22 March 2025
Today 60 years ago, on 22 March 1965, singer-songwriter icon BOB DYLAN released
his fifth LP, titled BRING IT ALL BACK HOME. A sound-changing album as it was his first longplayer with electric music on, and recorded with a rock ‘n’ roll band. Narrow-minded, die hard folk fans experienced this move as a betrayal of his folk and protest song roots.
Dylan didn’t care about that. He always did what he wanted to do and still does.
This record is unquestionably one of his multiple grand accomplishments in my
Robert Zimmerman book, musically and lyrically. A bona fide masterpiece.
Despite the controversy, it was Dylan‘s first top 10 album in the US, peaking at #9
and his first No. 1 in the UK. Its monumental single Subterranean Homesick Blues became an influential classic.
Rolling Stone wrote: “By fusing the Chuck Berry beat of the Rolling Stones
and the Beatles with the leftist, folk tradition of the folk revival, Dylan really
had brought it back home, creating a new kind of rock & roll that made every
type of artistic tradition available to rock.”
David Crosby said: “The thing about ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ was his words.
That’s what Bob stunned the world with. Up until then we had ‘oooh, baby’ and
‘I love you, baby.’ Bob changed the map. He gave us really, really good words.”
ALBUM
