Editing Desolation Row (section)

== Reception and legacy ==
"Desolation Row" has been described as Dylan's most ambitious work up to that date.<ref name="Heylin, p. 219">Heylin, ''Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited'', p. 219.</ref> In the ''[[The Oxford Companion to Music#The New Oxford Companion to Music|New Oxford Companion to Music]]'', Gammond described "Desolation Row" as an example of Dylan's work that achieved a "high level of poetical lyricism." [[Clinton Heylin]] notes that Dylan is writing a song as long as traditional folk ballads, such as "[[Tam Lin]]" and "[[Matty Groves]]", and in that classic ballad metre, but without any linear narrative thread.<ref>{{harvnb|Heylin|2009|p=248}}</ref>

When he reviewed the ''Highway 61 Revisited'' album for ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' in 1965, the English poet [[Philip Larkin]] described the song as a "marathon", with an "enchanting tune and mysterious, possibly half-baked words".<ref>{{harvnb|Larkin|1985|p=151}}</ref> For Andy Gill the song is "an 11-minute epic of entropy, which takes the form of a [[Federico Fellini|Felliniesque]] parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of iconic characters, some historical ([[Albert Einstein]], [[Nero]]), some biblical ([[Noah]], [[Cain and Abel]]), some fictional ([[Ophelia]], [[Romeo]], [[Cinderella]]), some literary ([[T. S. Eliot]] and [[Ezra Pound]]), and some who fit into none of the above categories, notably Dr. Filth and his dubious nurse."<ref>{{harvnb|Gill|1999|p=89}}</ref>

According to the music historian [[Nicholas Schaffner]], "Desolation Row" was the longest popular music track, until [[the Rolling Stones]] released "[[Goin' Home (Rolling Stones song)|Goin' Home]]" (11:35) in 1966.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schaffner |first=Nicholas |title=The British Invasion: From the First Wave to the New Wave |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill]] |year=1982 |isbn=0-07-055089-1 |page=69 |author-link=Nicholas Schaffner}}</ref>

In 2010, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ranked "Desolation Row" at number 187 on their "[[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|500 Greatest Songs of All Time]]" list;<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row" |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/bob-dylan-desolation-row-59656/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121211110958/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/bob-dylan-desolation-row-20110526 |archive-date=December 11, 2012 |access-date=September 25, 2023 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]}}</ref> the song was re-ranked at number 83 in the 2021 revision of the list.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=September 15, 2021 |title=Desolation Row #83 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/bob-dylan-desolation-row-2-1225255/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=September 18, 2021}}</ref> In 2020, ''[[The Guardian]]'' and ''[[GQ]]'' ranked the song number five and number three, respectively, on their lists of the 50 greatest Bob Dylan songs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |date=April 9, 2020 |title=Bob Dylan's 50 greatest songs – ranked! |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked |access-date=April 17, 2022 |website=[[The Guardian]] |archive-date=April 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200409235447/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Burton |first1=Charlie |last2=Prince |first2=Bill |date=June 15, 2020 |title=The 50 best Bob Dylan songs of all time |url=https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/bob-dylan-songs |access-date=April 17, 2022 |website=[[GQ]] |archive-date=April 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220412100112/https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/bob-dylan-songs |url-status=live}}</ref>

Dylan played the [[Isle of Wight Festival 1969]], and "Desolation Row" was the name given to the hillside area used by the 600,000 ticketless fans at [[Isle of Wight Festival 1970|the 1970 event]], before the fence was torn down.<ref>[[Message to Love]] documentary, 1995, DVD</ref>