10 Albums That Defined Rock And Roll
4. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
If there was anyone who looked like he didn't belong in the rock and roll conversation in its inception, it should have been Bob Dylan. Despite looking like the antecedent of people like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Dylan's words became the soundtrack to the youth culture in the '60s, rallying against the corruption they were seeing in their parents' generation. Once he actually decided to go the electric route, that's when things really started to get underway.
Outside of public outcry from the folkies of the world, Highway 61 Revisited was the sound of Dylan almost hitting the restart button on his career, openly denouncing the rebellious generation in Like a Rolling Stone and playing to the more downtrodden songs like Ballad of a Thin Man. There are still the Dylan trademarks that you love here though, from the bluesy ramshackle sound of Tombstone Blues to the elongated back half of Desolation Row.
Dylan's not one to preach on this record though. He's more there to just observe what's going on around him and hold up a mirror to the society that's supposedly going to be rising up alongside him. Even though we were looking to build a better place after the Vietnam era, it takes someone like Dylan to ask us if this is really what we want.