10 Classic Albums That Were Originally Considered Failures
8. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
Once the rock and roll boom started to pick up traction, Bob Dylan was the voice of reason most people needed. While people were able to dance to stuff like the Rolling Stones and The Kinks, Dylan's acoustic folk sound and scathing lyrics on the state of the world struck a nerve with the public. Dylan was poised to become the voice of his generation, but Highway 61 Revisited was considered a low by the Dylan aficionados.
After years of making some of the most beautiful folk pieces of his time, this left turn into rock and roll felt like one of the biggest treasons Dylan could have made. Dylan was certainly the same intellectual we had always known, but the dynamic shift led many fans to accuse him of selling out, culminating in one fan calling him "Judas" during one of his first electric shows.
Many folkies may have been abandoning their icon, but Highway 61 was exactly what the pop landscape needed during the mid '60s. Just when Dylan was becoming a living legend, this album brought him back down to Earth with songs criticizing everyone in sight, from journalists to the counterculture to himself at times. Highway 61 Revisited may have been a misunderstood gem in its day, but sometimes the truth can be too bitter a pill to swallow.