Editing Highway 61 Revisited (section)

===Side two===

==== "Queen Jane Approximately" ====
Polizzotti, in his study of ''Highway 61 Revisited'', writes that the opening track of Side Two, "[[Queen Jane Approximately]]" is in a similar vein to "Like a Rolling Stone", but the song offers "a touch of sympathy and even comfort in place of relentless mockery".<ref name=highwayqueen>{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|p=113}}</ref> The song is structured as a series of ABAB [[quatrain]] verses, with each verse followed by a chorus that is simply a repeat of the last line of each verse: "Won't you come see me Queen Jane?".<ref name=williamsqueen>{{harvnb|Williams|1990|pp=166–167}}</ref> Gill calls this song "the least interesting track" on ''Highway 61'', but praises the piano ascending the scale during the harmonica break as an evocation of "the stifling nature of an upper class existence".<ref>{{harvnb|Gill|1998|p=87}}</ref> Others have speculated that the song is directed at Joan Baez and the folk movement, which Dylan had largely left behind. "Queen Jane Approximately" was released as the B-side of Dylan's "[[One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)]]" single in early 1966.<ref>{{harvnb|Krogsgaard|1991|p=51}}</ref>

==== "Highway 61 Revisited" ====
Dylan commences the title song of his album, "[[Highway 61 Revisited (song)|Highway 61 Revisited]]", with the words "Oh God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son'/Abe says, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on'".<ref>{{harvnb|Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan}}</ref> As Gill has pointed out, Abraham was the name of Dylan's father, which makes the singer the son whom God wants killed.<ref name="Gill87">{{harvnb|Gill|1998|pp=87–88}}</ref> Gill comments that it is befitting that this song, celebrating a highway central to the history of the blues, is a "raucous blues boogie".<ref name = "Gill87"/> He notes that the scope of the song broadens to make the highway a road of endless possibilities, peopled by dubious characters and culminating in a promoter who "seriously considers staging World War III out on Highway 61".<ref name = "Gill87"/> The song is punctuated by the sound of a [[siren whistle]], credited as "Police Car" to Dylan in the album liner notes.<ref name = "H61R Discover">{{harvnb|Highway 61 Revisited—Discover: Liner Notes}}</ref> "Highway 61 Revisited" was released as the B-side of his "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" single on November 30, 1965.<ref>{{harvnb|Krogsgaard|1991|p=49}}</ref>

==== "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" ====
"[[Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues]]" has six verses and no chorus.<ref name=williamsthumb>{{harvnb|Williams|1990|pp=160, 167}}</ref> The lyrics describe a nightmarish experience in [[Ciudad Juárez|Juarez]], Mexico, where, in Shelton's words, "our anti-hero stumbles amid sickness, despair, whores and saints."<ref name=sheltonthumb/> He battles with corrupt authorities, alcohol and drugs before resolving to return to New York City.<ref name=sheltonthumb>{{harvnb|Shelton|1986|p=282}}</ref><ref name=marquseethumb>{{harvnb|Marqusee|2005|p=204}}</ref><ref name=allmusicthumb>{{harvnb|Janovitz (2)}}</ref> In this song, critics have heard literary references to [[Malcolm Lowry]]'s ''[[Under the Volcano]]'', [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "[[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]]" and [[Jack Kerouac]]'s ''[[Desolation Angels (novel)|Desolation Angels]]''.<ref name=sheltonthumb/><ref name=irwinthumb>{{harvnb|Irwin|2008|pp=165–170}}</ref><ref name=keysthumb>{{harvnb|Trager|2004|pp=348–350}}</ref> The backing musicians, Bobby Gregg on drums, Mike Bloomfield on electric guitar, and two pianists, Paul Griffin on [[tack piano]] and Al Kooper on [[Hohner Pianet]], produce a mood that, for Gill, perfectly complements the "enervated tone" of the lyrics.<ref name=Polizzotti145/><ref name=Gill88>{{harvnb|Gill|1998|p=88}}</ref> Heylin notes that Dylan took great care—sixteen takes—to get the effect he was after, with lyrics that subtly "[skirt] the edge of reason".<ref name="Heylin 2009 259"/>

==== "Desolation Row" ====
{{Listen|filename=Desolation_Row.ogg
|title="Desolation Row" |description=Featuring a "courtly, [[flamenco]]-tinged guitar backing",<ref name=gilldesolation/> it has been suggested that in "[[Desolation Row]]", Dylan combined the cultural chaos of mid-1960s America with sepia-tinged TV westerns he remembered from his youth, such as ''[[Rawhide (TV series)|Rawhide]]'' and ''[[Gunsmoke]]''.<ref name = Polizzotti139>{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|pp=139–141}}</ref>}}
Dylan concludes ''Highway 61 Revisited'' with the sole [[acoustic guitar|acoustic]] exception to his rock album. Gill has characterized "[[Desolation Row]]" as "an 11-minute epic of entropy, which takes the form of a [[Federico Fellini|Fellini-esque]] parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of iconic characters". These include historical celebrities such as [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Nero]], the biblical characters [[Noah]] and [[Cain and Abel]], the Shakespearean figures of [[Ophelia]] and [[Romeo]], ending with literary titans [[T.S. Eliot]] and [[Ezra Pound]].<ref name=gilldesolation>{{harvnb|Gill|1998|p=89}}</ref> The song opens with a report that "they're selling postcards of the hanging", and adds "the circus is in town".<ref>{{harvnb|Desolation Row by Bob Dylan}}</ref> Polizzotti connects this song with the [[1920 Duluth lynchings|lynching of three black circus workers in Duluth, Minnesota]], which was Dylan's birthplace, and describes "Desolation Row" as a cowboy song, "the 'Home On The Range' of the frightening territory that was mid-sixties America".<ref name = Polizzotti139/> In the penultimate verse, the passengers on the ''[[Titanic]]'' are shouting "[[Which Side Are You On?]]"<ref name = "Shelton283">{{harvnb|Shelton|1986|p=283}}</ref> Shelton suggests Dylan is asking, "What difference which side you're on if you're sailing on the ''Titanic''?" and is thus satirizing "simpleminded political commitment".<ref name = "Shelton283"/>