MoeFOH's Album of the Week... Week #12

[MoeFOH]

MoeFOH's Album of the Week 🎶

Same as the movie thread, each week we're going to spotlight an album... be it a classic, new release, hidden gem, or outright turd... and open it for discussion: i.e. post up your favourite tracks, clips, lyrics, experiences if you saw live, etc... or dive deeper and give us a critique on why you think it's great, overrated, or a complete train wreck... And finally score it for us...  

All contributors go into a monthly prize draw for a 3-cigar sampler! 

PM me with suggestions if there's an album you want to nominate for next week's discussion. 

 

Week #12: Highway 61 Revisited

Wikipedia says: "Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album, except for the closing track, the 11-minute ballad "Desolation Row". Critics have focused on the innovative way Dylan combined driving, blues-based music with the subtlety of poetry to create songs that captured the political and cultural chaos of contemporary America. Author Michael Gray has argued that, in an important sense, the 1960s "started" with this album...

Highway 61 Revisited peaked at No. 3 on the US Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart. Positively received on release, the album has since been described as one of Dylan's best works and among the greatest albums of all time, ranking No. 4 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Over to you...

Who's a fan? How highly do you rate this album?

Thoughts, memories, experiences, favourite tracks...? 

Post em up!

Score it out of 10!

[MoeFOH]

 

[Connoisseur Kim]

Although I don't have many experiences with Bob Dylan's songs, I can say Highway 61 Revisited is one of the best Bob Dylan albums (9 out of 10). I have 1960's Bob Dylan Mono Remastered Album collection and I sometimes listen this album when I want to listen Folk Rock music.

[JohnS]

7 hours ago, Connoisseur Kim said:

Although I don't have many experiences with Bob Dylan's songs, I can say Highway 61 Revisited is one of the best Bob Dylan albums (9 out of 10). I have 1960's Bob Dylan Mono Remastered Album collection and I sometimes listen this album when I want to listen Folk Rock music.

That is a wise choice there, Kim! 👍

[Chibearsv]

I'll pass on this album.  I only enjoy Bob Dylan music when others are covering his songs 😁  His voice is like the sound of a dentist's drill to me. 

[Connoisseur Kim]

4 hours ago, JohnS said:

That is a wise choice there, Kim! 👍

Much agreed @JohnS! He may not be the best vocalist, but has great composing talent which makes him one of the greatest musicians all the time. I also think Highway 61 Revisited is one of the greatest Bob Dylan's early albums 😃 .

[sageman]

For my literature credit in college, I took a class called Topics in Literature: Bob Dylan. MWF 9am, I went to class smoking a 'hand rolled cigar', drinking a white russian. Then the professor would play some songs on his guitar, and each of 4-5 groups would present on the lyrics of a different song. It wasn't a bad way to get the credit and start my day! This album was included in the class, and was my least favorite of what was covered. He definitely has albums that are worse, so I'm going with a 6/10 rating, just for the title song and the classic Like a Rolling Stone. Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, in my opinion were better albums!

[Chas.Alpha]

God said to Abraham “kill me your son.”  Abe said “man, you must be puttin’ me on!” God said “no” and Abe said “what?” God said “you can do what you want, Abe, but next time you see me coming’ you better run!” Abe said “where you want this killin’ done?” God said “do it out on highway 61...”

That said, Ballad of a Thin Man is my favorite on this record. @MoeFOH that’s 2 Minnesota artists back to back! Way to be!!! 😀

[bassistheplace]

10/10! Landmark album by the bard Bobby Z

he made molds and then broke them before anyone could figure out what was going on

and, no surprise since I've written the above, major record for me

there's Dylan, and then there's all the other song writers

[BurstReynolds]

There’s an urgency at times that I really enjoy. Another vote for  Ballad of a Thin Man as favorite on the album. But lacking a true appreciation of the context preceding this release, it’s impossible for me to give it the credit I’m routinely assured it deserves. 7/10 for me. 

[joeypots]

So my inlaws used to go to the Newport Folk Festival every year. About ten years ago I was taking to my MIL, (sigh, we miss that old lady something aweful) and somehow Bob Dylan came up in conversation. She said she saw him at Newport a long, long time ago with my FIL and the and a lot of people booed him. She said she didn’t care for his music, she liked Peter, Paul, and Mary.

[Tdm_86]

Not much of a Bob Dylan fan. My dad is, I used to hear him play this all the time but never could get into it myself. 
 

7/10 for my old man’s sake 😄

[Ken Gargett]

On 6/8/2022 at 12:08 PM, bassistheplace said:

10/10! Landmark album by the bard Bobby Z

he made molds and then broke them before anyone could figure out what was going on

and, no surprise since I've written the above, major record for me

there's Dylan, and then there's all the other song writers

this is pretty much spot on. incredible output. doing two albums a year for a period there. and all of them breaking the mold, as you say. extraordinary. i have enough dylan CDs that i suspect i could start listening today and still be going on different ones by the end of the year. a mate of mine was never allowed to travel overseas (health) till his early 60s. finally, he could. all he wanted to do was to drive highway 61 playing that album. 

this was so important because it was, i believe, the first of his albums to really focus away from the simple acoustic/folk style and involved rock musicians.

'like a rolling stone' is simply one of the greatest songs of all time, whoever sings it (and as someone with rocks for vocal cords when it comes to singing, i love dylan's voice - it meant we could all sing away quite happily). there was a time when i was younger when i could sing every word of 'tom thumb's blues' - the other truly great track on the album, though there is stiff competition. and i often did sing it (fortunately most of my mates were also huge fans of his bobness and sang along). actually, at one stage, i could sing every word to 30-40 dylan songs, including some of the "longer" ones like "its all right ma, i'm only crying".

this was released a bit before my time but going back to it i loved it. for me, Desire is hard to beat. brilliant stuff'blood on the tracks' another great album. and it is very rare when at least one of the two CDs from the Budokan Live album is not in player in the car. 

so far, this is far and away the top album listed in this series, so much so that it is almost demeaning to give it a score. just list it as first and daylight second. 

his bobness was the first serious concert i ever saw. sat outside festival hall all night to get tickets. it was the same tour as Budokan. amazing show. i am assured, though i have no idea why, that this concert was the first time in his life he did a second encore. though i must say it took about twenty minutes screaming and stomping to get him back the second time.