Dylan Bob - Bloomsbury Academic;Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., [distributor] Book Promotions, [distributor] Continuum Publishing Corporation, U.S., [distributor] Macmillan Distribution Services

Highway 61 Revisited

Praise for the series:

It was only a matter of time before a clever publisher realized that there is an audience for whom Exile on Main Street or Electric Ladyland are as significant and worthy of study as The Catcher in the Rye or Middlemarch. The series, which now comprises 29 titles with more in the works, is freewheeling and eclectic, ranging from minute rock-geek analysis to idiosyncratic personal celebrationThe New York Times Book Review

Ideal for the rock geek who thinks liner notes just arent enoughRolling Stone

One of the coolest publishing imprints on the planetBookslut

These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerdsVice

A brilliant serieseach one a work of real loveNME (UK)

Passionate, obsessive, and smartNylon

Religious tracts for the rock n roll faithfulBoldtype

[A] consistently excellent seriesUncut (UK)

Wearent naive enough to think that were your only source for reading about music (but if we had our waywatch out). For those of you who really like to know everything there is to know about an album, youd do well to check out Bloomsburys 33 1/3 series of books.Pitchfork

For reviews of individual titles in the series, please visit our website at www.bloomsbury.com and 33third.blogspot.com

Also available in this series:

Dusty in Memphis by Warren Zanes

Forever Changes by Andrew Hultkrans

Harvest by Sam Inglis

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society by Andy Miller

Meat Is Murder by Joe Pernice

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by John Cavanagh

Abba Gold by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Electric Ladyland by John Perry

Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott

Sign O the Times by Michaelangelo Matos

The Velvet Underground and Nico by Joe Harvard

Let It Be by Steve Matteo

Live at the Apollo by Douglas Wolk

Aqualung by Allan Moore

OK Computer by Dai Griffiths

Let It Be by Colin Meloy

Led Zeppelin IV by Erik Davis

Armed Forces by Franklin Bruno

Exile on Main Street by Bill Janovitz

Grace by Daphne Brooks

Murmur by J. Niimi

Pet Sounds by Jim Fusilli

Ramones by Nicholas Rombes

Endtroducing... by Eliot Wilder

Kick Out the Jams by Don McLeese

Low by Hugo Wilcken

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Kim Cooper

Music from Big Pink by John Niven

Pauls Boutique by Dan LeRoy

Doolittle by Ben Sisario

Daydream Nation by Matthew Stearns

Theres a Riot Goin On by Miles Marshall Lewis

Stone Roses by Alex Green

The Who Sell Out by John Dougan

In Utero by Gillian Gaar

Loveless by Mike McGonigal

Bee Thousand by Marc Woodsworth

Forthcoming in this series:

The Notorious Byrd Brothers by Ric Menck

Court and Spark by Sean Nelson

London Calling by David L. Ulin

Daydream Nation by Matthew Stearns

Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm by Shawn Taylor

69 Love Songs by LD Beghtol

Use Your Illusion I & II by Eric Weisbard

Songs in the Key of Life by Zeth Lundy

Mark Polizzotti

For help, encouragement, advice, and pertinent comments along the way, I am grateful to Lenny Kaye, Al Kooper, and Mike Vahala, as well as to David Barker at Continuum for taking this on (and for the 33 1/3 series in general) and to Gabriella Page-Fort for her patience with all my second, third, and fourth thoughts. I would also like to thank Evander Lomke, Davids fellow editor at Continuum and (in the interests of full disclosure) my cousin. It was Evander who first turned me on to Dylans music when we were just stringy kids, and Ive been laboring to keep up with him ever since. I am beholden to Jeff Rosen, for kind permission to reproduce Dylans lyrics; to Bob Johnston, for generously sharing so many fascinating stories and insights about his work with Dylan; to Daniel and Arline Kramer, for graciously suffering my nave questions about the cover photo (and for the great save); and to my father, Mario Polizzotti, for taping countless hours of Oscar Brands radio show My Little World of FolkMusic in the early 60stapes that I had memorized before I was of school ageand for passing on his love of that music. As ever, my love and gratitude go to my wife, Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti, who shared in this project on many levels. Herself a formidable Dylan commentator, Sadi kept the manuscript on the straight and narrow, without letting it become too much of either. This book is positively for her.

The record grabs your attention even before the wrap comes off the sleeve. Its in the gaze. No one else was making that kind of immediate challenge from an album cover. Even Dylan, for whom the outer photo is as much a performance as the music insidefrom the smug come-on of his 1962 debut to the quizzical stare of Bringing It All Back Home was pushing something new. The look he gives almost defies you to buy the disc, to put it on the turntable. Today we are used to glowering rock stars; in the summer of 1965, amid the likes of Sonny and Cher, the Beach Boys, the Lovin Spoonful, and other grinning combos, it was virtually unthinkable. A good ten years before the fact, Dylan was already out-punking Johnny Rotten.

Daniel Kramers cover image has by now become so famous that it scarcely needs introduction. Captured on the stoop of his managers Gramercy Park apartment (which Dylan used at leisure), his traveling buddy and court jester Bob Neuwirth severed at the waist behind him, Dylan sits wearing a semi-legible Triumph Motorcycles tee under a gaudy blue-and-purple silk shirt, the famous Ray-Bans folded in his right hand. The look on his face, beneath a teased pompadour that no comb would dare approach, lies somewhere between defiance and annoyance: he knows the music is good, the best hes ever made, but he doesnt expect you to recognize it and hes gearing up for a fight. The slight leftward tilt of the head only accentuates the challenge. (Another photo from the same session, showing Dylan with head straighter and brows knit, makes him appear simply peevish.) A shape peeking from behind his left shoulder suggests a motorcycles handlebars and reflectoran assumed nod to the road trip connotations of the albums title. In reality, its just the handle of a baby stroller belonging to the couple upstairs.

We spent a day wandering around New York taking pictures, recalled Kramer, who had also staged the complex interior of