What do you think?
Rate this book
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited
This breakthrough series looks at great music from a unique vantage point. By considering the recording session itself, rather than the final album, Legendary Sessions showcases the creative process and all the elements that go into making music that reflected its time, commented on our society, and influenced our culture.
How did these epoch-making sessions come about? What influenced the artists? What was it like to be there as the recording was made? Written by top entertainment journalists, Legendary Sessions answers those questions with an involving you-are-there style. What impact did the recording have? Who listened to it? Who imitated it? Who was inspired by it? Legendary Sessions looks at those questions, too, with groundbreaking interviews, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary commentary.
Innovative and intriguing, Legendary Sessions is sure to change the way music fans listen to the great recordings of our time.
In the midst of the backlash following his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan was in the studio with a shifting group of session musicians and producer Bob Johnston. The result of these sessions would be Dylan’s sixth album, Highway 61 Revisited , the classic that featured “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Desolation Row.” Author Colin Irwin examines the events leading up to the sessions and how they influenced Dylan’s music; the details of the sessions and the musicians involved, the development of the songs, and the controversy surrounding Dylan’s new sound. Today it’s part of rock history. Relive those world-changing times in Legendary Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited .
How did these epoch-making sessions come about? What influenced the artists? What was it like to be there as the recording was made? Written by top entertainment journalists, Legendary Sessions answers those questions with an involving you-are-there style. What impact did the recording have? Who listened to it? Who imitated it? Who was inspired by it? Legendary Sessions looks at those questions, too, with groundbreaking interviews, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary commentary.
Innovative and intriguing, Legendary Sessions is sure to change the way music fans listen to the great recordings of our time.
In the midst of the backlash following his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan was in the studio with a shifting group of session musicians and producer Bob Johnston. The result of these sessions would be Dylan’s sixth album, Highway 61 Revisited , the classic that featured “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Desolation Row.” Author Colin Irwin examines the events leading up to the sessions and how they influenced Dylan’s music; the details of the sessions and the musicians involved, the development of the songs, and the controversy surrounding Dylan’s new sound. Today it’s part of rock history. Relive those world-changing times in Legendary Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited .
- GenresMusicNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
23 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 16, 2012
This charts the revolutionary journey which began with folk music over here, blues slightly to the right and pop music way... over... there... and ended with something new called rock music. It was Bob Dylan who smashed them all together and made this new thing, and it was Highway 61 Revisited where it all came together.
Here's the condensed version.
Dylan wasn’t any kind of folk purist, and his first experiment with a band was
“Mixed up confusion” and “That’s All Right Mama” in December 1962. It was an uninspiring mess. During 1963 pop music was (from a Greenwich Village point of view, not mine I hasten to add - personally I LOVE 1963 pop music) an insipid, sugarsweet concoction best left to 13 year old girls. Folk and blues was for grownups (and jazz for intellectuals). Whilst on an acid-fuelled drive across America in March 1964, young Bob couldn’t help but notice, however, that The Beatles were No 1, No 2, No 3, No 4 AND No 5 on the charts. Now The Beatles were a pop group, strictly for 13 year old girls. But when he actually heard their stuff he was impressed. Then three months later The Animals released their almighty apocalyptic version of House of the Rising Sun, which was something they’d found on Bob’s first album. Once again, this impressed Bob. (It still impresses me – Geordie Eric Burdon roaring at the top of his lungs, Alan Price tearing off one of the best solos in pop music, the whole band sounding like if they only play a little bit fiercer they’ll bust out of jail and be free forever).
All these things percolated in Bob’s fertile brain and in January 65 he recorded 5 tracks with a rock band for Bringing It All Back Home. The folk purists didn’t mind this so much, perhaps because all the major songs on the album were solo acoustic.
Then things speeded up. The Byrds had a huge No 1 with Mr Tambourine Man in June 1965. Bob recorded Like a Rolling Stone later the same month. In July 1965, with Like a Rolling Stone zooming up the charts and amazing everyone Bob played his famous first electric gig at folk’s sanctum sanctorum the Newport Folk Festival, and there for the first time he got booed, which was a real shock. (There are three main theories why they booed, but this is the condensed version.) The boos and the backstage fistfights marked the point where the old politically committed folk establishment found out they’d lost their battle for the hearts and minds of young America. Bob shrugged off that episode, rushed off to record the rest of Highway 61 Revisited & then began a sporadic tour which featured a whole lot of booing every single night, culminating in the famous “Judas!” shout in Manchester England in May 1966. After that came Blonde on Blonde, the motorbike “crash” and it was seven years before Bob toured again.
Seven years? Yes!
So something happened in 1965 all right. “Like a Rolling Stone” isn’t anything like “Masters of War” or indeed other records of the time like “Little Red Rooster” or “Baby love” or “Ticket to Ride”. I'd say it’s not like anything that existed before. It was something new under the sun. And after that came the deluge.
Anyway, this book is a pretty good account of the chaos which was the H61 sessions - none of the musicians had the slightest idea what Bob wanted them to do on any given song. But it turned out quite well in the end, I think.
Here's the condensed version.
Dylan wasn’t any kind of folk purist, and his first experiment with a band was
“Mixed up confusion” and “That’s All Right Mama” in December 1962. It was an uninspiring mess. During 1963 pop music was (from a Greenwich Village point of view, not mine I hasten to add - personally I LOVE 1963 pop music) an insipid, sugarsweet concoction best left to 13 year old girls. Folk and blues was for grownups (and jazz for intellectuals). Whilst on an acid-fuelled drive across America in March 1964, young Bob couldn’t help but notice, however, that The Beatles were No 1, No 2, No 3, No 4 AND No 5 on the charts. Now The Beatles were a pop group, strictly for 13 year old girls. But when he actually heard their stuff he was impressed. Then three months later The Animals released their almighty apocalyptic version of House of the Rising Sun, which was something they’d found on Bob’s first album. Once again, this impressed Bob. (It still impresses me – Geordie Eric Burdon roaring at the top of his lungs, Alan Price tearing off one of the best solos in pop music, the whole band sounding like if they only play a little bit fiercer they’ll bust out of jail and be free forever).
All these things percolated in Bob’s fertile brain and in January 65 he recorded 5 tracks with a rock band for Bringing It All Back Home. The folk purists didn’t mind this so much, perhaps because all the major songs on the album were solo acoustic.
Then things speeded up. The Byrds had a huge No 1 with Mr Tambourine Man in June 1965. Bob recorded Like a Rolling Stone later the same month. In July 1965, with Like a Rolling Stone zooming up the charts and amazing everyone Bob played his famous first electric gig at folk’s sanctum sanctorum the Newport Folk Festival, and there for the first time he got booed, which was a real shock. (There are three main theories why they booed, but this is the condensed version.) The boos and the backstage fistfights marked the point where the old politically committed folk establishment found out they’d lost their battle for the hearts and minds of young America. Bob shrugged off that episode, rushed off to record the rest of Highway 61 Revisited & then began a sporadic tour which featured a whole lot of booing every single night, culminating in the famous “Judas!” shout in Manchester England in May 1966. After that came Blonde on Blonde, the motorbike “crash” and it was seven years before Bob toured again.
Seven years? Yes!
So something happened in 1965 all right. “Like a Rolling Stone” isn’t anything like “Masters of War” or indeed other records of the time like “Little Red Rooster” or “Baby love” or “Ticket to Ride”. I'd say it’s not like anything that existed before. It was something new under the sun. And after that came the deluge.
Anyway, this book is a pretty good account of the chaos which was the H61 sessions - none of the musicians had the slightest idea what Bob wanted them to do on any given song. But it turned out quite well in the end, I think.
Read
April 7, 2023“Carving an elephant is easy,“ Michelangelo said, in Italian. “You just cut away everything that doesn’t resemble an elephant.“ That’s how Dylan recorded Highway 61 Revisited. Deep in the night, he taught his studio musicians the art of elephant-location.
One bass player had to bail; he couldn’t handle the Druid chaos. (That was Russ Savakus.)
I don’t like this album, I realized. Probably it’s a masterpiece, and in fact I admire each separate song, but the whole collection… lacks love. (Unlike the previous and subsequent records, Bringin’ It All Back Home & Blonde On Blonde.) I guess I’m a person who prefers romance to bristling contempt.
Bob Dylan is a language, like Albanian (in fact, particularly like Albanian – the language of a tiny nation surrounded by impregnable mountains). I speak Dylan, and every so often read a book in this tongue.
Al Kooper is the secret saint of these sessions.
Opening at random:
"With Robertson’s fluid guitar style steadily evolving, The Hawks decided to cut loose from Ronnie Hawkins and decamped to New York, where they built a reputation as a band guaranteed to get any joint jumping. However, that was all most people saw in them and the three singles they released, one as The Canadian Squires and two as Levon & The Hawks, all flopped."
One bass player had to bail; he couldn’t handle the Druid chaos. (That was Russ Savakus.)
I don’t like this album, I realized. Probably it’s a masterpiece, and in fact I admire each separate song, but the whole collection… lacks love. (Unlike the previous and subsequent records, Bringin’ It All Back Home & Blonde On Blonde.) I guess I’m a person who prefers romance to bristling contempt.
Bob Dylan is a language, like Albanian (in fact, particularly like Albanian – the language of a tiny nation surrounded by impregnable mountains). I speak Dylan, and every so often read a book in this tongue.
Al Kooper is the secret saint of these sessions.
Opening at random:
"With Robertson’s fluid guitar style steadily evolving, The Hawks decided to cut loose from Ronnie Hawkins and decamped to New York, where they built a reputation as a band guaranteed to get any joint jumping. However, that was all most people saw in them and the three singles they released, one as The Canadian Squires and two as Levon & The Hawks, all flopped."
April 22, 2025
Excellent, enjoyable book about the iconic Highway 61 Revisited sessions. The author provides nice, concise bios of a variety of performers involved, and includes many details about the recordings.
May 31, 2016
Solid music culture context and deep background on how Bob Zimmerman became Bob Dylan then how Dylan morphed from protest singer to wayward folkie with "Like a Rolling Stone," the opening track on this ground-breaking album that exploded on the scene in summer 1965. Five days after the record released, Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival.
With this album, Dylan became rock intelligentsia. In his mid-twenties, this was his richest and most creative period. Dylan liked the rough bar-band mood that flowed from his insistence that the musicians play without rehearsals.
"My songs are pictures, and the band makes the sound of the pictures," said Dylan.
Before the year ended, he recorded Blonde on Blonde.
A solid five-star book. Fun.
Bob Dylan turned seventy-five last week. A neighborhood music music bar celebrated with a good band that played the album straight through, including a blistering version of "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry." I read this book before the birthday party as a fun reimmersion into this period.
Summer of sixty-five. Dylan released "Highway 61 Revisited" and he went electric at the Newport Fold Festival. Fall of sixty-five. Dylan wrote and recorded Blonde on Blonde, he married Sara, and he went on tour, where I ushered and saw him in November in the Cincinnati Music Hall. Early sixty-six, Blonde on Blonde released. A very prolific period.
With this album, Dylan became rock intelligentsia. In his mid-twenties, this was his richest and most creative period. Dylan liked the rough bar-band mood that flowed from his insistence that the musicians play without rehearsals.
"My songs are pictures, and the band makes the sound of the pictures," said Dylan.
Before the year ended, he recorded Blonde on Blonde.
A solid five-star book. Fun.
Bob Dylan turned seventy-five last week. A neighborhood music music bar celebrated with a good band that played the album straight through, including a blistering version of "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry." I read this book before the birthday party as a fun reimmersion into this period.
Summer of sixty-five. Dylan released "Highway 61 Revisited" and he went electric at the Newport Fold Festival. Fall of sixty-five. Dylan wrote and recorded Blonde on Blonde, he married Sara, and he went on tour, where I ushered and saw him in November in the Cincinnati Music Hall. Early sixty-six, Blonde on Blonde released. A very prolific period.
Read
August 1, 2019One of the finest "The Making of Such & Such an LP" books to date. Only one error (that I found): Michael McClure co-wrote Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" with Joplin and Bob Neuwirth (this book credits only Joplin and Neuwirth). I KNOW McClure co-wrote it because he called me once when I lived in San Francisco and left a message thinking I was someone else (named Jon Swift) whom he knew, I called him back and said I wasn't the right guy but that "Mercedes Benz" was one of my all-time favorites, and he called me back and left a message saying "Sorry, to bother you, I'm glad you like 'Mercedes Benz', that's great!" I remember thinking, "Ah, shaddap...."
September 23, 2012
Excellent view into the man "Bob Dylan". In depth coverage of his life from his early beginnings in the pubs of Greenwich Village to present day.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews