Link to Son: Highway 61 Revisited
Live with Bruce Springsteen, 2003: Highway 61 Revisited
What you should know about this song: “I always felt like I’d started on it, always had been on it, and could go anywhere from it,” Dylan told Rolling Stone Magazine about Highway 61 Revisited (Issue 1131). As for the police whistle? Yes, another Bob Dylan addition to the song, inspired by a whistle given to him from Al Kooper. “A little variety for your album,” he told Dylan, “Suites the lyrics better.” This title anthem from his electric breakthrough album, Highway 61 Revisited, was named after the highway that runs from his native town in Minnesota down to New Orleans, and remains a staple part of Dylan’s live shows. Rolling Stones Magazine described this song as “Dylan in frizzed-out jeremiad mode” (Issue 1131). Only a few artists have braved to cover this song, including Terry Reid and Johnny Winter among others.
“From the moment I met him I thought he was great, a genius, Shakespearean. Every succeeding album up to Highway 61, I had an increasing lot of secret fear: ‘Oh my God, what can he do next? He can’t possibly top that one.’ And then I put on Highway 61, and I laughed and said it’s so ridiculous. It’s impossibly good, it just can’t be that good. How can a human mind do this?” – Phil Ochs*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
