Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3)
by Mark Polizzotti
List Price:
Our Price: $7.94
You Save: $7.01 (47%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.37 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Mark PolizzottiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-01
ISBN: 0826417752
Number of pages: 168
Publisher: Continuum
Book Reviews of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3)
Book Review: Revisiting Highway 61
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the fifth book in this series that I've read, and it is very good. The book is about the album, Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan, and the making of the album, and very little else. It is focused and informative, written in a style that is engaging and reflective, and has brought a deeper understanding to me about Dylan's style and method, as well the album itself. Many of Bob Dylan's songs have eluded me. Even though I may have liked them very much, I often had no idea what many of the songs were about, and many of the translations I would read about or hear from friends didn't make all that much sense. Mark Pollizzatti very comfortably sets the scene for each song, giving it paragraphs and pages of input, giving the reader background information about Dylan, the songs' subjects, and interesting tidbits about Americana that gives the songs greater depth and lends them an easier understanding. And while many of his interpretations are his interpretations, they seem to work well for me, much more so than my own interpretations or that of, say, what a typical Rolling Stone music critic might offer. (Not that there is anything wrong with them).
One example of this might be the number one song of all-time, "Like A Rolling Stone." We've heard all of our lives that songs can be interpreted anyway that the listener wants. It's also true that while a song may have several interpretations, the writer had set out with his own idea. I've spent the last 45 years seeing "Like A Rolling Stone" as a song that was crying out to 'todays' (60s teens) youth, giving them hope, while letting them know that they must get moving, get out there and make your world kind of thing. Pollizzatti gave a nod in that direction and then went about describing an entire social subset as represented by a Dylan acquaintance, a woman, who was literally at the end of her rope and needed to get her act together, or something along those lines. I found this fascinating. The information about "Desolation Row" was riveting. Such a classic eleven minute song with so much to ponder. Pollizzatti gives great assistance in understanding not only the over-all theme of "Desolation Row," but what virtually every stanza meant. Another example of insight is Pollizzatti's detail about the actual Highway 61 that runs from New Orleans to the Canadian border, running right by Dylan's home town, and its importance to the music vitality of the United States, particularly the music that had a profound impact on Bob Dylan.
If you want to see Highway 61 Revisited in great detail from the perspective of a different mind than your own, then I would recommend this book to you. I'm not saying that Pollizzatti has all of the answers, but I will say that he'll give you something to think about. It's actually a very enjoyable read.
Summary of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3)
Highway 61 Revisited resonates because of its enduring emotional appeal. Few songwriters before Dylan or since have combined so effectively the intensely personal with the spectacularly universal. In "Like a Rolling Stone," his gleeful excoriation of Miss Lonely (Edie Sedgwick? Joan Baez? a composite "type"?) fuses with the evocation of a hip new zeitgeist to produce a veritable anthem. In "Ballad of a Thin Man," the younger generation's confusion is thrown back in the Establishment's face, even as Dylan vents his disgust with the critics who labored to catalogue him. And in "Desolation Row," he reaches the zenith of his own brand of surrealist paranoia, that here attains the atmospheric intensity of a full-fledged nightmare. Between its many flourishes of gallows humor, this is one of the most immaculately frightful songs ever recorded, with its relentless imagery of communal executions, its parade of fallen giants and triumphant local losers, its epic length and even the mournful sweetness of Bloomfield's flamenco-inspired fills. In this book, Mark Polizzotti examines just what makes the songs on Highway 61 Revisited so affecting, how they work together as a suite, and how lyrics, melody, and arrangements combine to create an unusually potent mix. He blends musical and literary analysis of the songs themselves, biography (where appropriate) and recording information (where helpful). And he focuses on Dylan's mythic presence in the mid-60s, when he emerged from his proletarian incarnation to become the American Rimbaud. The comparison has been made by others, including Dylan, and it illuminates much about his mid-sixties career, for in many respects Highway 61 is rock 'n' roll's answer to A Season in Hell.
History & Criticism Books
- Books > Subjects > Arts & Photography > Music
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in History & Criticism Books
KISS and Make-upby Gene Simmons
Crown; Published: 2001-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.59
Price in other shops:
Elvis Presley: A Life in Music : The Complete Recording Sessionsby Ernst Jorgensen
St Martins Pr; Published: 1998-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $199.99
The Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Coolby Michael Segell
Picador; Published: 2006-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.81
Price in other shops:
Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presleyby George Klein, Chuck Crisafulli
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2011-01-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Bill Evans: How My Heart Singsby Mr. Peter Pettinger
Yale University Press; Published: 1998-08-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $75.50
Microsoundby Curtis Roads
The MIT Press; Published: 2004-08-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops:
Hip Hop Americaby Nelson George
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2005-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.52
Price in other shops:
A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Albumby Ashley Kahn
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.69
Price in other shops:
Jazz Styles: History and Analysis (10th Edition)by Mark C. Gridley
Prentice Hall; Published: 2008-01-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $45.99
Price in other shops:
Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garciaby Robert Greenfield
It Books; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
David Bowie's Low (33 1/ 3)by Hugo Wilcken
Continuum; Published: 2005-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.97
Price in other shops:
Radiohead's Kid A (33 1/ 3)by Marvin Lin
Continuum; Published: 2010-11-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.34
Price in other shops:
Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (33 1/ 3)by Christopher R. Weingarten
Continuum Pub Group; Published: 2010-04-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.53
Price in other shops:
Big Star's Radio City (33 1/ 3)by Bruce Eaton
Continuum; Published: 2009-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
The Beatles' Let It Be (33 1/ 3 series)by Steve Matteo
Continuum; Published: 2004-08-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.45
Price in other shops:
Neil Young's Harvest (Thirty Three and a Third series)by Sam Inglis
Continuum; Published: 2003-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.94
Price in other shops:
The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (33 1/ 3)by Jim Fusilli
Continuum; Published: 2005-02-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (33 1/ 3)by Kim Cooper, Kim Cooper
Continuum; Published: 2005-11-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.26
Price in other shops:
Johnny Cash's American Recordings (33 1/ 3)by Tony Tost
Continuum; Published: 2011-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.56
Price in other shops:
The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. (33 1/ 3)by Bill Janovitz
Continuum; Published: 2005-02-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops: