Highway 61 Revisited

Finished a good book today called Legendary Sessions: Highway 61 Revisited. It's an attractive hardcover (I like slick, no-jacket binding) delving into the history behind the legendary Bob Dylan album, with great detail on the folk prophet/spokesman for a generation straitjacket Dylan tried to shake off as he explored amplified rock on the breakthrough hit, "Like A Rolling Stone" and the subsequent Highway 61 sessions. There's a lot on the Newport Folk Festival at which Dylan went electric and shocked and offended much of the audience and festival board members like old folkie Pete Seeger. It's really interesting now to read about respected musicians and musicologists like him or Alan Lomax being so dismissive or outraged at what Dylan was trying, and the book leaves necessarily vague (as Dylan has been close-lipped or contradictory on the subject) how much of his Newport appearance was just unstoppable artistic inspiration and how much was intended to offend.

Another revealing part of the book is just how haphazardly Dylan's session band was assembled and how the tunes came together without clear direction from Dylan, just the talent of the musicians and their patience as Dylan worked out his vision. The book also does a great job offering clues and likely interpretations of the lyrics or the subjects of the songs, without coming down definitely on one answer, recognizing that it's never simple with Dylan. There are quite a few random factoids in there as well about the musicians and producers and who they worked with before. For instance, now I know Tony Bennett's signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," wasn't a number Bennett cared much more, knocking it out in three takes at the end of a very long and wearying session.