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The Bargain Nexus - Highway 61 Revisited
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List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $6.68
Your Save: $ 5.30 ( 44% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0827969239926
Format: Original recording remastered
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 2004-06-01
Studio: Sony
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: *Snore*
Comment: Yawn! Why is this album in such high regard? It's crap. It's just a commercial computer manufactured pile of flaming poo. The guy can't even play guitar! He only knows how to play two chords. I think it's about time someone showed this hack to write music- Fred Durst, perhaps?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Epic
Comment: Well here we are. One of the most renowned and praised pieces of popular music in history. Last time we saw Bob Dylan he was proving that he was more than a simple folk singer. This time around, he's proving that he should be held in the same regard as Michaelangelo and Socrates.
The most famous drum crash and organ blast ever. "Like A Rolling Stone" is the song that needs no introduction. It's the song that is continually voted as the greatest and most important song of all time, even almost 45 years later. It changed what pop music could be, it changed what could be considered a "hit" song, and as everyone from the Beatles to Springsteen to Wilco will attest to- it proved that shooting for the moon could pay off. It's the song that starts this album here and sets the table for what will follow. "Tombstone Blues" is next- it's Bob's scathing oppinion on various topics of the time- war, crime, hypocricy, religion, etc- in a vain similar to "Maggie's Farm" from his "Bringing It All Back Home" album. "It Takes A Lot To Laugh..." and "From a Buick 6" are the next two tracks, and both seemingly deal with a woman in Dylan's life. While "Buick" seems to hold in high regards the woman who takes care of Dylan and keeps him grounded and in check, "It Takes..." appears to serve almost as a warning to her- Dylan wants to be a certain way, and much else should not be expected of him. "Ballad of A Thin Man", an attack on a magazine columnist whom Dylan felt had him misunderstood comes next, and is then followed by "Queen Jane Approximately", a song that appears to be laiden with disdain for a woman Dylan once knew and loved, who is now living a glamorized, fake existence. Lyrically, a great song in which Dylan asks her to come see him again once she's gotten her head out of the clouds and her feet back on the ground. The title track (as per Dylan, inspired by blues legend Robert Johnson) and the fantastic piano driven "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"- (featuring great lyrics about temptation and things not being as they appear) are the final 2 songs before the epic Dylan masterpiece "Desolation Row". Widely considered one of the most complex and difficult Dylan songs ever written, "Row" is a nightmarish narrative that essentially is Dylan's response to a letter he receives from someone. Full of metaphors and symbolism involving many of literature's most famous characters- the song goes to show once and for all, how talented a writer Dylan really is.
Angry and mean, yet passionate and emotional. Dark, complex, disturbing and brilliant. "Highway 61 Revisited" is one of the best examples of why Dylan is held in such high regard. The only thing perhaps more amazing than the quality of these compositions, is the fact that the writer was only 25 when they were created.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This CD works for me, and my dog loves it too
Comment: This CD is a real classic. I would have given it 4 1/2 stars but the computer didn't seem to be able to give it that rating. Anyway, I love the CD and I can't believe it took me so many years to finally buy it. But it is a great CD and one everyone should have in their collection.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Napoleon in rags
Comment: He's made too many great albums to count, but rarely has Bob Dylan ever managed to top the psychotic hillbilly proto-psychedelic rock `n' roll dreamscape masterpiece that is Highway 61 Revisited. There are plenty of reasons for that: For one thing, the record is soaked in raw energy and electrified excitement. As the first complete rock `n' roll album of Dylan's career, Highway 61 Revisited bristles with palpable enthusiasm, the sense of gleefully leaping into the void, of playing around with new sounds and textures, without any particular regard for the feelings or traditions or opinions of others.
It's also a display of Dylan's genius at its absolute zenith. His songwriting is phenomenal, full of backwoods surrealism and backalley melodies. As a performer, he's rarely been as inspired as he is here: He's hilarious and angry and poetic and visceral. His vocals are full of emotion and detachment. He's cynical and big-hearted all at once. He's insane and cool and intellectual. He's giddy and lethargic and everything in between. The music's great, too. Lots of bluesy guitars and throbbing organs and undulating rhythms. It's garage rock, but with a higher purpose. It's sheer genius.
Customer Rating:
Summary: They Are Selling Post Cards of The Hanging -Bob Dylan Plugged In, Thank you
Comment: It seems hard to believe now both as to the performer as well as to what was being attempted that anyone would take umbrage at a performer using an electric guitar to tell a folk story (or any story for that matter). It is not necessary to go into all the details of what or what did not happen with Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to know that one should be glad, glad as hell, that Bob Dylan continued to listen to his own drummer and carry on a career based on electronic music.
Others have, endlessly, gone on about Bob Dylan's role as the voice of his generation (and mine), his lyrics and what they do or do not mean and his place in the rock or folk pantheons, or both. I just want to mention a couple of points here. Any song that starts out like Desolation Row with the line- " They are selling post cards of the hanging, they're painting the passports brown" will automatically get my attention every time- and keep it through over 11 minute of stream of consciousness, word play and harmonica energy. If I had to pick my number one favorite Dylan song (and the one that I have listened to the most) this is the one. Start me off with the "When you are lost in the rain in Juarez " of Tom Thumbs Blues as an appetizer and I am all set for a while. How is that for back-to-back treats- harmonica thrown in gratis?
Having mentioned my two favorites on this album I have hardly completed comment. I am not sure whether Bob Dylan was the voice of the generation of '68, or whether he wanted to be. However, few can deny that Like A Rolling Stone was one of the anthems of our generation- with or without direction home. Highway 61 Revisited, the title track, has over the years gone up in my estimation as a song with an interesting story line (yes, who was doing what down on Highway 61) and a very rock beat. Of course, with Dylan one needs some thoughts of lost love, longing and perfidy so Queen Jane Approximately fits the bill. Well, I could go on and on but you get the point this is a Dylan album you must own. More than that though if you want to get a feel for the trials and tribulations of the 1960's by one of its best troubadours you NEED this album.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Dylan was virtually gushing great songs when this masterpiece arrived in the summer of 1965. From the epochal opening of "Like a Rolling Stone" through the absurdly apocalyptic closer, "Desolation Row," his command of surrealistic language was daring and amazing. As a vocalist, he was rewriting the rules of the game. Jimi Hendrix made note of Mr. Z's technically suspect pitch and decided that he too was a singer. And the backing, though ragged, is precisely right. Is this the essential Dylan album? It's certainly one of them. --Steven Stolder
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