Blonde on Blonde - Knowledge

727:". Kenny Buttrey recalled, "If you notice that record, that thing after like the second chorus starts building and building like crazy, and everybody's just peaking it up 'cause we thought, Man, this is it ... This is gonna be the last chorus and we've gotta put everything into it we can. And he played another harmonica solo and went back down to another verse and the dynamics had to drop back down to a verse kind of feel ... After about ten minutes of this thing we're cracking up at each other, at what we were doing. I mean, we peaked five minutes ago. Where do we go from here?" The finished song clocked in at 11 minutes, 23 seconds, and would occupy the entire fourth side of the album. 1738:: "two guitars of the same colour playing with each other, melodic line on rhythmic line, blonde on blonde." This interpretation is essentially based on two ideas drawn from Dylan's lyrics. On the one hand, the understanding that, in his most important and enigmatic songs of the 1965–1966 period, Dylan never stops talking about his music and, with it, about his place in the history of the blues. On the other hand, the discovery that a whole troupe of famous bluesmen, modern or old, parade through these same songs, each of them accompanied by his guitar disguised in a personified or metaphorical form. 712:. At Dylan's request, Johnston removed the baffles—partitions separating the musicians so that there was "an ambience fit for an ensemble". Buttrey credited the distinctive sound of the album to Johnston's re-arrangement of the studio, "as if we were on a tight stage, as opposed to playing in a big hall where you're ninety miles apart". Dylan had a piano installed in his Nashville hotel room which Kooper would play to help Dylan write lyrics. Kooper would then teach the tunes to the musicians before Dylan arrived for the sessions. 1104:"One of Us Must Know" is a straightforward account of a burned-out relationship. Dissecting what went wrong, the narrator takes a defensive attitude in a one-sided conversation with his former lover. As he presents his case in the opening verse, it appears he is incapable of acknowledging his part or limiting the abuse: "I didn't mean to treat you so bad. You don't have to take it so personal. I didn't mean to make you so sad. You just happened to be there, that's all." "One of Us Must Know" was the first recording completed for 1345: 1011: 880: 1639:, and song titles arrived during the mixing sessions. "When they were mixing it, we were sitting around and Bob Johnston came in and said, 'What do you want to call this?' And just like said them out one at a time ... Free association and silliness, I'm sure, played a big role." Dylan himself has said of the title: "Well, I don't even recall exactly how it came up, but I know it was all in good faith ... I don't know who thought of that. I certainly didn't." 1069:. In the New York recording studio, on November 30, Dylan announced his epic composition: "This is called 'Freeze Out'." Gill notes that this working title captures the "air of nocturnal suspension in which the verse tableaux are sketched ... full of whispering and muttering." Wilentz relates how Dylan guided his backing musicians through 14 takes, trying to sketch out how he wanted it played, saying at one point, "it's not hard rock, The only thing in it that's 1295:" and an example of "obvious pop sensibility and compulsive melody", was recorded in four takes on March 7, 1966. Gill sees the lyrics as a series of sexual metaphors, including "beating on my trumpet" and keys to locked gates, many deriving from traditional blues. Nonetheless, the song contains what has been termed "one of the most oft-repeated of Dylan's life lessons", that "to live outside the law you must be honest", which was later invoked in many bohemian and 685:. Johnston lived there and had extensive experience working with Nashville session musicians. He recalled how Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, was hostile to the idea: "Grossman came up to me and said 'If you ever mention Nashville to Dylan again, you're gone.' I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'You heard me. We got a thing going here'". Despite Grossman's opposition, Dylan agreed to Johnston's suggestion, and preparations were made to record the album at 8943: 1144:

page, "which begins 'honey but it's just too hard' (a line that had survived from the very first New York session with the Hawks). Then the words meander through random combinations and disconnected fragments and images ('people just get uglier'; 'banjo eyes'; 'he was carrying a 22 but it was only a single shot'), before, in Dylan's own hand, amid many crossings-out, there appears 'Oh MAMA you're here IN MOBILE ALABAMA with the Memphis blues again'."

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fathers, mothers, sleeping saviors, the Queen of Spades, and the "dancing child with his Chinese suit". Analyzing the lyrics' evolution through successive drafts, Wilentz writes that there are numerous failures, "about deputies asking him his name ... lines about fathers going down hugging one another and about their daughters putting him down because he isn't their brother". Finally Dylan arrives at the right formula.

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the song begins by contrasting two lovers, the carnal Louise and "the more spiritual but unattainable" Johanna. Ultimately, for Gill, the song seeks to convey how the artist is compelled to keep striving to pursue some elusive vision of perfection. For Heylin, the triumph of the song is in "the way Dylan manages to write about the most inchoate feelings in such a vivid, immediate way."

785:", when McCoy reinforced on trumpet a musical phrase Dylan played on his harmonica, changing the sound of the song radically. Dylan and his band then quickly recorded "Temporary Like Achilles". The session atmosphere began to "get giddy" around midnight when Dylan roughed out "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" on the piano. Johnston recalled commenting; "That sounds like the damn 1329:" attracted attention for the way Lennon disguised his account of an illicit affair in cryptic, Dylanesque language. Dylan sketched out a response to the song, also in 3/4 time, copying the tune and circular structure, but taking Lennon's tale in a darker direction. Wilentz describes the result as sounding "like Bob Dylan impersonating John Lennon impersonating Bob Dylan". 1898:, which carried a full-page Columbia advertisement on June 25, selected the album as a "New Action LP" on July 9, and ran a review and article on July 16. In 2017, after viewing a Sony database of album releases, Heylin found that the release date was in fact June 20. This is supported by the fact that an overdub on "Fourth Time Around" was recorded in June. 38: 812:, has contested the conventional account that there were two blocks of recording sessions in Nashville. In comments on Michael Gray's website, Kooper wrote: "There was only ONE trip to Nashville for Robbie and I, and ALL THE TRACKS were cut in that one visit", stating that Dylan merely broke for an outstanding concert. 3184:

Johnston said: "We mixed that mono probably for three or four days, then I said, 'Oh shit, man, we gotta do stereo.' So me and a coupla guys put our hands on the board, we mixed that son of a bitch in about four hours! ... So my point is, it took a long time to do the mono, and then it was, 'Oh,

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A bright blues "stomper" about lovers parting, "Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" is one of the more literal songs Dylan recorded in 1965–66. The narrator has tired of carrying his lover and is going to let her "pass". As in "Just Like a Woman" and "Absolutely Sweet Marie", he waits until

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The song evolved over the course of six takes in New York, 13 in the first Nashville session, and then one on March 10, the take used for the album. Dylan, who gets credit on the liner notes as lead guitarist, opens the song playing lead (on the center-right stereo channel), but Robertson handles the

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The Nashville sessions comprise 20 takes of "Fourth Time Around", four of "Visions of Johanna", 14 of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", four of "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands", 15 of "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", three of "Absolutely Sweet Marie", 18 of "Just Like a Woman", three

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detects a "note of social exclusion" in the line "I was hungry and it was your world". In response to the accusation that Dylan's depiction of female strategies is misogynistic, Ricks asks, "Could there ever be any challenging art about men and women where the accusation just didn't arise?" The song

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Another session took place on January 27, this time with Robertson, Danko, Kooper and Gregg. Dylan and his band recorded "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" and "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)" again, but Dylan was not satisfied with the recorded performance of either song. Also at this session Dylan

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from Schatzberg's portfolio was included but later withdrawn because it had been used without her authorization and Cardinale's representatives threatened to sue, making the original record sleeves a collector's item. Dylan included a self-portrait by Schatzberg as a credit to the photographer. The

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Recorded at the third Nashville session, this song was the culmination of another epic of simultaneous writing and recording in the studio. Heylin calls this song 'a masterpiece of the first order'. Wilentz describes how the lyrics evolved through a surviving part-typed, part-handwritten manuscript

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Andy Gill notes that the song displays a tension between the very direct tone of the chorus, the repeated phrase "I want you", and a weird and complex cast of characters, "too numerous to inhabit the song's three minutes comfortably", including a guilty undertaker, a lonesome organ grinder, weeping

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On February 15 the session began at 6 p.m. but Dylan simply sat in the studio working on his lyrics while the musicians played cards, napped and chatted. Finally, at 4 am, Dylan called the musicians in and outlined the structure of the song. Dylan counted off and the musicians fell in, as

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wrote an introduction stating, "The very title suggests the singularity and the duality we expect from Dylan. For Dylan's music of illusion and delusion—with the tramp as explorer and the clown as happy victim, where the greatest crimes are lifelessness and the inability to see oneself as a circus

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Heard by some listeners as a hymn to an otherworldly woman, for Shelton "her travails seem beyond endurance, yet she radiates an inner strength, an ability to be reborn. This is Dylan at his most romantic." Wilentz comments that Dylan's writing had shifted from the days when he asked questions and

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Critic Andy Gill describes this blues song as steaming along like "a basic love moan", except for its apparently arbitrary references to 15 jugglers and five believers. Heylin notes that every song Dylan recorded in Nashville relied the caliber of the backing musicians, but this song was "entirely

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Ten weeks later, "Visions of Johanna" fell into place quickly in the Nashville studio. Kooper recalled that he and Robertson had become adept at responding to Dylan's vocal and also singled out Joe South's contribution of "this throbbing ... rhythmically amazing bass part". Gill comments that

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in July 1966: "It is a cache of emotion, a well handled package of excellent music and better poetry, blended and meshed and ready to become part of your reality. Here is a man who will speak to you, a 1960s bard with electric lyre and color slides, but a truthful man with x-ray eyes you can look

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Mobile" on the fourth verse, and never goes back. The song contains two oft-quoted pieces of Dylan's philosophy: "Your debutante just knows what you need/ But I know what you want" and "here I sit so patiently/ Waiting to find out what price/ You have to pay to get out of/ Going through all these

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has described Dylan's output between late 1964 and the summer of 1966, when he recorded these three albums, as "a body of work that remains unique in popular music." For Patrick Humphries, "Dylan's body of work during the 14-months period ... stands unequalled in rock's 30-year history. In

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performer in the show of life—has always carried within it its own inherent tensions ... Dylan in the end truly UNDERSTANDS situations, and once one truly understands anything, there can no longer be anger, no longer be moralizing, but only humor and compassion, only pity." In May 1968 for

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The New York sessions comprise: two takes of "Medicine Sunday", one take of "Jet Pilot", twelve takes of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?", seven takes of "I Wanna Be Your Lover", fourteen takes of "Visions of Johanna", sixteen takes of "She's Your Lover Now", four takes of "Leopard-Skin

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Heylin points out that the "gorgeous" tune illustrates what Dylan explained to a reporter in 1966: "It's not just pretty words to a tune or putting tunes to words ... the words and the music —I can hear the sound of what I want to say." Al Kooper has said that of all the songs that Dylan

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s first side. With Dylan piecing together the song's sections, and the chorus that gives the song its title only emerging on take five, the session stretched through the night and into the next morning. Only on the 15th take was a full version recorded. Dylan and the band persisted until they

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According to author Andy Gill, by starting his new album with what sounded like "a demented marching-band ... staffed by crazy people out of their mind on loco-weed", Dylan delivered his biggest shock yet for his former folkie fans. The elaborate puns on getting stoned combine a sense of

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According to Wilentz's analysis of the session's tapes, Dylan felt his way into the lyrics of one of his most popular songs, singing "disconnected lines and semi-gibberish" during the earlier takes. He was unsure what the person described in the song does that is just like a woman, rejecting

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of "Pledging My Time", six of "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)", four of "Temporary Like Achilles", four of "Obviously Five Believers", five of "I Want You", and one of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35". The 18 CDs also contain brief recordings of guitar and keyboard inserts.

1680:'s songs which Dylan attended in 1963 and which had a profound effect on him. In addition to this analogy, it has become classic to point out that the initials of the title reproduce Dylan's first name, as a wink. Oliver Trager, for instance, in 2004: "Its title is at least a riff on 1757:

sleeve opens to form a 12-by-26-inch photo of the artist, at three quarter length. The artist's name and the album's title only appear on the spine. A sticker was applied to the shrink wrap to promote the release's two hit singles, "I Want You" and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35".

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outlined to him in his hotel, this was his favorite, so Dylan delayed recording it to the very end of the Nashville sessions, "just to bug him". Released as a single on June 10, 1966, shortly before the album, "I Want You" reached number 20 in the US and number 16 in the UK.

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connotations of getting stoned made the Salvation Army-style musical backing seem like a good joke. The enigmatic title came about, Heylin suggests, because Dylan knew a song called "Everybody Must Get Stoned" would be kept off the airwaves. Heylin links the title to the

619:", accompanied by the Hawks (this time with Sandy Konikoff on drums). Despite nineteen takes, the session failed to yield any complete recordings. Dylan did not attempt the song again, but one of the outtakes from the January 21 session finally appeared 25 years later on 5857: 1469:, "I just sat down at a table and started writing ... And I just got carried away with the whole thing ... I just started writing and I couldn't stop. After a period of time, I forgot what it was all about, and I started trying to get back to the beginning ." 2261:

literary techniques: " took inherited idioms and boosted them into a modernist stratosphere. 'Pledging My Time' and 'Obviously 5 Believers' adhered to blues patterns that were venerable when Dylan first encountered them in the mid-fifties (both begin with the ritual

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recorded take 24, which closed the session and made it onto the album four months later. Critic Jonathan Singer credits Griffin's piano for binding the song together: "At the chorus, Griffin unleashes a symphony; hammering his way up and down the keyboard, half

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photos, for Gill, added up to "a shadowy glimpse of life, including an enigmatic posed shot of Dylan holding a small portrait of a woman in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other: they all contributed to the album's air of reclusive yet sybaritic genius."

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Several explanations have been put forward in an attempt to shed light on the identity or meaning of the blondes superimposed in the title. Two of these explanations are contemporary with the album and lead to personalities in Dylan's entourage at the time. To

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in 1930. The couplet at the end of each verse expresses the theme: a pledge made to a prospective lover in hopes she "will come through, too". Besides Dylan's vocals and improvised harmonica breaks, the song's sound is defined by Robbie Robertson's guitar,

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and the only one selected from the New York sessions. The song was released as the first single from the album on February 14, the same day Dylan began to record in Nashville. It failed to appear on the American charts, but reached number 33 in the UK.

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This slow-moving blues number is highlighted by Hargus "Pig" Robbins's "dusky barrelhouse piano" and Dylan's "brief wheeze of harmonica". The narrator has been spurned by his lover, who has already taken up with her latest boyfriend. Calling his rival

824:, concluding that the "official" documented version fits Dylan's known touring schedule, and notes that five of the eight songs first recorded after "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", but none of those recorded earlier, include a 497:, was in the process of setting up a grueling concert schedule that would keep Dylan on the road for the next nine months, touring the U.S., Australia, and Europe. Dylan contacted a group who were performing as Levon and the Hawks, consisting of 1192:", at one point finding his doctor with her and later spying her making love with a new boyfriend because she "forgot to close the garage door". In the closing lines, the narrator says he knows what her boyfriend really loves her for—her hat. 1147:

Inside the studio, the song evolved through several musical revisions. Heylin writes, "It is the song's arrangement, and not its lyrics, that occupies the musicians through the wee small hours." On the fifth take, released in 2005 on the

2238:"begins with a joke and ends with a hymn; in between wit alternates with a dominant theme of entrapment by circumstances, love, society, and unrealized hope ... There's a remarkable marriage of funky, bluesy rock expressionism, and 2215:

offers a persona awash inside the chaos ... We're tossed from song to song ... The feel and the music are on a grand scale, and the language and delivery are a unique mixture of the visionary and the colloquial." Critic

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and I liked the look of it. It was freezing and we were very cold. The frame he chose for the cover is blurred and out of focus. Of course everyone was trying to interpret the meaning, saying it must represent getting high on an

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band". Dylan replied; "Can you get one?" Johnston then telephoned trombonist Wayne Butler, the only additional musician required, and Dylan and the band, with McCoy again on trumpet, played a high-spirited version of the song.

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album. It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up." For critics, the double album was seen as the last installment in Dylan's trilogy of mid-1960s rock albums. As

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literary sensibility, the album's songs have been described as operating on a grand scale musically, while featuring lyrics one critic called "a unique mixture of the visionary and the colloquial". It was one of the first

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the end of each verse to deliver the punch line, which in this case comes from the title. "Most Likely You Go Your Way" was issued as a single a year later, in March 1967, on the B-side of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat".

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writes that its caustic attitude is "moderated slightly when one realizes that jealous pique is the underlying emotion". The narrator observes his former lover in various situations wearing her "brand new leopard-skin

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Dylan and the Hawks performed concerts in Ottawa, Montreal, and Philadelphia in February and March, and then Dylan resumed recording in Nashville on March 8. On that date, Dylan and the musicians recorded the take of

898: 540:. Two weeks later, encouraged by the success of their Texas performance, Dylan took the Hawks into Studio A of Columbia Records in New York City. Their immediate task was to record a hit single as the follow-up to " 2266:

invocation of "early in the mornin"). Yet like 'Visions of Johanna' or 'Memphis Blues Again', these songs are beyond category. They are allusive, repetitive, jaggedly abstract compositions that defy reduction."

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reached the Top 10 in both the US and UK album charts, and also spawned a number of hits that restored Dylan to the upper echelons of the singles charts. In August 1967, the album was certified as a gold disc.

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song on the album". Recorded in the early morning hours of the March 9–10 Nashville session under the working title "Black Dog Blues", the song is driven by Robertson's guitar, Charlie McCoy's harmonica and

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wrote, "Dylan is a superbly eloquent writer of pop and folk songs with an unmatched ability to press complex ideas and iconoclastic philosophy into brief poetic lines and startling images." The editor of

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sessions but not included on that album. Three further numbers were attempted, but none progressed into completed songs. Both the fragmentary "Jet Pilot" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover", a quasi-parody of

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updated this list in 2010, "Just Like a Woman" dropped to number 232 and "Visions of Johanna" to number 413. Then in 2021, "Visions of Johanna" was re-ranked at number 317.) The album was included in

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was described as including "every note recorded during the 1965–1966 sessions, every alternate take and alternate lyric." The 18 CDs contain every take of every song recorded in the studio during the

1029: 625:. (Although the song breaks down at the start of the last verse, Columbia released it as the most complete take from the session.) Since 2015, this same outtake plus three other ones are available on 6499: 1415:'s drumming. After an initial breakdown, Dylan complained to the band that the song was "very easy, man" and that he did not want to spend much time on it. Within four takes, the recording was done. 6475: 8162: 5592: 4854: 6403: 10811: 8148: 1519: 621: 2361:

in 1999. When Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, Swedish Academy Secretary Sara Danius, when asked how to evaluate Dylan's literary merit, suggested listening first to

3414:, and ludicrous suggestions it was during the tour itself, a Sony database of album release dates, for all titles in the vinyl era, confirms once and for all that it came out on June 20 1966 1061:

Considered by many critics one of Dylan's masterpieces, "Visions of Johanna" proved difficult to capture on tape. Heylin places the writing in the fall of 1965, when Dylan was living in the

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describes "Visions of Johanna" as one of Dylan's finest songs poetically. For Mellers, "The blurring of time and consciousness is marvelously realized ... when Johanna becomes a mythic

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Around this time, Dylan became disillusioned about using the Hawks in the studio. He recorded more material at Studio A on January 25, backed by drummer Bobby Gregg, bassist Rick Danko (or

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trip. It was none of the above; we were just cold and the two of us were shivering. There were other images that were sharp and in focus but, to his credit, Dylan liked that photograph.

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as "Dylan at his most truculent—toying with the title, the raggle-taggle ensemble singing, the giggling, the manic instrumentation, and a variety of implied games about liquor or dope."

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A shortage of new material and the slow progress of the sessions contributed to Dylan's decision to cancel three additional recording dates. Six weeks later Dylan confided to critic

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in 2005. At this session, they completed "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" The song was released as a single in December, but only reached number 58 on the American charts.

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by Jean-Michel Buizard, the title refers to two guitars that together form the musical heart of the album, two light wood and beige guitars, "blonde" in English usage – like the

673:, "Oh, I was really down. I mean, in ten recording sessions, man, we didn't get one song ... It was the band. But you see, I didn't know that. I didn't want to think that". 715:

On the first Nashville session, on February 14, Dylan successfully recorded "Visions of Johanna", which he had attempted several times in New York. Also recorded was a take of "

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The next session began similarly—Dylan spent the afternoon writing lyrics, and the session continued into the early hours of February 17, when the musicians began to record "

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Dylan spent most of December in California, performing a dozen concerts with his band, and then took a break through the third week in January following the birth of his son

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The cover shows Dylan in front of a brick building, wearing a suede jacket and a black and white checkered scarf. The jacket is the same one he wore on his next two albums,

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According to Wilentz the final recording session, on March 9–10, produced six songs in 13 hours of studio time. The first number to be recorded to Dylan's satisfaction was "

376:. These sessions, augmented by some of Nashville's top session musicians, were more fruitful, and in February and March all the remaining songs for the album were recorded. 897: 8232: 8176: 1150: 604: 536:

Bob Dylan rehearsed with the Hawks in Toronto on September 15, where they were playing a hometown residency at Friar's Club, and on September 24, they made their debut in

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When Dylan played Shelton the song, shortly after recording it, he claimed, "This is the best song I've ever written." Around the same time, Dylan enthused to journalist

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allows fans to bear witness to perhaps the most astonishing explosion of language and sound in rock history, a new approach to song being forged before our very ears."

754:, agree that there were two blocks of recording sessions: February 14–17 and March 8–10, 1966. This chronology is based on the logs and files kept by Columbia Records. 8211: 1591: 1432:

Written in the CBS recording studio in Nashville over the space of eight hours on the night of February 15–16, "Sad Eyed Lady" eventually occupied all of side four of

1362: 627: 8642: 8218: 5692: 2337: 4815: 1028: 9367: 2323:", maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, while dropping to number 38 in 2020. In 2004, two songs from the album also appeared on the magazine's list of " 10656: 8204: 7390: 1452:", written in 1975, Dylan amends history slightly to claim that he stayed "up for days in the Chelsea Hotel/ Writin' 'Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' for you". 1196:

solos with a "searing" performance (on the left stereo channel). A year after the recording, "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" became the fifth single released from

650:". Dylan was satisfied with "One of Us Must Know"; the January 25 take was released as a single a few weeks later and was subsequently selected for the album. 1275:", the narrator senses the new suitor may be discarded as quickly as he was. The refrain that ends each of the main verses—"Honey, why are you so hard?"—is a 1220:"shakes", "wakes", and "makes mistakes". This exploration of female wiles and feminine vulnerability was widely rumored—"not least by her acquaintances among 6507: 1798:. The original inside gatefold featured nine black-and-white photos, all taken by Schatzberg and selected for the sleeve by Dylan himself. A shot of actress 6483: 854:

in 2010, Johnston told him that they carefully worked on the mono mix for about three or four days whereas the stereo mix was finished in about four hours.

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I wanted to find an interesting location outside of the studio. We went to the west side, where the Chelsea art galleries are now. At the time it was the

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replaced Levon Helm, who had tired of playing in a backing band and quit. They began work on a new composition, "Freeze Out", which was later retitled "

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Pill-Box Hat", twenty-four takes of "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)", one take of "I'll Keep It with Mine", and one take of "Lunatic Princess".

460: 11064: 10351: 8979: 8105: 1232:. The reference to Baby's penchant for "fog ... amphetamine and ... pearls" suggests Sedgwick or a similar debutante, according to Heylin. 565:, started work with Dylan and the Hawks at Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York, on October 5. They concentrated on a new arrangement of " 445: 7110: 3296: 848:, the first of its kind in contemporary popular music". According to producer Steve Berkowitz, who supervised the reissue of Dylan's LPs in mono as 10804: 9513: 8831: 8266: 7518: 7276: 7025: 6220: 3210:, p. 142). Heylin agrees there may be substance to this because the dancing child claims that "time was on his side", perhaps a reference to " 10137: 9635: 2587: 1250: 782: 311: 9841: 7513: 5947: 2207:

Dylan scholar Michael Gray wrote: "To have followed up one masterpiece with another was Dylan's history making achievement here ... Where

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blues piano and Ken Buttrey's snare drum rolls. The song was released in edited form as the B-side of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" in March.

6149: 1684:, a rather literary touch for rock ’n’ roll at the time. And let's not forget that the first letter of each word in the title form an anagram 1089:

When Dylan arrived at the studio on January 25, 1966, he had yet to work out the lyrics and title for what was to become the closing track on

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Recognizing Dylan's dissatisfaction with the progress of the recordings, producer Bob Johnston suggested that they move the sessions to

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from 1966—used their electric instrumentation and rock arrangements to achieve a crashing exuberance Dylan hadn't approached before."

8922: 8361: 7919: 5929: 3064: 982:'s 1931 recording "Devil Got My Woman". Gray suggests that "the gulping movements of the melodic phrases" derive from the melody of " 696:

In addition to Kooper and Robertson, who accompanied Dylan from New York, Johnston recruited harmonica player, guitarist and bassist

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in Woodstock removed him from public view. By contrast, another contemporary LP which has an official 1966 release date of May 16,

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Twelve years after its release, Dylan said: "The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the

1703:. Dalton writes that "the title of the album itself is a double entendre that refers to a rock star's endless harem as well as to 11164: 9995: 9977: 9224: 9158: 8745: 2228:." Biographer Robert Shelton saw the album as "a hallmark collection that completes his first major rock cycle, which began with 1892:, had contended that the release date was actually around late June or early July. This coincides with the album's promotion in 1647:, firstly, a short-lived celebrity in the New York underground in the mid-1960s, with blond hair and a pale complexion. Then to 10049: 9862: 7617: 5050: 3040: 566: 2204:, as they each constituted "a cohesive and conceptual body of work rather than just some hit singles ... with filler tracks." 658:", a song which he had already recorded twice as a demo. The musicians added some tentative backing in a rendering biographer 10341: 10071: 9600: 9008: 8972: 7990: 7380: 7319: 7254: 7135: 6895: 6810: 6789: 6770: 6751: 6595: 6324: 6305: 5297: 2448: 1082: 840:. Wilentz writes that it was at this point it became "obvious that the riches of the Nashville sessions could not fit onto a 647: 521:. Two people had strongly recommended the Hawks to Dylan: Mary Martin, the executive secretary of Grossman, and blues singer 353: 247: 5212: 1794:

Research by rock historian Bob Egan suggests the location of the cover photo was at 375 West Street, at the extreme west of

9999: 9280: 9193: 8752: 8540: 8349: 8119: 8112: 7976: 5978: 2887: 1326: 889: 4988: 3171:

gives recording dates for each track of the double album, confirming the Nashville recording sessions were in two blocks (

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and third in the 1987 edition. In 1997 the album was placed at number 16 in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by

770:

entered fully and sublimely into what is now considered classic rock and roll". The same day saw the successful takes of "

11138: 11089: 8915: 8635: 8287: 7473: 6622: 4823: 970:, the lines "Somebody got lucky but it was an accident" echo the lines "Some joker got lucky, stole her back again" from 10010: 9886: 9440: 7996: 7743: 7508: 6277: 2324: 2285: 1888:

was released on June 20, 1966, but for many years, May 16 was thought to be the correct date. Michael Gray, author of

10525: 8811: 8759: 7361: 7342: 7229: 7210: 7104: 7083: 6975: 6956: 6933: 6914: 6829: 6732: 6713: 6694: 6672: 6651: 6350: 6246: 6204: 5891: 5759: 5369: 5284: 2014: 17: 7398: 958:-influenced "Pledging My Time" sets the album's somber tone. It draws on several traditional blues songs, including 37: 11303: 8965: 8325: 7750: 7146: 1843: 1292: 1184: 10478: 6130: 797:" and a final take of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" powered by Robertson's lead guitar. The session concluded with " 11046: 10907: 10890: 10307: 10082: 9912: 9579: 9475: 9085: 8593: 8299: 8098: 7880: 7792: 7603: 7329:

Williams, Paul (1990). "Photographing Dylan: Elliott Landy Interviewed by Paul Williams". In John Bauldie (ed.).

6109: 2403: 1782: 869: 734:". After several musical revisions and false starts, the fourteenth take was the version selected for the album. 422: 260: 3254: 1073:

is Robbie." Wilentz notes that, as Dylan quiets things down, he inches closer to what will appear on the album.

10589: 10510: 10097: 9548: 9179: 7983: 7757: 7523: 6855: 5706: 1354: 529:, who had signed Dylan to Columbia Records in 1961; the Hawks had backed the younger Hammond on his 1965 album 526: 352:. Though sessions continued until January 1966, they yielded only one track that made it onto the final album—" 5535: 602:", but Dylan was not satisfied with the results. One of the November 30 recordings was eventually released on 10897: 10775: 10314: 9708: 9670: 9433: 9151: 9104: 8872: 8704: 8683: 8620: 8005: 7547: 6567: 5911: 3049: 2694: 2313:

magazine included the record on their 100 All-Time Albums list. In 2003, the album was ranked number nine on

2257:, and it just exploded." For Mike Marqusee, Dylan had succeeded in combining traditional blues material with 2088: 1425: 724: 1175:, fashion and faddism. Done in Chicago-blues style, the song derives its melody and part of its lyrics from 11124: 10184: 9771: 9057: 8731: 8282: 8257: 8091: 7969: 7799: 3134: 3095: 2253:

doing in Nashville? It didn't make any sense whatsoever. But you take those two elements, pour them into a

850: 417:

chart in the US, where it eventually was certified double platinum, and it reached number three in the UK.

212: 11114: 10911: 10565: 10518: 10093: 10053: 10017: 9795: 9607: 9541: 9405: 9238: 9123: 9064: 9043: 8319: 8307: 7845: 7094: 6498: 5646: 3306: 2803: 2495: 1296: 1119: 1020: 983: 798: 490: 426: 398:

as one of the greatest albums of all time. Combining the expertise of Nashville session musicians with a

277: 7033: 6474: 5801: 5635: 5583:"500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time" 11038: 10966: 10800: 10409: 10173: 9905: 9694: 9447: 8866: 8826: 8724: 7912: 7687: 6839: 2211:

has Dylan exposing and confronting like a laser beam in surgery, descending from outside the sickness,

2064: 1913: 1826: 1787: 486: 5351: 5279: 11298: 10391: 10133: 9932: 9750: 9701: 9621: 9393: 9299: 9259: 8906: 8738: 8337: 8313: 8084: 7940: 7905: 7778: 7568: 7561: 3248:, in the poem she dedicated to Sedgwick's memory in 1972: "Everyone knew she was the real heroine of 3146:, p. 47). Wilentz insists that "the playing and talk on the session tape show conclusively that 2525: 2230: 2147: 1511: 1164: 837: 836:

Dylan mixed the album in Los Angeles in early April, before he departed on the Australian leg of his

655: 643: 384: 307: 6384: 10956: 10883: 10514: 10503: 10434: 10365: 10180: 10075: 9715: 9534: 9426: 9332: 9266: 8851: 7926: 7838: 7652: 5745: 2353: 2273:

has been ranked high in critics' polls of the greatest albums of all time. In 1974, the writers of

2217: 1947: 544:", but Dylan was already shaping his next album, the third one that year backed by rock musicians. 1449: 686: 92: 11242: 11208: 10677: 10275: 10246: 10144: 9869: 9642: 9325: 9311: 9137: 8059: 8012: 7673: 7466: 6380: 5289: 2779: 2602: 1725: 1574: 1437: 1263: 929:

paranoiac persecution with "nudge-nudge wink-wink bohemian hedonism". Heylin points out that the

904: 670: 639: 616: 349: 1873:

said Dylan had "presented his work at its most involuted, neurotic, and pop—and exhilarating—in

10474: 9973: 9649: 9339: 9273: 9231: 9116: 9036: 9029: 8886: 8715: 8697: 8674: 8533: 8528: 8523: 8518: 8513: 8508: 8503: 8498: 8493: 8488: 8483: 8478: 8473: 8468: 8463: 8458: 8453: 8448: 8443: 8438: 8433: 8428: 8423: 8418: 8413: 8408: 8403: 8398: 8393: 8388: 8383: 8378: 8367: 7771: 7503: 7270: 6459: 6435: 5540: 5114:"Dylan-Beatles-Stones-Donovan-Who, Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield, John Fred, California" 2617: 1664: 1556: 1284: 1044:

as well as a real woman, floating in and out of the 'museums where infinity goes up on trial'."

759: 615:. On January 21, 1966, he returned to Columbia's Studio A to record another long composition, " 1481:", Dylan asks a series of questions about the "Sad Eyed Lady" but never supplies any answers. 10820: 10282: 10115: 10038: 9855: 9663: 9245: 8893: 8690: 8579: 8355: 8343: 8331: 8018: 7764: 7729: 7493: 6639: 6360: 3231:. The only guests were Albert Grossman and a maid of honor for Sara; there was no publicity ( 3228: 2647: 1696: 1334: 975: 967: 794: 751: 541: 369: 294: 7421: 7285: 5827: 86: 11288: 11256: 11249: 11172: 11134: 10948: 10719: 10532: 10032: 10028: 9802: 9757: 9743: 9527: 9499: 9487: 9461: 9353: 9165: 9144: 8860: 8600: 7852: 7806: 7785: 7659: 7575: 6066: 5952: 5482:(September 22, 2016). "Brian Wilson Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Landmark 'Pet Sounds'". 4150: 3301: 2153: 2052: 1894: 1859: 1459:, "Just listen to that! That's old-time religious carnival music!" But in 1969, Dylan told 1176: 682: 473: 390: 373: 194: 6090: 1398:

s second-to-last track, is a roadhouse blues love song similar in melody and structure to

8: 10999: 10616: 10369: 10206: 10202: 10169: 9809: 9764: 9729: 9682: 9381: 9252: 9071: 9022: 9015: 7866: 7638: 7589: 6342: 6177: 5698: 2358: 1763: 1732:

acoustic that Robertson and Dylan play face to face in a 1966 scene from the documentary

635: 578: 449: 382:

completed the trilogy of rock albums that Dylan recorded in 1965 and 1966, starting with

7005: 5688: 5113: 719:" which made it onto the album and a take of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" which did not. 10701: 10398: 10387: 9951: 9848: 9593: 9454: 8946: 8821: 8663: 8273: 8052: 8045: 8027: 7708: 7701: 7645: 7624: 7459: 7200: 6214: 5775: 5401: 3211: 3203: 2433: 1865: 1000: 987: 599: 434: 6042: 1711:. Avant-garde art sandwiched between serial blondes" (the painting is actually titled 587:. Also attempted were two takes of "Medicine Sunday", a song that later evolved into " 10728: 10467: 10111: 10021: 9783: 9628: 9412: 9374: 9287: 8998: 8607: 8572: 8373: 7722: 7666: 7596: 7540: 7376: 7357: 7338: 7315: 7225: 7206: 7131: 7100: 7079: 6971: 6952: 6929: 6910: 6891: 6825: 6806: 6785: 6766: 6747: 6728: 6709: 6690: 6668: 6662: 6647: 6591: 6346: 6320: 6301: 6273: 6242: 6200: 6194: 5887: 5755: 5702: 5397: 5365: 5361: 5293: 3010: 2991: 2965: 2939: 2540: 2125: 1909: 1831: 1799: 1795: 1769: 1236: 1212: 1201: 828:

section—Dylan's first extensive foray as a writer into that conventional structure".

771: 430: 290: 7026:"Just Like a Man? John Donne, T.S. Eliot, Bob Dylan, and the Accusation of Misogyny" 5900: 4847:"Bob Dylan 1965–66: The Cutting Edge, review: 'a fascinating act of deconstruction'" 2327:": "Just Like a Woman" ranked number 230 and "Visions of Johanna" number 404. (When 11190: 10793: 10765: 10499: 10323: 10086: 10006: 9955: 9586: 9419: 9318: 9186: 9092: 8957: 8928: 8636:

The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963–1965

8614: 8565: 8077: 7736: 7694: 6535: 5918: 5684: 5109: 2834: 2809: 2743: 2418: 2332: 2166:

substance, style, ambition and achievement, no one has even come close to matching

1870: 1774: 1734: 1729: 1704: 1656: 1532: 1180: 947: 935: 775: 583: 502: 365: 345: 264: 162: 1134: 489:. However, Bloomfield chose not to tour with Dylan, preferring to remain with the 10970: 10940: 10864: 10634: 10449: 9656: 9506: 9200: 7294: 7249: 7128:

No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan, Revised & updated edition

6800: 5843: 5838: 5557: 5329: 2761: 2632: 2309: 2304: 1403: 1304: 1276: 1098: 1035: 963: 716: 522: 494: 478: 169: 9897: 5998: 1720:

A new interpretation appeared in a French essay published in 2021. According to

1436:. Critics have observed that "Lowlands" hints at "Lownds", and Dylan biographer 10539: 10268: 10042: 9555: 9520: 9130: 8879: 8846: 8782: 8558: 7813: 6682: 6617: 6605: 4984: 2245:

That sense of crossing cultural boundaries was, for Al Kooper, at the heart of

2239: 2191: 1923: 1819: 1713: 1677: 1652: 1615: 1399: 992: 971: 802: 786: 747: 659: 518: 510: 230: 6002: 844:", and they had "produced enough solid material to demand an oddly configured 437:"—have been named as among Dylan's greatest compositions and were featured in 11282: 11216: 11007: 10848: 10842: 10402: 10250: 9736: 9360: 9078: 7438: 7429: 7334: 6523: 6402: 6256: 5587: 5226: 5213:

American Radio History website retrieved 5 May 2016; Billboard Top LPs, p. 40

3337: 2791: 2785: 2315: 2225: 2162: 1644: 1474: 1461: 1229: 1062: 955: 930: 813: 709: 697: 537: 439: 411: 130: 6945: 5659:"Visions of Johanna ranked No. 317 on Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs List" 5333: 11042: 11028: 10936: 10860: 10213: 9816: 8628: 8126: 7680: 7631: 7180: 6874: 5907: 5751: 5741: 5275: 3227:

Bob Dylan married Sara Lownds on November 22, 1965, at a judge's office on

2828: 2348: 2299: 2142: 1937: 1751: 1456: 1248: 1189: 1040: 959: 845: 825: 763: 558: 514: 404: 357: 341: 174: 157: 123: 6985: 6450: 6426: 5624: 5613: 3410:, p. 288n54: "After endless debates about the actual release date of 10638: 9172: 9050: 8841: 8794: 8788: 7610: 3245: 3199: 2773: 2263: 1648: 1466: 1412: 1322: 1317: 1312: 1225: 1221: 1172: 612: 595: 574: 102: 7154: 3333:"Inside Bob Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde': Rock's First Great Double Album" 2283:

the number-two album of all time. It was ranked second in the 1978 book

2242:-like visions of discontinuity, chaos, emptiness, loss, being 'stuck'." 10856: 8776: 5479: 5356: 5347: 3198:

Gill reports that "the dancing child" was rumored to be a reference to

3147: 2797: 2767: 2196: 2179: 2076: 1942: 1918: 1838: 1614:

Describing the process of listening to all these alternative versions,

1441: 1383: 1066: 1053: 979: 920: 701: 506: 498: 116: 2224:

confirms Dylan's stature as the greatest American rock presence since

594:

On November 30, the Hawks joined Dylan again at Studio A, but drummer

517:. They had come together as a band in Canada, backing American rocker 487:

Dylan's controversial electric debut at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival

10852: 10148: 9928: 9346: 8988: 8836: 7859: 7482: 6851: 6500:"500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2010): No. 413 "Visions of Johanna"" 6334: 4686: 4236: 2978: 2952: 2926: 2815: 2749: 2730: 2374: 2335:'s "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings—published in 2294: 2290: 2258: 2254: 2201: 1478: 841: 705: 690: 642:, and organist Al Kooper. Two more new compositions were attempted: " 482: 399: 361: 337: 181: 110: 50: 6476:"500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2010): No. 232 "Just Like a Woman"" 1930:

LP chart less than two weeks after release on May 28 at number 105.

1080: 10755: 10357: 10103: 8816: 7715: 6802:

The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, 1941-1966

6114: 5647:

500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2010): No. 413 "Visions of Johanna"

1977: 1754: 1272: 954:

Following the good-time fun of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", the

6881:(booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Sony Legacy. COL MONO 88697761042. 6744:

Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Volume One: 1957–73

5636:

500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2010): No. 232 "Just Like a Woman"

3099:, a 2017 live album by Old Crow Medicine Show covering these songs 10662:"When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky" / "Emotionally Yours" 662:

described as "cursory". The recording was ultimately released on

477:

in August 1965, Dylan set about hiring a touring band. Guitarist

6022: 5971:

The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991

5926:"American album certifications – Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde" 2220:

wrote: "A sprawling abstraction of eccentric blues revisionism,

1520:

The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991

816:

agreed with Kooper's version. Wilentz analyzed the recording of

622:

The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991

10824: 7934:

Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings

7899:

Live 1961–2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances

7051:"BU professor visits Barnard, discusses Bob Dylan and misogyny" 6289:

Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones

6129: 5908:"British album certifications – Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde" 3953: 1822:

edition of the album was released on SACD by Columbia in 2003.

1407: 16:

This article is about the Bob Dylan album. For other uses, see

6634:(booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records. COL520358 2. 6108: 5973:(booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records. COL438086 2. 5870: 336:

is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter

7004: 6632:

No Direction Home: The Soundtrack—The Bootleg Series Volume 7

5522: 1445: 45: 7451: 6230:

Like a Rolling Stone Revisited : Une relecture de Dylan

1722:

Like a Rolling Stone Revisited : Une relecture de Dylan

1423: 605:

The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack

6984: 6263:(booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records. CBS66509. 5570: 1444:, whom Dylan had married just three months earlier. In his 867: 805:

on the guitar" are an impressive element of the recording.

793:

In quick succession Dylan and the musicians then recorded "

8247:

Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996–1997)

7423:

Mystic Nights: The Making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville

6763:

Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition

5346: 5074:

Williams, Paul. "Tom Paine Himself: Understanding Dylan",

2234:". Summing up the album's achievement, Shelton wrote that 421:

spawned two singles that were top-twenty hits in the US: "

8170:

Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall

6706:

Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments: Day by Day 1941–1995

5136: 5134: 2275: 1589:

In 2015, Dylan released Volume 12 of his Bootleg Series,

448:" list in 2003. In 1999, the album was inducted into the 10609:"Union Sundown" / "Angel Flying too Close to the Ground" 7096:

Thin Wild Mercury—Touching Dylan's Edge: The Photography

6610:"Show 40 - Ballad in Plain D: Bob Dylan. [1966]" 1162: 778:", the latter "driven by Robertson's screaming guitar". 588: 10657:

Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)

7389: 5026: 3115:

An overdub to "Fourth Time Around" was recorded in June

801:" on which, as Wilentz notes, "Wayne Moss's rapid-fire 581:", finally appeared on the 1985 box set retrospective, 8184:

Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006

8163:

Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue

6168: 5694:

Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies

5170: 5131: 5051:"Columbia Releases 15 Bob Dylan Albums on Hybrid SACD" 4913: 4818:

The Cutting Edge 1965–1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12

3977: 2338:

Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies

1750:

shows a 12-by-12-inch close-up portrait of Dylan. The

1291:

This song, described as "up-tempo blues shuffle, pure

1261: 628:

The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966

9368:

I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)

7239:

Tyrangiel, Josh and Light, Alan (November 13, 2006).

6148: 5946: 5245: 5164: 5152: 4260: 2249:: " was the quintessential New York hipster—what was 1282: 10484:"Is Your Love In Vain?" / "We Better Talk This Over" 8987: 1912:

chart on July 23 at number 101—just six days before

1851:

through if you want. All you have to do is listen."

1406:", and was described by Robert Shelton as "the best 1332: 11071:/ "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" 10442: