Talk:Highway 61 Revisited

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Would someone be able to add something about Dylan's sleeve notes ( the ones on the back of the LP)?

"Dylan's next album, Blonde on Blonde, is usually considered his magnum opus; Highway 61 Revisited is similar, but is generally considered less mature and developed in comparison."

This is a highly debatable critical comment that many experts in rock and roll music disagree with, i.e. Rolling Stone, and should be rewritten.


The markup on this article is not in line with the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. Album titles are supposed to be in italics, Highway 61 Revisited and song titles are supposed to be in quotes, "Desolation Row". I jujst went through and fixed all the markup, but got caught by an editing conflict and I don't feel like doing it again tonight, but I will get back to it. It's important that all the articles in the Wikipedia use the same markup style so any reader can look at an article and say, "That's a song" or "That's an album title". Ortolan88

Oops, I could've sworn it was the reverse. Thanks. Tokerboy 19:01 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

You really can't put the lyrics to a whole long verse in the Wikipedia, I do't think. Dylan, through his nasty manager, has been a complete hard-ass about anybody quoting his lyrics, but even if he hadn't been so, this is copyrighted material. You should only quote a few characteristic lines, but a whole verse is over the line, I believe. Ortolan88 18:49 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

I'll try and do some summary, but it's hard to summarize lyrics that don't make any sense anyway. Does the length of the original song affect things? "Desolation Row" is extremely long, and the part quoted isn't a huge section of it, IIRC. I'll go back in a little while and fiddle. Tokerboy 19:01 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

I'm being eaten alive by copyright freaks who insist that Hitler has only got one ball is copyrighted. Believe me, you'll never avoid the same treatment here. I can suggest some wording if you like. The lyrics are evocative, vague and surrealistic, but probably not actual nonsense.

Let's see, how about this:

The lyrics to "Desolation Row" are delivered in a laconic tone and sound like a description of a surrealist painting or a film by Federico Fellini, with references to "postcards of the hanging", a "beauty parlor filled with sailors" and the "blind commisioner", who has "one hand tied to the tight-rope walker" and "the other is in his pants". All these strange characters "need somewhere to go" and the place turns out to be Desolation Row.

Or something like that. Ortolan88

I am still wondering whether our friend TMC is going to dig up some Anglo-Saxon dude's progeny with a claim on the lyrics to Beowulf... user:sjc

I changed the song Desolation Row to include no large sections of quoted material. I'm keeping the one verse at Highway 61 Revisited (at least for now) because I think that's much more clear-cut fair use. Quoting one verse from one song on the album the article is about because that verse effectively sums up the lyrical thrust of the entire album seems okay to me. Tokerboy 21:04 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)


I changed the genre from folk rock to rock, mainly because there isn't much folkish about thios album and also because Dylan himself despised the term, as I have heard in press Conferences he made in '65 and '66. Ruckyou 03:06, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Ok, made it class B because I don't want to unilaterally call it a Good Article though it's the best Album entry I've seen. Anybody want to argue with "Top" importance? Megamanic 07:00, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

At the time, "Desolation Row" was arguably Dylan's most ambitious song and for many years his longest recording.

"Desolation Row" times out at 11:22. "Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands" times out at 11:43 and appeared the next year. What gives?


[edit] Too Long

Surely this article is too long? Perhaps the exhaustive detail about the recording could be moved onto another page and a summary left here. I have taken a first pass at improving the background section, but there needs to be a better explanation why the Newport festival is important to the record specifically (in the context of the wikipedia article) rather than to Dylan's development in general (in which case I think it belongs elsewhere).

Much of the article reads like a narrative, rather than an encyclopedia entry. There is a lack of NPOV, and too many weasel words.Major Bloodnok 09:55, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Further to the above, I have found a link to The electric Dylan controversy which covers the issues detailed in the Background section in a neater, more succinct way. I suggest that the Background section can be drastically be reduced in length to a short summary with a link to the other page.
The next section reads like something from a magazine, and needs much work to reduce the amount of exhaustive information which is probably better left to a book about the album rather than this particular article. For example I suggest parts like this can be cut without loosing the thrust of the section:

Johnston recalls, "I don't know how Tom Wilson recorded him... I used some EQ on Dylan's voice."

I am not sure why you would want to cut back.Why not put a summary at the top or the top of a section, and let the article grow?--Timtak 01:51, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

It's an interesting piece of Dylan history, but I don't think it has a place here. Any thoughts anyone? I'll leave it for a week or so, and revisit this.Major Bloodnok 17:56, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

I have reduced down the Background section, and added a main article tag. I have cut the quote from Bob Johnson mentioned above, as it has been taken verbatim from [[1]], and falls fowl of Wikipedia's Fair Use Policy - see WP:NONFREE - as it is a very long quotation. Major Bloodnok 10:47, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Have also gone though the "Recording Sessions" Section, tidying up the grammar, and adding [citation needed] where needed. Major Bloodnok 11:15, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Newport

Is the Newport Folk Festival section really relevent in this article? It could be mentioned in a different section but as it is, the only relevance to the album is that the festival took place before Dylan recorded. Anyone else find that this section should be taken out? Glassbreaker5791 14:35, 2 September 2007 (UTC)