainly not a 'name-dropping' but rather a company that this eternal aspiring Nobel Prize winner can join, with a work as rich and groundbreaking as Highway 61 Revisited.more
