Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Pop & Rock, Rock, Music Styles
Cover of the book Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti, Bloomsbury Publishing
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mark Polizzotti ISBN: 9781441116765
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Publication: September 1, 2006
Imprint: Continuum Language: English
Author: Mark Polizzotti
ISBN: 9781441116765
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication: September 1, 2006
Imprint: Continuum
Language: English

Highway 61 Revisited resonates because of its enduring emotional appeal. Few songwriters before Dylan or since have combined so effectively the intensely personal with the spectacularly universal. In "Like a Rolling Stone," his gleeful excoriation of Miss Lonely (Edie Sedgwick? Joan Baez? a composite "type"?) fuses with the evocation of a hip new zeitgeist to produce a veritable anthem. In "Ballad of a Thin Man," the younger generation's confusion is thrown back in the Establishment's face, even as Dylan vents his disgust with the critics who labored to catalogue him. And in "Desolation Row," he reaches the zenith of his own brand of surrealist paranoia, that here attains the atmospheric intensity of a full-fledged nightmare. Between its many flourishes of gallows humor, this is one of the most immaculately frightful songs ever recorded, with its relentless imagery of communal executions, its parade of fallen giants and triumphant local losers, its epic length and even the mournful sweetness of Bloomfield's flamenco-inspired fills.
In this book, Mark Polizzotti examines just what makes the songs on Highway 61 Revisited so affecting, how they work together as a suite, and how lyrics, melody, and arrangements combine to create an unusually potent mix. He blends musical and literary analysis of the songs themselves, biography (where appropriate) and recording information (where helpful). And he focuses on Dylan's mythic presence in the mid-60s, when he emerged from his proletarian incarnation to become the American Rimbaud. The comparison has been made by others, including Dylan, and it illuminates much about his mid-sixties career, for in many respects Highway 61 is rock 'n' roll's answer to A Season in Hell.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Highway 61 Revisited resonates because of its enduring emotional appeal. Few songwriters before Dylan or since have combined so effectively the intensely personal with the spectacularly universal. In "Like a Rolling Stone," his gleeful excoriation of Miss Lonely (Edie Sedgwick? Joan Baez? a composite "type"?) fuses with the evocation of a hip new zeitgeist to produce a veritable anthem. In "Ballad of a Thin Man," the younger generation's confusion is thrown back in the Establishment's face, even as Dylan vents his disgust with the critics who labored to catalogue him. And in "Desolation Row," he reaches the zenith of his own brand of surrealist paranoia, that here attains the atmospheric intensity of a full-fledged nightmare. Between its many flourishes of gallows humor, this is one of the most immaculately frightful songs ever recorded, with its relentless imagery of communal executions, its parade of fallen giants and triumphant local losers, its epic length and even the mournful sweetness of Bloomfield's flamenco-inspired fills.
In this book, Mark Polizzotti examines just what makes the songs on Highway 61 Revisited so affecting, how they work together as a suite, and how lyrics, melody, and arrangements combine to create an unusually potent mix. He blends musical and literary analysis of the songs themselves, biography (where appropriate) and recording information (where helpful). And he focuses on Dylan's mythic presence in the mid-60s, when he emerged from his proletarian incarnation to become the American Rimbaud. The comparison has been made by others, including Dylan, and it illuminates much about his mid-sixties career, for in many respects Highway 61 is rock 'n' roll's answer to A Season in Hell.

More books from Bloomsbury Publishing

Cover of the book Continental vs Redcoat by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book The Heart in Pilgrimage by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Romeo and Juliet: Arden Performance Editions by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Greek Tales: The Boy Who Cried Horse by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Soldier, Spy by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book WG's Birthday Party by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Design Anthropological Futures by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book The Use of Force and Article 2 of the ECHR in Light of European Conflicts by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Georgia by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Persian Service by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Translation and the Making of Modern Russian Literature by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book French Revolutionary Infantry 1789–1802 by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Fewer, Better Things by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Yalu River 1950–51 by Mark Polizzotti
Cover of the book Plato and Nietzsche by Mark Polizzotti
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy