Editing Highway 61 Revisited (section)

==Songs==

===Side one===

==== "Like a Rolling Stone" ====
{{Listen|filename=Bob_Dylan_-_Like_a_Rolling_Stone.ogg
|title="Like a Rolling Stone" |description=In 2004, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine ranked "Like a Rolling Stone" as "the greatest song of all time", and noted "the impressionist voltage of Dylan's language, the intensely personal accusation in his voice ('Ho-o-o-ow does it fe-e-e-el?')" and  "the apocalyptic charge of Kooper's garage-gospel organ".<ref name=RSgreatestsongs>{{harvnb|Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs: "Like a Rolling Stone"}}</ref>}}

''Highway 61 Revisited'' opens with "[[Like a Rolling Stone]]", which has been described as revolutionary in its combination of electric guitar licks, organ chords, and Dylan's voice, "at once so young and so snarling&nbsp;... and so cynical".<ref name = "Gray413">{{harvnb|Gray|2006|p=413}}</ref> Michael Gray characterized "Like a Rolling Stone" as "a chaotic amalgam of blues, impressionism, allegory, and an intense directness: 'How does it feel?'"<ref name = "Gray413"/> Polizzotti says the composition is notable for eschewing traditional themes of popular music, such as romance, instead expressing resentment and a yearning for revenge.<ref name=polizzotti1>{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|p=33}}</ref><ref name=trager2>{{harvnb|Trager|2004|pp=378–379}}</ref> It was suggested that Miss Lonely, the song's central character, is based on [[Edie Sedgwick]], a socialite and actress in the [[The Factory|Factory]] scene of [[pop art]]ist [[Andy Warhol]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bell|2012|pp=384–385}}</ref> Critic [[Mike Marqusee]] said the composition was "surely a Dylan cameo", and that its poignancy becomes apparent upon realizing that "it is sung, at least in part, to the singer himself: he's the one 'with no direction home'."<ref>{{harvnb|Marqusee|2005|p=165}}</ref> "Like A Rolling Stone" reached number&nbsp;two in the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] in the summer of 1965,<ref name=chart>{{harvnb|Highway 61 Revisited: Awards}}</ref> and was a top-10 hit in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.<ref>{{harvnb|Hits of the World (1965-10-09)|p=36}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hits of the World (1965-12-25)|p=34}}</ref>

==== "Tombstone Blues" ====
The fast-paced, two-chord blues song "[[Tombstone Blues]]", driven by Michael Bloomfield's lead guitar, uses a parade of historical characters—outlaw [[Belle Starr]], biblical temptress [[Delilah]], [[Jack the Ripper]] (represented in this song as a successful businessman), [[John the Baptist]] (described here as a torturer), and blues singer [[Ma Rainey]] who Dylan humorously suggests shared a sleeping bag with composer [[Beethoven]]—to sketch an absurdist account of contemporary America.<ref name = "Gill84">{{harvnb|Gill|1998|pp=84–85}}</ref> Although other interpretations could be put forth: Where once the creativity embodied in the accomplishments of Ma Rainey and Beethoven flourished, now there is stultification of patriotic martial music. For critics Mark Polizzotti and Andy Gill, the reality behind the song is the then-escalating [[Vietnam War]]; both writers hear the "king of the Philistines" who sends his slaves "out to the jungle" as a reference to President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].<ref name = "Gill84"/><ref name = "Polizzotti67">{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|pp=67–68}}</ref>

==== "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" ====
{{Listen|filename=It Takes a Lot to Laugh.ogg
|title=
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"|description=According to critic Andy Gill, "It Takes A Lot To Laugh" illustrates Dylan's creativity, both in the way it adapts an old blues song, and in the way Dylan recorded two radically different versions of the song: the first, fast and guitar-driven; in his second version, released on ''Highway 61'', Dylan transformed the song into a "slow, loping, piano-based blues".<ref name=gilltrain>{{harvnb|Gill|1998|p=85}}</ref>}}

On July 29, 1965, Dylan and his band resumed recording "[[It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry]]".<ref name=williamstrain>{{harvnb|Williams|1990|pp=156–163}}</ref> [[Tony Glover]], who observed the recording session, has recalled that Dylan re-worked the song at the piano while the other musicians took a lunch break.<ref>{{harvnb|Heylin|2003|p=221}}</ref> Critic Sean Egan writes that by slowing down the tempo, Dylan transformed the song from an "insufferably smart-alec number into a slow, tender, sensual anthem".<ref name="Egan60">{{harvnb|Egan|2010|p=60}}</ref> Gill points out that the lyrics reveal the singer's talent for borrowing from old blues numbers, adapting the lines "Don't the clouds look lonesome shining across the sea/ Don't my gal look good when she's coming after me" from "Solid Road" by bluesmen [[Brownie McGhee]] and [[Leroy Carr]].<ref name="gilltrain"/>

==== "From a Buick 6" ====
[[AllMusic]] critic Bill Janovitz describes "[[From a Buick 6]]" as a "raucous, up-tempo blues", which is played "almost recklessly".<ref name=allmusicbuick>{{harvnb|Janovitz (1)}}</ref> The song opens with a [[snare drum|snare]] shot similar to the beginning of "Like a Rolling Stone".<ref name=gillbuick>{{harvnb|Gill|1998|p=86}}</ref> Partially based on [[Sleepy John Estes]]' 1930 song "[[Milk Cow Blues]]",<ref name=allmusicbuick/> the guitar part is patterned after older blues riffs by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and [[Big Joe Williams]].<ref name=sheltontrain>{{harvnb|Shelton|1986|p=280}}</ref> Robert Shelton hears the song as "an earthy tribute to another funky earth-mother",<ref name=sheltontrain/> while for Heylin it is close to filler material; he argues that only through the musicians' performance is Dylan able to "convince us he is doing more than just listing the number of ways in which this 'graveyard woman' is both a lifesaver and a death-giver".<ref name="Heylin 2009 252">{{harvnb|Heylin|2009|p=252}}</ref>

==== "Ballad of a Thin Man" ====
"[[Ballad of a Thin Man]]" is driven by Dylan's piano, which contrasts with "the spooky organ riffs" played by Al Kooper.<ref name = "MarquseeThin"/> Marqusee describes the song as one of "the purest songs of protest ever sung", as it looks at the media and its inability to understand both the singer and his work. He writes that the song became the anthem of an in-group, "disgusted by the old, excited by the new&nbsp;... elated by their discovery of others who shared their feelings", with its refrain "Something is happening here/ But you don't know what it is/ Do you, Mr Jones?" epitomizing the "hip exclusivity" of the burgeoning [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]].<ref name = "MarquseeThin">{{harvnb|Marqusee|2005|pp=169–171}}</ref> Robert Shelton describes the song's central character, Mr Jones, as "one of Dylan's greatest archetypes", characterizing him as "a [[Philistinism|Philistine]]&nbsp;... superficially educated and well bred but not very smart about the things that count".<ref name="sheltontrain"/>

===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"/>

===Outtakes and ''The Cutting Edge''===
The first non-album outtake from the ''Highway 61 Revisited'' sessions to be released was the single "Positively 4th Street",<ref>{{harvnb|Williams|1990|pp=158–159}}</ref> although on an early pressing of the single Columbia used another ''Highway 61'' outtake, "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?", by mistake.<ref>{{harvnb|Heylin|2009|p=253}}</ref> "Crawl Out Your Window" was subsequently re-recorded with the Hawks in October, and released as a single in November 1965.<ref name="encyclopedia117"/> Columbia accidentally released an alternate take of "From a Buick 6" on an early pressing of ''Highway 61 Revisited'', and this version continued to appear on the Japanese release for several years.<ref name="Heylin 2009 252"/> Other outtakes officially released between 1991 and 2005 include alternate takes of "Like a Rolling Stone" and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", and a previously unreleased song, "Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence", on ''The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991'',<ref name = "Bauldie">{{harvnb|Bauldie|1991}}</ref> as well as alternate takes of "Desolation Row", "Highway 61 Revisited", "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", "Tombstone Blues", and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" on ''The Bootleg Series Volume 7''.<ref name=gorodetsky/> Excerpts from several different takes of "Like a Rolling Stone" appeared on the ''[[Highway 61 Interactive]]'' CD-ROM,<ref name=heylin39>{{harvnb|Heylin|1995|p=39}}</ref> released in February 1995.<ref>{{harvnb|Willman|1995}}</ref>

In 2015, Dylan released Volume 12 of his Bootleg Series, ''[[The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966|The Cutting Edge]]'', in three different formats. The 18-disc ''Collector's Edition'' was described as including "every note recorded during the 1965–1966 sessions, every alternate take and alternate lyric".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bobdylan.com/us/news/bob-dylan-cutting-edge-1965-1966-bootleg-series-vol-12 |title=Bob Dylan&nbsp;– ''The Cutting Edge 1965–1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12'' |publisher=Bob Dylan |date=September 24, 2015 |access-date=July 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207000434/http://www.bobdylan.com/us/news/bob-dylan-cutting-edge-1965-1966-bootleg-series-vol-12 |archive-date=February 7, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The 18 CDs contain every take of every song recorded in the studio during the ''Highway 61 Revisited'' sessions, from June 15 to August 4, 1965.<ref name =CuttingEdge>{{cite web|title=Bob Dylan The Cutting Edge 1965 – 1966: The Bootleg Series Vol.12: Collector's Edition|url=http://www.bobdylan.com/us/thecuttingedge_completetracklisting|publisher=BobDylan.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151226233153/http://www.bobdylan.com/us/thecuttingedge_completetracklisting|archive-date=December 26, 2015|access-date=January 24, 2018}}</ref>

The ''Highway 61 Revisited'' out-takes from the first recording session in New York, June 15 and 16, 1965 comprise: ten takes of "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry", six takes of "Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence", and fifteen takes of "Like A Rolling Stone". Additionally, ''The Cutting Edge'' contains four instrumental "stem" tracks, lifted from Take Four which was the released "Master take" of "Like A Rolling Stone": Guitar (Mike Bloomfield); vocal, guitar (Bob Dylan), piano and bass; drums and organ.<ref name =CuttingEdge/>

The tracks from the second recording session in New York, July 29 to August 4, 1965, comprise seven takes of "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry", sixteen takes of "Tombstone Blues", twelve takes of "Positively Fourth Street", five takes of "From A Buick 6", seventeen takes of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?", nine takes of "Highway 61 Revisited", sixteen takes of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", seven takes of Queen Jane Approximately", and eight takes of "Desolation Row".<ref name =CuttingEdge/>

Describing the process of listening to these many alternative versions, Chris Gerard wrote in ''[[PopMatters]]'': "The fact that these versions do not approach the greatness of the final recordings is exactly the point. These are works in progress. It’s a guided tour through the creative process that led to these landmark albums."<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.popmatters.com/review/bob-dylan-the-bootleg-series-vol.-12-the-cutting-edge-19651966/
| title = The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966
| author = Gerard, Chris
| date = November 9, 2015
| access-date = July 22, 2016
| publisher = PopMatters.com
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160611114135/http://www.popmatters.com/review/bob-dylan-the-bootleg-series-vol.-12-the-cutting-edge-19651966/
| archive-date = June 11, 2016
| url-status = live
}}</ref>