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The Best Record Ever Recorded Jan 25, 2010
Bringing it All Back Home is, in my humble opinion, the best record ever recorded. On it there is Bob Dylan at his acoustic best with songs such as "Gates of Eden" and "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). Also on this album is Dylan as he was first heard playing electric with the outstanding "On the Road Again" and "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream." And if you can get though "115th Dream" without realizing Bob Dylan is just about the greatest American poet who ever lived, well you should go back to school and study literature. This album also includes three of my favorite Dylan songs, almost acoustic, just a little electric with that beautiful guitar playing along with his young voice, and they are "She Belongs to Me," "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." And of course you gotta listen to that song that includes the no good, rotten, doctor commie rat,"Maggie's Farm." This is the Dylan record everybody should own. It's just fantastic.
Sheer Poetry Dec 24, 2009
This is the first of a trilogy of albums that rank as perhaps the finest trio of albums ever produced. From the first notes of "Subterranean Homesick Blues," it is clear that we are in a strange land of language that has a raucous rock `n' roll soundtrack. It is the birth cry of folk rock.
It's impossible to resist trying to interpret the lyrics, even though Dylan meant us to experience them first, to let them overwhelm us. Still, the language is clear but the meaning always seems just beyond your logical reach but well within our emotional grasp.
The acoustic second side is wall-to-wall incredible stuff. The fact that they were written over forty years ago and that they sound fresh and exciting today is a tribute to Dylan's enormous talent. It is also a clear sign that his work will endure because it wasn't aimed for and didn't speak for just the moment.
"It's All Over Now Baby Blue" is a sad song of separation, perhaps from a friend or lover or the protest movement. It was a clear signal that Bob Dylan would not be confined by anyone. In many ways, this album is a complete declaration of independence from the folk movement. Though he had made the break on his previous album, "Another Side of Bob Dylan," this time the break was made through the music as well. And the words not only declared his freedom but illustrated for all of us the importance of personal freedom.
--Lawrence J. Epstein, author of Political Folk Music in America from Its Origins to Bob Dylan
Defies Definition Nov 28, 2009
Got to be one of the best musical albums in any genre. I could listen to "She belongs to Me" a thousand times. When I listen to "Maggie's Farm" I can hear my late brother singing the song back in our home in Coventry, England. God, that was 45 years ago! I was 15, my brother was 26 and my hero. Dylan was cool and new.
A Terrific Starting Point Aug 21, 2009
Like most Dylan fans, I find it hard to pick a favourite among the three masterpieces Dylan recorded in the mid-60s. To be fair, Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde and Bringing it all Back Home can all lay claim to being Dylan's finest release. My special fondness for Bringing it all Back Home likely has to do with the fact that it was the breakthrough to Dylan's electric period coupled with the fact that the album (the first in the series) is something of a hybrid, boasting both electric and acoustic tracks.
By this point in his career, Dylan's song-writing had taken a decisive turn away from the overtly political offerings of his third album: The Times They Are A'Changing. The follow-up to that album, the transitional Another Side of Bob Dylan contains at least two tracks (It Ain't Me Babe & My Back Pages) in which Dylan all but renounces his role as spokesman of his generation. That delightfully quirky album, however, in no way prepared Dylan's fan for the album that shortly followed.
In its original LP form, Bringing it all Back Home was divided between an acoustic side two and an electric side one. It was, of course, the electric side that came as the surprise, gaining Dylan new fans even as it lost Dylan some of his loyal folk-music-following. Call the music on that first side rock, call it folk-rock, call it electric folk: call it what you please, but none of Dylan's previous work could have led anyone to anticipate the sheer power of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and that of many of the tunes that follow. (Personal favourites include the well-known "Maggie's Farm", the boisterously funny "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream", and the hauntingly beautiful ballad, "She Belongs to Me").
And yet, to this listener's ears, the album's true highlights are found on its second side. Perhaps as a result of his experiments with electrified music, perhaps as a result of his rejection of straightforward "message" songs, Dylan's writing seems to have taken a leap forward, with the four selections on the original side two of this album representing the richest fruit of that forward leap. "Baby Blue," "Tambourine Man," "Gates of Eden" and perhaps especially "It's Alright Ma" represent the young Dylan at his most hauntingly lyrical and musically rich.
It's the juxtaposition of the electric and acoustic Dylan that will always lead me to hold Bringing it all Back Home in especially high esteem. That's why I regard this album as a terrific starting point for those who only know Dylan through one or more of the Greatest Hit packages that have been released over the years. For anyone wanting to take their next step in becoming acquainted with the work of this wonderful American artist, look no further: Bringing it all Back Home is a wonderful place to begin.
Quintessential Apr 26, 2009
The 60's started here. Popular music never heard anything like it, and it very likely never will again. The Beatles had to play catch up after and they did with "Revolver" but they never did catch ol' Bob again.
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