Bringing It All Back Home
Released: March 22, 1965
Tracks:
“Subterranean Homesick Blues”
“She Belongs to Me”
“Maggie’s Farm”
“Love Minus Zero/No Limit”
“Outlaw Blues”
“On the Road Again”
“Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream”
“Mr. Tambourine Man”
“Gates of Eden”
“It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”
Highway 61 Revisited
Released: August 30, 1965
“Like a Rolling Stone”
“Tombstone Blues”
“It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”
“From a Buick 6”
“Ballad of a Thin Man”
“Queen Jane Approximately”
“Highway 61 Revisited”
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”
“Desolation Row”
Desolation Row and Queen Jane Approximately give a slight edge to Highway 61 Revisited for me, though It’s All Over Now Baby Blue is perhaps even better, it’s a matter of two really good songs vs one really good song. Of course there are so many other good songs from both albums as well… but these three are my favorite. Of the two most popular songs from each album, Subterranean Homesick Blues and Like Rolling Stone I choose Like a Rolling Stone. My favorite lesser known song from either album is From a Buick 6, which I LOVE this song.
Highway 61 is a great album, but if Bringing it all Back Home was a single consisting of only It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue b/w It’s Allright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), it would still win for me.
My two favorite Dylan albums so I love love love them both, but it wasn’t hard for me to opt for the staggeringly great Highway 61. What lets BIABH down slightly is that Zimmy hadn’t yet fully assimilated the electric approach, so the acoustic side is clearly superior to the “rock” side. Highway 61 gives us electric Dylan in full glory for the first time.
Exactly why I voted for Highway 61, but it is damn close. Bringing it All Back Home is more diverse, going from nice love songs to humor (the best dream song ever written) to protest to advanced symbolism. But only Subterranean Homesick Blues really rocks, while almost all of Highway 61 does. (Listen to the alternate of It Takes a Train to Laugh - outstanding work.) Highway 61 has the best band ever for Dylan (even better than The Band - besides the songs on the album and the take of Train, they do a version of “Crawl Out your Window” far better than the one with the Band released on Biograph. And the best Vietnam War protest song you don’t know is a Vietnam War protest song.
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
…
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only
I went with BIABBH because “Maggie’s Farm” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” are each so powerful and incisive. I wish somebody would do a proper job of covering “Maggie’s Farm” … you know, the way Hendrix covered “All Along The Watchtower” and the Birds covered “Mr. Tambourine Man.” “Maggie’s Farm” is a rock classic waiting to be discovered, IMHO. (There have been covers, mind you, it’s just that none of them measure up.)
I would vote a slight fave to “Bringing”. There’s isn’t a single track with a flaw on that album, while both “Thin Man” and “Desolation Row” somewhat wander off track and have some lyrical fuzziness. (Yes I know a lot of “Bringing”'s songs are lyrically cryptic, but it seems less forced.) Nevertheless, both are excellent albums.
I gotta disagree with those who say the rock songs on “Bringing” are tenative. How would you consider “Subterranean”, “Outlaw Blues”, and “Maggie’s Farm” half-hearted? It’s just that album had fewer songs that would work with a driving rock beat.
Both are, of course, fantastic, but I went with BIABH for two main reasons: first, “Mr. Tambourine Man” is one of the most lyrically beautiful songs in the English language ever crafted. Period. Although it’s good the song gained popularity with the Byrds’ cover, it’s a bit sad that they left out the majority of the words. There’s something about the way he sings “Let me forget about today until tomorrow” that just sends shivers down my spine. Every stanza, every line, is timeless.
Two, Bod Dylan’s poetic genius again comes though full force in “It’s Alright, Ma.” To be honest, although I love the song as a song, there’s a certain flavor it gains when you just read it aloud as a straight out poem - that aspect is present in lots of Dylan’s stuff simply because the lyrics are so heavy it’s hard to really take them in while appreciating the music.
Also, something about “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” cracks me up (Particularly I said, “You know they refused Jesus, too”/He said, “You’re not Him" and the final lines He said his name was Columbus/I just said, “Good luck”). Chances are it’s some sort of deep metaphor for so-and-so about the formation of the US, but just taken at face value I find it hilarious.
Old folks home at the college - when it was written you could often get a 2S student deferment as long as you were in school, so people wanting to avoid the draft would grow old in college.
Then there is fatten the slaves and send them off to the jungle.
The sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken could refer to China.
And tombstone blues back then clearly could be bodies from Nam.
I’m not saying Dylan planned all this out. If Chronicles can be believed, he has the best subconscious writing mind around.
