I know it’s hard to believe but Bob Dylan’s classic Highway 61 Revisited is 50 years old today. It was released on August 30, 1965. This is the first rock album I ever bought. I played it until the grooves wore out. A couple months later, Bob Dylan and The Band arrived in Buffalo, NY at Kleinhans Music Hall (where the Buffalo Philharmonic plays) and this was my first rock concert. Dylan played his acoustic guitar for the first half of the concert singing songs like “Blowing In the Wind” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” After the Intermission, trouble started.
Dylan came out with The Band and started to play “Like a Rolling Stone.” Some of the audience booed. A guy with a cow-bell caused a scene. But, working Security for this concert was a local contingent of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. They left their front row seats and settled the angry elements of the crowd down. Fast. The concert proceeded without incident and it was magical. Do you have any Bob Dylan memories?
TRACK LIST:
Side one
1. “Like a Rolling Stone” 6:13
2. “Tombstone Blues” 6:00
3. “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” 4:09
4. “From a Buick 6” 3:19
5. “Ballad of a Thin Man” 5:58
Side two
1. “Queen Jane Approximately” 5:31
2. “Highway 61 Revisited” 3:30
3. “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” 5:32
4. “Desolation Row” 11:21
Always have had mixed feelings about Zims, but listening to Al Cooper talk about recording the album and improvising the organ part in the studio as a non-organist was pretty engaging. As is the song and the album. Wonder when the first promoter was stupid enough to hire the Angels in the States…didn’t work out so well eventually.
Todd, Hell’s Angels Security didn’t work out for the Stones.
Didn’t actually work out for a lot of idiots.
Great story.
“Brothers and sisters, can’t we all get along?”
Some great stuff on HIGHWAY 61, though my favorite is the earlier FREEWHEELIN’ BOB DYLAN. We saw Dylan in concert with Paul Simon in 1999 and it was bizarre seeing them duet on each other’s songs. He’s one of those people (like Van Morrison and Neil Young) who you never know what they’ll do in concert.
Jeff, I had a chance to see Dylan when he was touring with The Grateful Dead but I passed on it. I like the Dylan of the Sixties. After that…not so much.
Hiring Hell’s Angels for security really didn’t turn out well for the guy they killed at Altamont either!
I saw Bob a few years back when he was touring with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. Bob’s voice is a death rattle now and he has ZERO rapport/interaction with the audience, BUT he’s still Bob Dylan and I love him.
Btw, has anyone seen the movie “Masked and Anonymous”? I’d never even heard of it, but encountered it a few weeks ago while channel-surfing. It’s a very odd Dylan star vehicle, but it’s full of the most amazing supporting cast: John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange, Penelope Cruz, etc. I couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on but I watched it through to the end. A weird movie, but not a boring one.
Deb, I’ll track down a copy of MASKED & ANONYMOUS. Sounds intriguing.
From Wikipedia:
Masked and Anonymous is a 2003 comedy-drama film directed by Larry Charles. The film was written by Larry Charles and Bob Dylan, the latter under the pseudonym “Sergei Petrov”. It stars Dylan alongside a star-heavy cast, including John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris, Chris Penn, Steven Bauer, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Paul Chan, Christian Slater and Fred Ward.
Jackie just checked. It is on Starz on Thursday and Friday this week. She recorded it.
Jeff, I might DVR it, too.
Jeff, thanks for the info. Now I really want to see this movie!
This was almost exactly when Phil and I met and we played that album incessantly along with a Barbra Streisand album. Music was so much more a part of our lives at 17.
Patti, sadly I mostly listen to music when I’m driving around. Our listening habits have completely changed.
I became a real Dylan fan late–with NASHVILLE SKYLINE–but I enjoy the earlier stuff as well.
Dan, who could resist “Lay Lady Lay.” Or is it lie…
This is one of my favorite Dylan albums, along with Bring It All Back Home, Blonde On Blonde and Blood On the Tracks. Saw Dylan first at the Masonic Temple in Detroit in 65, he was backed by the Hawks(basically what would become The Band minus Levon Helm). Saw him 2 summers ago as part of a Americana Tour. His voice isn’t what it once was. That show featured far superior performances by Wilco and My Morning Jacket.
Steve, that sounds like a great concert! BLONDE ON BLONDE might be my favorite Dylan album.
Oh, those memories!
I’ve been a big fan of Sir Bob from the beginning – songs like “Blowin’ in the wind” were part of our protest culture when we were students in the 60s – and I was so happy when in 1969 the “revolution” was successful (The Social Democrats for the first time won the election against those right wingers from the CDU …)
Desolation Row was my immediate favourite!
Bob did a series of concerts in Germany this year – one date was in my home town open air, but we decided it would be too much standing for such a long time (including the wait) and from the reports we were right, it was raining, many people didn’t see him at all (no video screen), the sound wasn’t too good and so they were really disappointed …
Wolf, I once knew all the lyrics to “Desolation Row.” I can only do “sit-down” concerts now.
Yes, for us it’s also “sit down concerts now” (we’re both over 70 …) but five years ago, even three years ago we went to some marvellous concerts with standing room only, mainly rock and blues:
Steve Winwood (several times, in London and in various place in Germany)
Joe Bonamassa – who sang “Bird on a wire”, another favourite of mine
Eric Clapton and Steve Winwwod – open air in Munich
And the special highlight (when I read the announcement I couldn’t believe my eyes) – In my home town Tübingen:
Johnny Winter!
Two men brought him on stage sitting in a chair, he looked so frail …
And now the best:
He sang “Highway 61” as if he were still 30 years old, well almost …
It was such a moving experience – less than a year later we read that he was found dead in his hotel room in Zürich.
Wolf, these days I watch most concerts on Blu-ray. Paul McCartney is coming here and the concert sold out in 4 minutes today!!!
I’m back in internetland. I wanted to post on this but typing on the dang phone is insane hard, how all the wippersnappers can do it is beyond my ken.
I love this album and have heard it uncounted times, on vinyl and CD and digital download (to get it onto the ol’ iPod). There are a ton of memories associated with this album, and with the songs on it. I remember listening to the radio in my friend’s 1964 GTO on the way home from a party and “Like a Rolling Stone” came on, we both sang along as the scenery flashed by. Great car, great time, great song. I think I stopped buying Dylan about the time Blood On the Tracks came out. Sometimes I think I should catch up.
Rick, you can’t beat a classic GTO and “Like a Rolling Stone.”