# Best Dylan album: 60s electric **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146 "2014-07-27T05:41:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/1 "2014-07-27T05:41:14Z")
Inspired by the “Bringing” vs. “Highway” topic, here’s a poll for Bob Dylan’s best 60s record of the “electric era”. Stuff recorded then but not released until later, like the Basement Tapes or the Royal Albert Hall concert, are not options. ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/2 "2014-07-27T18:49:46Z")
I had a really hard time deciding between _Blonde on Blonde_ and _Highway 61 Revisited_. I went with _Blonde_, but I’m still not sure I made the right choice. Two simply amazing albums. ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/3 "2014-07-27T18:50:48Z")
BTW, does anyone have any thoughts on the meaning of the title _Blonde on Blonde_? Somehow, I don’t think Dylan was referring to bathing beauties. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/4 "2014-07-27T18:59:20Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > I went with _Blonde_ Given your user name, I thought that was a foregone conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/5 "2014-07-27T19:34:28Z")
Tough choice but I also had to go with _Blonde on Blonde_. If I had to choose just one of _all_ Dylan albums though, it would be [Blood on the Tracks.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_on_the_Tracks) ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/6 "2014-07-27T23:28:09Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > BTW, does anyone have any thoughts on the meaning of the title _Blonde on Blonde_? Somehow, I don’t think Dylan was referring to bathing beauties. Checking Wikipedia, there’s a couple of theories out there - most people who worked on the album said Dylan just came up with it through “free association,” and that the initials spell out his name (BoB). He himself, of course, says someone else came up with it but he can’t remember who. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/7 "2014-07-27T23:46:11Z")
_Blonde on Blonde_ — but then, I’m obviously biased there. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/8 "2014-07-28T00:19:05Z")
Surely there’s some mistake in the poll. The Dylan we’re talking about was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966. He didn’t make any albums after that. 😛 I have to go with _Bringing It All Back Home_. Jaw-dropping from beginning to end. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/9 "2014-07-28T11:51:25Z")
I was born in 1961, so I didn’t know anything about Dylan when he was at his peak- except for a few of his older folkie numbers that we had to sing at church or at camp. In the early Seventies, I discovered \*\*\*Bringing It All Back Home \*\*\*in my Mom’s record collection, and it gripped me from the start. “Gates of Eden” was my favorite Dylan song then, and it still is… even though I still have no clue what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/10 "2014-07-28T12:16:09Z")
An impossibly good string of consecutive releases, and all have a reason to be chosen. Rolling Stone have two of the in the top ten rock albums of all time, _Blonde On Blonde_ at 9 and _Highway 61 Revisited_ at 4, but I have alot of affection for _Bringing It All Back Home_. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/11 "2014-07-28T14:45:06Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > Tough choice but I also had to go with _Blonde on Blonde_. > > If I had to choose just one of _all_ Dylan albums though, it would be [Blood on the Tracks.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_on_the_Tracks) Love them all but going with John Wesley Harding. Love Drifter’s Escape! I do agree with your assessment of Blood on the Tracks. My favorite Dylan album. ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/12 "2014-07-28T23:50:41Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Checking Wikipedia, there’s a couple of theories out there - most people who worked on the album said Dylan just came up with it through “free association,” and that the initials spell out his name (BoB). He himself, of course, says someone else came up with it but he can’t remember who. My thought (besides the use of the initials BoB) has been that it was a comment on his life at the time. Look at the cover - the picture is all in shades of brown, almost like sepiatone. He was touring constantly, using drugs, and having a hard time taking care of his family. Life must have been difficult, and he may have felt that he was fading away, in a sense. Life had lost its color, so to speak. Some have even speculated that his injuries in the motorcycle accident that occurred after BoB’s release were not as severe as advertised, and that he was actually using the accident as an excuse to fade from public view. I have no particular evidence for this view, nor have I heard anyone else put it forth, but it makes some degree of sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/13 "2014-07-29T00:25:05Z")
I can’t decide between BIABH, H61R and BOB. JWH is great, but a little less so than the prior three releases, and NS is a little less than JWH. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-dylan-album-60s-electric/694146/14 "2014-07-29T01:09:13Z")
I went with Highway 61 Revisited but it was a tough choice between the first three. I like Nashville Skyline a lot but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to all of John Wesley Harding. Hell of a run by Dylan though.