1. Subterranean Homesick Blues
2. She Belongs To Me
3. Maggie's Farm
4. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
5. Outlaw Blues
6. On The Road Again
7. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
8. Mr. Tambourine Man
9. Gates Of Eden
10. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
11. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
The sound you hear at the beginning of this record is the sound of millions of hardcore folk music fans shitting their pants with abject fury over what Bob Dylan has just done. After growing increasingly disillusioned with the folk scene, writing protest songs, and being labeled as the "spokesman for a generation", Dylan went electric. In this post-Bowie world, an artist changing their image and/or sound isn't exactly the most shocking thing in the world, but it was a hell of a surprise to people back then. Dylan had to deal with fans booing at concerts and deriding him for "selling out". Fortunately historical hindsight has shown us that those people are stupid.
This album wasn't a complete genre-change, though. While side A contained rock songs, side B kept the more familiar acoustic material. And is it just me, or is the acoustic side of this album better? I know that there's some groundbreaking stuff on side A, but the music itself is mostly pretty simplistic blues-rock stuff, whereas the second side has perhaps the most brilliantly written and poetic songs that have shown up on the list so far.
The electric side is some electrifyin' (shocking, I know? Okay, I'll stop.) stuff, though. 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' is so lyrically dense that it's hard to believe it's only 2 minutes long. The song sounds like the entire story of the '60s radical movement, and the music is equally radical, sounding like it's going to break your speakers.
The next song 'She Belongs To Me', is, along with 'Love Minus Zero/No Limit' are love songs like none before, with lyrics that went beyond the boy-meets-girl surface to plunge the as-yet unexplored depths of poetic expression in rock music. His increasingly abstract lyrics have nothing to do with the problems of society, but they possess a stream of consciousness mode that is quite beautiful. It just goes to show that sometimes you need to follow your own artistic vision, no matter what fans might think.
There's nothing beautiful about 'Maggie's Farm', though. I've always liked this song in particular, because it's essentially a protest song against the people who want him to keep writing protest songs. He even finds time to justify his new direction: 'I try my best/To be just like I am/But everybody wants you/To be just like them/They say "Sing while you slave," and I just get bored.' Bob Dylan doesn't take any shit.
'Bob Dylan's 115th Dream' is one of those bizarre dream narratives that he used to do before his sense of humor was forcibly sucked out of him, and it's totally hilarious. He leaps from one surreal image to the next without giving you any time to rest in between. I wish my dreams were half as interesting.
The acoustic side is where Dylan's newfound appreciation for surrealism truly shines. 'Mr. Tambourine Man' is practically an acid trip set to music! What's not to like? And 'It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding' is the best song on the record, a fully realized grim indictment against American society. Finally, after defying listeners' expectations for an entire record, he says his goodbye to the folk music scene in 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'.
This is one of those albums that totally rewrites the rules of what you can do in rock music that seemed so frequent back then. Dylan's lyrical freedom on this album would go on to inspire countless musicians to follow. Finally, we can escape the Spectre of Filler at last. 9.5/10
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