1. Like a Rolling Stone*
2. Tombstone Blues
3. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
4. From a Buick 6
5. Ballad of a Thin Man
7. Queen Jane Approximately
8. Highway 61 Revisited
9. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues*
10. Desolation Row*
A
J.R.R. Tolkien once made the observation that he detested allegory, and instead strove for applicability in his work. It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, as I recently rewatched Persona and Black Bear. These are works that people have approached as puzzles to be decoded, but I think it's more accurate to view them as experiences which the authors have created designed to force us to confront things in ourselves. Rather than attempting to find the hidden, "true" meaning, we should be using them as mirrors in which to examine ourselves - our own anxieties and hang-ups and hopes and fears.
I think this is pretty relevant to Bob Dylan's writing on most of the songs on Highway 61 Revisited. While a few of them are pretty straightforward, most of them are rambling, impressionistic assaults on the senses, with lyrics that hint at countless things going on the mid-60s but never resolve into straight allegory and in many cases actively resist interpretation. The result is a sort of sprawling fever dream of an album. The title refers to a road that runs from Dylan's home town of Duluth straight down through the American heartland and into the deep south, and in a way it's pretty appropriate - Dylan is cutting straight through the heart of America, indulging in Americana, and switching to a more amplified, bluesy sound. Of course at this point Bob Dylan was also a borderline autistic amphetamine addict burned-out by years on the road, so very little of what he has to say is particularly coherent.
Things kick off with "Like a Rolling Stone", which is one of the most astonishing songs ever written. Musically it sets the tone for the album, sounding like literally nothing else at the time. It's a bizarre mish-mash of blues, rock and folk music, all anchored by a gorgeous organ riff. The density of the music makes it sound claustrophobic and yet epic at the same time. And the lyrics, which tell of a socialite who used to laugh at the down-and-out but has now become one of them, are both a viciously intimate story of revenge and a warning about the state of the Establishment in the mid-60s, just as the counterculture is about to break though. My favourite lyric? Probably verse two:
Aw, you've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But ya know ya only used to get juiced in it
Nobody's ever taught ya how to live out on the street
And now you’re gonna have to get used to it
You say you never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say, “Do you want to make a deal?"
It's a grim and wonderful song, and every private school kid who dreams of being poor and authentic should be forced to listen to it on repeat until it clicks.
After that opus, you get "Tombstone Blues", which is a rollicking number with a great guitar solo that contrasts depictions of the high and mighty with the refrain "Momma's in the factory, she ain't got no shoes. Daddy's in the alley, he's looking for food. I am in the kitchen with the tombstone blues".
Unfortunately, the next two songs are kind of bad, and the reason I didn't give this album an A+. "It Takes a Lot to Lugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is as pointless and rambling as its title. And "From a Buick 6" is I guess an attempt by Dylan to write one of his comedy songs, but there's not much to it beyond rambling about some mother earth death goddess he knows, and it's not very interesting musically.
As for "Ballad of a Thin Man", I really don't know what to make of it. I mean, I kind of like the song, and I like the way it describes a member of the old guard and how completely out of touch he is, but the lyrics and imagery are kind of stupid.
(worst lyric:
Now you see this one-eyed midget
Shouting the word "Now"
And you say, "For what reason?"
And he says, "How?"
And you say, "What does this mean?"
And he screams back "You're a cow
Give me some milk or else go home"
Side two of the album, however, is all great. "Queen Jane Approximately" is one of those bitter, world-weary, yet tender love songs that Dylan is so good at writing. "Highway 61 Revisited" is almost derailed by the world's most annoying slide whistle, but rescued by funny and interesting lyrics in which various people with absurd problems ranging from a lack of shoes to a desire to stage World War III are all advised to head over to the titular highway and try their luck there. (Personally, I prefer the PJ Harvey version, but the original is pretty good too). "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is another song I love as a cover version - in this case, Nina Simone's gorgeous piano ballad version. At first I found the original a little off-putting, but really I suppose Dylan's raw and harrowed interpretation makes more sense for this description of a nightmare sojourn in a Mexican border town.
The final song, "Desolation Row", is a song I didn't really get at first. I think part of the problem is that after an entire album of sense, fast, claustrophobic music, the sudden appearance of a world-weary acoustic track threw me a little. I guess maybe listener's fatigue. But I listened to it again yesterday and I get it now. It's very much the song on this album that made me think about that allegory-vs.-applicability thing. I mean, I defy anyone to explain what this song is "about", but it's a beautiful and terrifying song and Dylan reins in his vocal excesses to give a genuinely moving performance. By the end of the song I still wasn't sure if he hated or loved Desolation Row - possibly both - but it's a wonderful parade of strange characters and sad little observations and a fitting close to an excellent but deeply peculiar album.
Well, that's that. If I'm being honest, I didn't enjoy this as much as the previous two Dylan albums on the list. There are a lot of great songs, but the style of music isn't really my cup of tea and I missed the humour and the gentle love songs of Freewheelin' and Bringing It All Back Home. Still, this is a great album and an obviously pivotal moment in popular music. I look forward to struggling through Blonde on Blonde.
Maybe one day I'll write a short review of a Bob Dylan album. That would be nice.
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