Thursday, July 20, 2017

Like a Rolling Stone Released 54 Years Ago Today (7-20-65)






An excerpt from Dylan and the Grateful Dead: A Tale of Twisted Fate.
Strike another match, go start anew. It’s all over now, baby blue. The final lines of Dylan’s last record make the perfect intro to his next album, Highway 61 Revisited. A gunshot drum beat hurls the listener into “Like a Rolling Stone.” Dylan’s staring anew with the fervor of a starved animal sprung from a cage to feast on a carcass of meat. Going on the offensive, Dylan howls, “Once upon a time you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime. Didn’t you?” Dylan races forth as if this is his last chance to vent and the clock is ticking. The song is a complex mix of anger, defiance, and gloating, but above all, it’s liberating—a loss of innocence that yields excitement. This song changed lives. The masses heard, felt, and digested Dylan’s diatribe.


The holy anthem of rock and roll emanated from what Dylan described as, “This long piece of vomit, 20 pages long, and out of it I took ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and made it as a single.” Another unexpected twist of luck was the arrival of Al Kooper on organ. Producer Tom Wilson invited Kooper down to watch the recording session because Al was a big Dylan fan. The ambitious Kooper arrived early with an electric guitar and plugged in, hoping to look like a studio musician hired to be there. When Kooper heard the real guitar player, Mike Bloomfield, his dream of playing on the record was all but dead.

Later in the session, when Paul Griffin switched from organ to piano, Kooper occupied the bench behind the organ. Wilson realized what Kooper was up to, but he let him slide. When Dylan and company were listening to the take, Dylan asked Wilson to turn up the organ. Wilson sighed, “That cat’s not an organ player."
         


Dylan replied, “Hey, now don’t tell me who’s an organ player and who’s not. Just turn the organ up.” Kooper hesitated a fraction of a second before each chord change to make sure he was playing the right chord. The slight hesitation and the soulfulness of Kooper’s playing gave “Like a Rolling Stone” a penetrating and majestic sound.  


Commenting on “Like a Rolling Stone,” Paul McCartney said, “It seemed to go on and on forever. It was just beautiful…He showed all of us that it was possible to go a little further.”   




   

    A TALE OF TWISTED FATE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

https://www.amazon.com/Dylan-Grateful-Dead-Tale-Twisted/dp/1547190590
 




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