Track Listing

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3137 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Leading up to it
This is the album which finally made Dylan accesible to the masses.Which includes me-I'd only heard of Dylan via Peter Paul & Mary and Johnny Cash but a matter of months later came the single Subterranean Homesick Blues and the first electric versions via the Byrds and the Turtles.
Dylan had gone electric after hearing House of the Rising Sun by the Animals.
His next albums were 100% per cent solid Good Time Music.
By the time of psychedelia Dylan was setting the scenes for his next music-country and more acoustic.
His first albums were only accesible if you had got into his music from this one.
And that in a nutshell is how it worked in this country

THE BEST OF BOB
Sure, highway 61, blonde on blonde, blood on the tracks are all classic, this tacks the zimmerman biscuit.

its has a perfect blend of folk rock (gates of eden, tambourine man) and rock n roll (love minus zero, subteranean homesick blues)








buy this now

Essential electric(!!!!)/acoustic songwriting from rock's greatest songwriter
BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME is Dylan's fifth album, released in 1965. Commonly regarded as one of the most influential albums in rock history, BIABH is one of Dylan's most famous albums, and also one of his best.

By 1965, Bob Dylan had released four albums in the space of three years. The first was a traditional folk album with only two original songs. This was the proving grounds, for the market Dylan aiming for focused mostly on traditional material, not new song-writing The second was Dylan the song-writer, and proved to be one of the 1960s' most important albums. The third, Times They Are, featured Dylan the protest singer. The fourth was Another Side, which moved away from the protest-folk sing to a more surreal method of songwriting. For the protest-movement, it appeared for certain they were about to lose Dylan as a member of the movement.

When Dylan released BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, he made it quite clear that not only was he distancing himself from the whole protest-folk movement, he was plugging in and turning on. While in ensuing years this decision has become the stuff of rock and roll legend and mythology, it should be noted this was a tremendously risky direction at the time. If Dylan didn't have the material to back his decision, he could fall flat on his face and his career could be over. Dylan was making a gamble that he could transition to a new fanbase - a very difficult move to pull off for any pop star. Fortunately, Dylan not only had the songs to back his decision, he crafted some of the most enduring music in rock history.

Dylan went electric on this album, but only for half of it, leaving the second half as acoustic. Though it appears Dylan was hedging his bets by doing half electric/half acoustic, the acoustic set is so masterful and so far beyond what anyone else was writing at the time, it works. This would be the last solely acoustic songs that Dylan would record for a studio album for over twenty seven years. Ironically, the acoustic songs are some of the best of Dylan's career, and in several ways outshine the electric half, though the electric songs got more attention when initially released.

Starting with "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and ending with "It's All Over Now Baby Blue", Dylan opened the floodgates of his genius. All eleven songs are expertly crafted, and BIABH features some of the best lyrics in rock music. For this listener, of all Dylan's albums this is the one that most likens back to Dylan's beat heros. As I am a beat fan myself, I tend to look at this album rather fondly.

Before we address the songs, like any Dylan album, there are a number of outtakes, some of which match the songs that made the cut. "Farewell Angelina" came as a shock when it was released in the BOOTLEG SERIES. A well known song from Joan Baez (who made it the title cut of her 1965 album), scholars and fans did not think he had recorded the song. Not only that, the BOOTLEG SERIES recording featured previously unknown verses. This is undoubtly a major song, and should have been included on the acoustic side. "If You Gotta Go" would have fit in well on the electric side. "I'll Keep It With Mine" for me is not only of Dylan's best outtakes, but one of his best songs from the 1960s, and, like "Farewell Angelina", should have been included on this album. Instead, he gave it to Nico to record of Velvet Underground fame.

"Sub. Homesick Blues" is a whole litany of catch phases. Indeed, one of the radical leftist organizations took their name from the song, calling themselves The Weathermen. The song is notable for its lyrical amalgamation of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, with some allusions to "Notes from the Underground" from Fyodor Dostoevsky. While not a member of the original Beats, and lyrically entirely Dylan's own work, the Beat Movement looms heavy on Sub. Homesick Blues, and indeed all of this album in particular. The song is notable for having no chorus (a rare thing for songs in those days) and one of the very first (if not the first) music video ever shot. Ginsberg is in the video (three videos were actually shot by D. A. Pennebaker, who directed "Dont Look Back"), and Subterranean may be in reference to Keroac's novel from 1958, The Subterraneans.

"She Belongs to You" and "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" are love songs the way only Dylan could write them. "Love Minus Zero" is one of the few noted instances where Dylan said he wrote the title long before the actual lyrics.

"Maggie's Farm" is a tell-off to the protest music movement, with Dylan getting bored with the whole thing (or least, that's how it is commonly interpreted). Taking the song on, away from that context, it stands as a young person moving away from tradition and authority to make his or her own way in this world, and to hell with working for slavemasters. This is the song that famously began the electric/folk controversery that enveloped Dylan's entire career at this point. He opened the Newport Festivel with this song (this recording now available on BOOTLEG SERIES VII), featuring Mike Bloomfield on electric guitar, and tore the song up, playing a much faster version than on the album. Being the Folk Festivel, this was very controversial, with Peter Seger famously trying to chop the sound system cables with an ax during his set.

"Outlaw Blues" and "On the Road" are rather comic vignettes, especially the latter. While entertaining, they are the most minor.

"Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" is Dylan's humour on full display. While rather easy to overlook given the serious nature of some of Dylan's other songs on this album, this song is a lyrically sharp, hilarious recount of sailors discovering America, replete with literary, cultural, and historical references and a sharp acerbic wit. In fact, when they were recording the song, the first take broke down due to producer Tom Wilson cracking up. Dylan got such a kick out of it he left this first aborted take (about thirty seconds, including the laugh) that he left it on the record.

Then we get to the acoustic side. While it would be easy to be disappointed that Dylan didn't record a full fledge rock album, rather than half-acoustic half electric, it simply isn't possible given the incredible song writing. These four songs, "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Gates of Eden," "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," are staples in the Dylan songbook. While "Gates of Eden" is not as renowned as the other three, it still stands proudly as among some of Dylan's most searing, abstract work.

"Mr. Tambourine Man", first cut with Ramblin' Jack Eliot for ANOTHER SIDE but left off that album (now available on BOOTLEG 7), was rerecorded for this, resulting in one of Dylan's most famous (justifiably so) songs of his entire career. The wordplay is intricate and startling. The song is also famous for The Byrds' rendition of it. (Oddly enough, only Roger McGuinn is on the actual Byrds recording - the rest were session players). Urban legend states that one night in a bar in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Kieth Richards, Mick Jagger, and Dylan got in a fight, because Dylan said he could have written "Satisfaction", but the Stones could never have written "Mr. Tambourine Man". I agree.

"It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding" is the culmination of his protest writing. In this song, Dylan moves from the topical song-writing to more abstract, universal imagery and protesting, and with absolutely stunning results. This, for my money, is the ultimate protest song, and will be just as valid now as it was when it was written decades ago. What makes the songs Sub. Homesick Blues and "It's Alright Maw" so successful are, unlike his earlier protest songs, Dylan has a lot of social commentary on the tracks, but says it in such a surreal way as to not date the songs, and make them much more universal and broader in scope.

"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" signals the end of a relationship, and it is a song of devastating power and beauty. For those who held out hope Dylan would come back into the fold, this song made it perfectly clear what direction Dylan was to pursue.

Ultimately, this is one of Dylan's best albums. As it is the first installment in what is commonly referred to as his electric trilogy from the mid 1960s, it has every right to be considered legendary. One of the most essential records of the 1960s, and easily one of Dylan's best. Buy it with no regrets.




*The following outtakes were recorded: "California" (early version of "Outlaw Blues), "Farewell Angelina," "If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Gotta Stay All Night)", "You Don't Have to Do That (titled "Bending Down on My Stomick Lookin' West")", "Sitting on a Barb-Wire fence," and "I'll Keep It With Mine". On the BOOTLEG SERIES 1-3 all of these were released, with the exception of California and You Don't Have to Do That, and the version of Sitting is drawn from the HW61 sessions.