Takin' You Back
HEAVE returns to Highway 61.
It’s time for me to get on my soapbox and rant like an old man. Kids these days don’t have any sort of appreciation for the music that influenced some of their favorite bands. There was a time not too long ago when being a fan of Jimi Hendrix or the Rolling Stones made you cool…I think it was called college. But far too few in any sort of rock sub-genre scene hold an appreciation for the man who has had a huge impact on modern music. That man is Bob Dylan. His influence can be heard in everything from Rage Against the Machine (Dylan was one of the loudest voices of protest in the 60’s) to well…any indie or experimental artist.
Of the 32 studio albums Dylan has recorded, the one that can be pointed to as his most influential is, without a doubt, Highway 61 Revisited. The album begins with a snare shot that’s, as Bruce Springsteen once described it, “Like someone kicked open the door to your mind.” on the timeless “Like a Rolling Stone.” The song had an immediate impact when the album was released in 1965. Paul McCartney said that hearing “Like a Rolling Stone” showed everyone that it was possible to take their music a little further. The song was so powerful to Frank Zappa that he considered quitting music altogether. How can anyone disagree with the power of this song? There is not a single thing that could be changed to make the song better.
Highway 61 Revisited was Dylan’s first album to be recorded with a full rock band, a decision that pissed off a lot of folk fans at the time. In retrospect, the decision can be seen as one of the most daring “experimental” moves in the history of music. Not just because the change was drastic stylistically, but because Dylan already had a huge established fan base that would potentially be completely alienated by the change. Lyrically, the album is nothing short of a masterpiece. It has surrealism and storytelling in “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” and “Tombstone Blues” and social commentary/protest in “Desolation Row” and Ballad of a Thin Man.”
Highway 61 Revisited is one of those albums that you can listen to pretty much any time. Road trip? Check. Getting drunk/stoned? Check. Protesting anything and everything? Double check. It’s damn near impossible to listen to most rock music today without drawing some line back to the influence of Bob Dylan and Highway 61 Revisited.
Posted by Cory Roop on Nov 25, 2008 @ 7:00 am
