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List Price: $12.95 | | Publisher: Continuum
Salesrank: 18022
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Editorial Review:
Between the fitfully brilliant Bringing It All Back Home and the sprawling masterwork that is Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited stands as the defining moment in both Dylan’s career and the musical evolution of the mid-1960s. But beyond its place in history, Highway 61 works because of its enduring emotional appeal. Few songwriters before Dylan or since have combined so effectively the intensely personal with the spectacularly universal. In this incisive book, Mark Polizzotti shines a critical light on these remarkable songs and shows us the timeless qualities that make them – and the album as a whole – so affecting.
Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3) Reviews:
Classic Dylan 
2009-10-03 - I just finished up another 33 1/3 book on Bob Dylan's seminal Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti. It is another exhaustively research look at how this great record came together. I think it has three of his greatest songs: " Like A Rolling Stone" (recently voted as the greatest rock song of all time), the underrated "Tom Thumb Blues," and dark "Desolation Row." I need to go back and watch the film Don't Look Back since it was made during this period and has many of the players mentioned in this book. I saw it at the urging of a roommate back in college but I wasn't as invest in Dylan or this record as I am now so it should be a revelation this time around. Another observation I have made is that I am drawn to the surly nature of Dylan's song writing where it seems as though he is trying to get back at al those hypocrites, back stabbers, and people who have tried to drag him down, from "Like A Rolling Stone": Once upon a time you dressed so fine /You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? / People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall" / You thought they were all kiddin' you / You used to laugh about / Everybody that was hangin' out / Now you don't talk so loud / Now you don't seem so proud / About having to be scrounging for your next meal. Another stray observation, Dylan like Patti Smith was heavily influenced by Arthur Rimbaud-"the rock poet."
Everything the 33 1/3 books should be 
2009-02-04 - I have read a handful of the 33 1/3 line of books, each devoted to a landmark album, and Polizzotti's may be the best.
For starters, it's well-researched, adds original research by Polizzotti himself-- including interviews with the Highway 61 session musicians-- and seeks to settle any mysteries or contradictions extant in previous sources (like who played second guitar on Desolation Row). This is unsurprising, as Polizzotti has proven himself a rigorous scholar in such works as Revolution of the Mind, Revised Edition: The Life of Andre Breton, which was clearly assembled from a mountain of primary sources and original research (and done in French, no less!).
But in addition to solid research, Polizzotti has written an intensely personal book on his history with and interpretation of Highway 61. He walks a fine line, never letting his obviously large vocabulary lead him too far into questionable interpretive territory. His interpretations are convincing, or at least always well-reasoned and explained. When it's impossible or difficult to say what Dylan means by a certain lyric or song (which, as Dylan fans know, is pretty much all the time), Polizzotti has no problem admitting it. He does not force or stretch his interpretations over Dylan's many enigmas.
And this, I believe, is what makes this the perfect 33 1/3 book. If Polizzotti were writing a traditional biographical or journalistic account of Highway 61's creation, his personal descriptions and interpretations would intrude on the narrative. But here, they are not only welcome but epitomize the spirit of the 33 1/3 line. An excellent piece of Dylan scholarship and a fine read for anyone seeking to decode Highway 61 (as far as such a task is possible).
A Magnificent Achievement
2008-06-26 - This is the best book ever written about Bob Dylan, and one of the best books I've ever read. Polizzotti writes beautifully; he also knows more and understands more than any other Dylanologist I know.
Charles Kaiser
Best of the series
2008-03-23 - This is the best of the 331/3 series - I'm a dylan freak who's read all the books, yet this has new information (from interviews with Bob Johnston, Al Kooper and others) and insights galore into what was going on in dylan's private and public life and how that found it's way into the lyrics and music of Highway 61. I was sorry to reach the end and wish Mark would write a similar volume on Blonde on Blonde.
"Highway 61 in NYC"
2007-03-23 - Good read. This was the type of book I expected when I bought "A Season in Hell: THe making of 'Exile on Main Street'". "Highway 61 ..." is really about the making of the album. Though the album does not compare, in my opinion with "Free Wheelin" and "The Times..", some of the songs are among my Favorite Dylan compositions". The book seems to answer the question as to which Fourth Street (Minneapolis or NYC) is referred to in "Positively ...". And I enjoyed the Al Kooper opinion that Desolation Row was the pre Guiliani 8th Avenue. Also didn't know that a Hanging of African Americans took place in Duluth, MN. Can't get too much further North than Duluth.
If you are a Dylan Fan,Read this Book.
