Tomorrow will be the 42nd anniversary of the recording of Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone." Here's an excerpt from Greil Marcus's Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads, which I read Wednesday night. It's a fascinating read, with Marcus attempting (more or less successfully) to make the case that this recording was a seminal point in rock n' roll history. It's got lots of amusing details; he's even identified the guy who yelled "Judas!" at Dylan when the song was played in a concert in Manchester, England.
Marcus tends toward the hyperbolic, but in this case he might be right. I might argue that The Beatles' first appearance on the Sullivan show was equally important, but nonetheless, when Dylan put the acoustic guitar down and began performing with a backup band, it was a really big deal. Up until then, folk was folk and rock was fairly mindless pap; nevermore.
The other not-inconsequential thing it did? It legitimized song lengths of more than three minutes. It clocked in at 6:00 (initially released half on Side A and the other half on Side B to accommodate radio stations; it was re-pressed very quickly with the entire song on Side A).
I got out my copy of Highway 61 Revisited to follow along. This is not a song or album to be listened to on a portable boombox; put it onto your stereo system or iPod and blast it.
Late addendum: I'll be damned. I've linked to that excerpt before. Ah, well, at that time I hadn't read the book. Now I have.
Posted by Linkmeister at June 15, 2007 12:49 PM | TrackBack