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11 Comments

  1. Robert Bykowski
    January 27, 2016 @ 2:51 pm

    I disagree that ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ is superior to ‘Blonde on Blonde’. While both are masterpieces, ‘Blonde on Blonde’ gets the edge for me because of one main reason: greater variety in the songs. ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ charges full steam ahead and never slows down; it’s almost like a garage rock record. Even the one solely acoustic track on the album, “Desolation Row”, is relentless in its pace and verbal flow. This is not meant as a criticism, it’s simply the way the album is. ‘Blonde on Blonde’, on the other hand, not only contains blues rock and garage rock stylings, but it also expands on Dylan’s surrealistic mid-’60’s vocabulary and contains love songs of aching sincerity: “I Want You”, “Just Like a Woman” and “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” are three of the best love songs Dylan ever wrote. You won’t find any love songs on ‘Highway 61’, just a street-wise hipster sarcastically referring to the vibes of the day in an inside manner. If I want to jam out to Dylan in the car while nodding my head and tapping my foot, ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ will be my Dylan album of choice. But if I want to unwind at home, put on the stereo and experience Dylan’s overwhelming virtuosity, ‘Blonde on Blonde’ is the Dylan album I will always choose. In my opinion, it remains his best work.

    But as I said, both albums are undeniable masterpieces in their own influential way.

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  2. dj bennett
    May 13, 2016 @ 3:20 pm

    You do know by now, I presume, that Positively 4th Street was recorded for Highway 61, not Blonde on Blonde. In fact, it was already released as a single before he had his Hawks rehearsal in Toronto on September 15. It was Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window that he finished with the Hawks.

    I also disagree that Highway 61 is superior to Blonde on Blonde. Though I can understand why you would think that, I listen to Blonde on Blonde more. When I got the Cutting Edge full set, I have in fact not spent much time at all with the Highway 61 days. For me, the whole thing is about listening to Dylan find his way to the sound that is Blonde on Blonde.

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  3. Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize | Roots Rock Review
    October 13, 2016 @ 7:29 pm

    […] as The Times They Are a’ Changin’, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde. This latter album was cited by the Nobel Academy’s permanent secretary Sara Danius, who also […]

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  4. Top 9 Great Rock Songs with Terrible Titles | River of Rock
    August 22, 2017 @ 5:26 pm

    […] Review of Blonde On Blonde by Bob Dylan […]

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  5. MAR
    October 23, 2017 @ 2:08 pm

    Suggest you read up on Edie Sedgwick if you’re going to feign you know anything about Dylan and Blonde on Blonde.

    Reply

  6. Carlos Munoz-Perez
    October 31, 2018 @ 3:08 pm

    Blonde on Blonde is a truly Masterpiece Album that you cannot improve upon it. I love the highway 61 Album, but the “Blond Album” is far superior, Lyrically and Musically. But of course, it’s just my humble opinion.

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  7. William Booth
    December 28, 2018 @ 12:10 pm

    I acquired the Original Columbia issue in “glorious mono”…what more need be said..totally Dylan musical magic….

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  8. The Times They Are a Changin' | Roots Rock Review
    January 16, 2019 @ 9:37 am

    […] masterpieces through the mid 1960s, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Blonde On Blonde (1967) and John Wesley Harding (1968). With these, it appeared that once Bob Dylan was a year or […]

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  9. L.A. Jetee
    April 3, 2019 @ 12:55 pm

    Blonde on Blonde is by far the best Bob Dylan album ever. If you listen to Visions of Johanna carefully it is pure art that even transcends the label of music. It is an experiential journey in which the artist takes us with him on the journey of aristic creation leaving us with the song/poem: ” The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain. And these visions of Johanna are all that remain.” It is more like Marcel Duchamp than T.S. Eliot. Sincerely, L. A. Jetee 2019

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    April 21, 2019 @ 7:42 am

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  11. Donald Romaniello
    November 25, 2019 @ 1:27 pm

    I agree, I think Highway 61 is the better album of the two. I guess being an Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Harvey Brooks fan might color my opinion.

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