Amplification. Good Idea, Bob.

Bringing It All Back Home – DYLAN WENT ELECTRIC!!!!! Oh fucking well. The only people that are upset or distraught by this (and I’m sure there are very few today) are squares who couldn’t get behind rock and roll. So does electricity make Dylan irrelevant or less intimate or a sell out or a hack? The answer is absolutely “NO” to all of the above. The next three albums are Dylan’s peak without a doubt and because he had a backing group behind him because most of these songs wouldn’t translate well with just an acoustic. Enough chitchat. The first four songs on here are absolute classics. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is Dylan’s fast paced, nonsensical rhyming and total Chuck Berry rock and roll sparking the thought that Dylan’s on to something new here. “She Belongs to Me” has already been written about and so has “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.” That leaves “Maggie’s Farm” that is a total tirade against the folk community and the music biz but can also be taken as a rant against poor working conditions. The next three songs could be considered filler but I love each one dearly. “Outlaw Blues” and “On the Road Again” are just simple rock and roll but each contains some killer one-liners from the king of one-liners. “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” follows the format of Dylan’s other “dreams,” where he tells a bizarre story. This story is bizarre and funny and it has a good backing beat behind it. The story makes no sense and goes everywhere from Moby Dick to funeral parlors to Columbus. “Mr. Tambourine Man” is golden, as you all know. “ Gates of Eden” and “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” are the combined climax of this album. Both are surreal lyrics that ultimately contain a much deeper message; they are not just flashy words and images. That leaves “Baby Blue” and, again, I’m sure you’ve all heard it and know it’s great. So fuck off.

Highway 61 Revisited – Kicks off with “Like a Rolling Stone” which even gets overplayed to me. Then “Tombstone Blues’ is garage rock at it’s finest; actually it exceeds all garage rock I’ve ever heard. The slight out of rhythm acoustic guitar starts off only to be followed by the band. The guitar breaks sounds so un-organized but energized. The lyrics are surrealism epitomized with amazing one liners like “The sun’s not yellow’s it’s chicken.” Then “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” (by the way, why does that title not seem pretentious but all emo songs do?) is a slow paced, piano blues song with some extraordinary vocals by Dylan. “From a Buick 6” is a rocker and possibly the only filler on the album (but not to me; I love it.) “Ballad of a Thin Man” is a protest song. Railing against squares, and straights and suits and “normal” people. The piano riff throughout the song only adds to it’s genius. “Queen Jane Approximately” comes up next and it’s a love song disguised as a put down song. Dylan rips some poor Jane apart only to say that after it all, all the mistakes, all the screw ups, that she could come back to mister Dylan himself. The title slides by with that damn whistle and the fantastic adventures to be had on one of America’s highways. “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” tells of a terrible place that the narrator has “had enough” and he’s got to leave town too. The opening lyrics are line for line some of my favorite. The song is probably my favorite on any give spin of this disc. “Desolation Row” ends the album on a long acoustic note. The guitar riff is damn good and I wonder if Dylan’s got a session man handling six string duties on this one. Desolation Row is a very interesting place that I wish was a setting for a movie. Or actually I’m glad a movie isn’t made because it’s hard enough hearing assholes say “The book was better.” It’d be goddamn suicide inducing to hear some one say “BUT THE SONG WAS SO MUCH BETTER. But you’d be forced to.

Blonde on Blonde – Starts off with that “stoned song,” “Rain Day Women #12 & 35” which is not about getting high and everyone’s heard it. “Pleading My Time” is a nice little song whose title is constantly stuck in my head. “Visions of Johanna” is a nice surrealist song with song good playing by the session cats backing Dylan. About the next nine songs are absolutely classic songs that deserve a listen to and I couldn’t pick any highlights out… so that’s why this sentence exists. “4th Time Around,” which is supposedly a response to the Beatles “Norwegian Wood” and “Sad Eyed-Lady of the Lowlands,” which is the beautiful ten-minute closer about his then and soon to be ex-wife, make it worth the other two songs. Oh yeah this is a double album so more Dylan than usual.

Greatest Hits – The only reason you need this is if you don’t want to get all the non-hits-but still-esssential-stuff from the earlier albums or for “Positively 4th Street,” which is a perfect rant about some one who thinks they are Dylan’s friend and He tells ‘em all the reason why not. Great organ part to boot.