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Like a Rolling Stone

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"Like a Rolling Stone"
Song
B-side"Gates of Eden"

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Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone"
30 seconds (of 6:10)
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Template:Sample box end "Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by Bob Dylan from his album Highway 61 Revisited. First issued in 1965, it represents in its length (6:09), style, and scoring, one of the most influential of Dylan's songs. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the greatest song of all time, declaring, "No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time". In his 1988 speech inducting Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen remembered, "The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your mind".

Recording

The song was originally written in waltz time and later changed to 4/4. Dylan first recorded it on June 15-16, 1965, in a pair of sessions produced by Tom Wilson; the musicians included Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Paul Griffin, Josef Mack and Bobby Gregg on drums. Paul Griffin, who had been hired to play organ, was moved to piano. Kooper, primarily a guitarist, inveigled himself behind the Hammond organ. Producer Wilson was dubious about Kooper's abilities with the instrument but acquiesced. During the playback Dylan asked Wilson to turn up the organ in the mix. "Hey man, (Wilson replied) that cat's not an organ player." Dylan was beginning to tire of Wilson: "Hey, now don't tell me who's an organ player and who's not... Just turn the organ up," he ordered.[1] According to Kooper, "that was the moment I became an organ player!".[2] Over the two days, Dylan managed to complete only one take of the song out of nearly two dozen attempts - the version heard on Highway 61 Revisited.

Release

"Like a Rolling Stone" was released as a 45 rpm single on July 20, 1965. Despite its length – twice the maximum preferred by radio at the time – it became Dylan's biggest hit to that date,[2] remaining in the U.S. charts for nearly three months and rising to #2 behind The Beatles' song "Help!".

Dylan gave the song its live debut at his legendary Newport Folk Festival appearance on July 25, 1965. Highway 61 Revisited was issued at the end of August, and when Dylan went on tour that fall, "Like a Rolling Stone" took the closing slot on his playlist and held it, with rare exceptions, through the end of his 1966 "world tour", as well as during his return to touring in 1974 with The Band.

Bob Dylan versions

The standard studio recording of the song is found on four official albums:

Live performances of the song are included on:

as well as on countless unofficially circulating field recordings.

An early, incomplete studio recording was included on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991; other studio outtakes were included on the Highway 61 Interactive CD-ROM.

Cover versions

Below is a list of some notable artists who have covered "Like a Rolling Stone," along with its source album or live performance and year:

In other languages:

Subject

Speculation about the song's unnamed subject has run continuously since its 1965 release; one common school of thought centers on Edie Sedgwick, an actress/model known for her association with Andy Warhol. Sedgwick is also often identified as a figure in other Dylan songs of the time, particularly "Just Like a Woman" from his album Blonde on Blonde. However, Dylan is generally believed only to have begun to associate with Sedgwick in the fall of 1965, after "Like a Rolling Stone" was recorded,[3] though a Sedgwick biography places their first meeting in Christmas 1964 at the Kettle of Fish in Greenwich Village via a supposed introduction by Bob Neuwirth.[4] Joan Baez has also been considered a possible target of Dylan's words.[2]

Others have claimed to see a deeper meaning. Mike Marqusee has written at length on the conflicts in Dylan's life at this time, with its deepening alienation from his old folk-revival audience and clear-cut leftist causes. He suggests that the song is probably self-referential. Thus: "The song only attains full poignancy when one realises it is sung, at least in part, to the singer himself: he's the one 'with no direction home'".[5] Martin Scorsese's recent movie about Dylan, No Direction Home, appears to show, in footage filmed backstage in 1966, that Dylan was deeply affected by the mixed audience reception at that time.

Rolling Stone magazine's ranking

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine declared "Like a Rolling Stone" the greatest song of all time, based on its poll of 172 music industry figures. When asked about the citation in his 2004 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley, Dylan himself seemed to find the matter bemusing, saying he never paid attention to such polls, as they changed frequently:

Bradley: "But as a pat on the back, Bob..."
Dylan: "This week it is. But, you know, who's to say how long that's gonna last?"

References

  1. ^ Sounes, Howard. Down the Highway, The Life of Bob Dylan. Doubleday, 2001, pp.217-218. ISBN 0-552-99929-6
  2. ^ a b c Gill, Andy: Classic Bob Dylan 1962-69: My Back Pages, Carlton, 1998, pp.82-83. ISBN 1-98568-481-1
  3. ^ Gill, Andy: Op Cit, p.103
  4. ^ Bob Neuwirth quoted on Edie Sedgwick at Warholstars. Retrieved 16 August 2007.
  5. ^ Marqusee, Mike: Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art, The New Press, NY & London, 2003, p.157. ISBN 1-56584-825-X

Further reading

  • Marcus, Greil: Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads, PublicAffairs, 2005. ISBN 1-58648-254-8
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