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1965. Flower Power was still in its embryonic stage... Hard Rock something that had yet to affirm and establish itself...
Just noise... deafening... poetic... and defiant..
And it was this very noise that emanated from the pristine speakers of America’s most important folk festival: the Newport Festival.
The young Bob Dylan had just turned his back on protest, delivering an extraordinary performance of Like a rolling stone in front of thousands of young people.
A dangerous song... endless... one of those songs that seeps into your veins and leaves you frozen...
After that concert, Dylan and his associates locked themselves in the New York studios to record one of the most important albums ever: Highway 61 revisited.
The album, which begins with the splendid "Stone", is a clear confirmation that Mr. Dylan has completely changed musical direction, with Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar and Al Kooper on organ.
The album continues with "Tombstone Blues", a song that can be said to be a mix of dirty blues and garage... all infused with pure poetry... a mass of disheveled lyrics... The journey on Highway 61 continues with some warm melancholic ballads until it reaches the beautiful "Queen Jane Approximately", a testament to a lost love full of resentment and resignation but also a hint of revenge... which is peculiar in Dylan’s poetic take on love...
After this twilight phase, the album closes with "Desolation Row", an acoustic ride that describes a very Dylan-esque Court of Miracles.
Ophelia waiting for her love, T.S. Eliot brawling with Ezra Pound.... in short, something that cannot be invented but only imagined...
After this masterpiece, Dylan will confirm himself with the epic Blonde on Blonde. A tour in England that will exhaust him but will definitively enshrine him in the Rock Olympus... the rest is history...
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