BUCKET LIST UPDATE No. 149: Listen to Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” from start to finish

Like most people, I’ve kind of always known that Bob Dylan is one of the most famous musicians and songwriters on the planet. As the old saying goes, “He’s known coast to coast like butter and toast,” but I couldn’t honestly say that I knew much about him or that I’d ever listened to one of his many albums.

A year or so ago, I ran across a great “best of” list called “Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” which was originally published by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003. That list included 11 of Dylan’s albums, but the top-rated Dylan album on the list was “Highway 61 Revisited,” which is why I added it to my “bucket list” last year. I officially listened to it from start to finish yesterday afternoon, and I thought it was great, especially for an album recorded more than a decade before I was even born.

Released in August 1965, “Highway 61 Revisited” was Dylan’s sixth studio album. In all, the album included nine songs, all of which were written and composed by Dylan. Songs on the album included “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” and “Desolation Row.” At three minutes and 19 seconds, “From a Buick 6” is the shortest song on the album, and “Desolation Row” is the longest with a run time of 11 minutes, 21 seconds.

“Like a Rolling Stone” is arguably the most famous song on the album, and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 1 on a “best of” list called the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” They also ranked “Desolation Row” at No. 187 and “Highway 61 Revisited” at No. 373. Personally, I really liked “Tombstone Blues.”

I was especially interested by the fact that the album took its name from the eighth song on the album, which was originally on the B side of the old record. I later learned that the song’s title is a reference to U.S. Route 61, a 1,400-mile road that runs from New Orleans to Wyoming, Minn. The highway generally follows the Mississippi River and also passes through Dylan’s hometown of Duluth, Minn.

I was also interested by the song “From a Buick 6,” which reminded me of the title of the Stephen King novel, “From a Buick 8.” As it turns out, the title of King’s novel was inspired by the title of Dylan’s song. “From a Buick 8” came out in 2002 and is one of King’s better, more recent novels.

In the end, how many of you have listened to Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” from start to finish? What did you think about it? Is it your favorite Dylan album? If not, which of his albums is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.