We find a musician at the absolute peak of stardom desperately trying to shed the bonds of expectation and labels. This cultural place that Dylan had created (or been thrust into) was at a fever pitch with this record, and afterward, it exploded with Dylan's motorcycle accident and his retreat into the shadows of Woodstock.
Keeping in line with the previous two albums in this trilogy, Dylan thrusts the listener into the fire immediately with a raucous, chaotic song that instantly immerses you in the energy of the record. With "Bringing It All Back Home," the opening track of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" feels like the exuberance of Dylan's first experimentation with electric guitar. The lyrics are fast, rebellious, and untethered, immediately hitting you like a train.
"They'll stone you when you're trying to be so good" are the opening words of this record, and they instantly place you into the records atmosphere of a grandiose alienation, and the sense of confusion and loneliness that accompanies that.
The sequencing of the album soldiers past this point with such a masterful string of songs. Immediately following the opening track is "Pledging My Time," a violent, chugging blues tune that sees Dylan occupying the position of a dutiful, disappointed lover stuck in a relationship that gives him nothing in return. I always imagined this song to be about Dylan's relationship with his audience. This feeling of putting all your effort into this authentic art just to be completely dismissed is portrayed excellently, and it's punctuated with an ear-splittingly loud harmonica solo that I absolutely adore.
There are countless lines on this album that speak to some unconscious truth in the back of my head without me being able to fully grasp them. "Visions of Johanna" is full of these lines. The one I always find myself thinking about is "the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face." Nobody does it like Bob Dylan.
On the flip side, more intimate tracks like "Just Like a Woman" or "I Want You" humble the album and bring it to a more personal place. The latter of those two tracks has one of my favorite opening lines of a Dylan song, which goes as follows:
The third category of the album includes more punchy blues tracks, like "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" and "Obviously Five Believers." With all the places the album dips its feet, there's a strong case that this is one of the most perfect rock records every created. I'm consistently blown away by how complete the whole thing is, especially with the amount of material it features.
One of Music's Best Album Covers
I would be remise if I didn't mention the amazing album artwork. The iconic gatefold of the album pictures Dylan standing if held sideways, and we see him looking a bit blurry. The photographer Jerry Schatzberg took a number of photos, with Dylan choosing the final one. The choice behind the blur is one that has been heavily speculated upon, but the real reasoning is rather silly.
Blonde on Blonde album cover, Bob DylanPhoto by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images
An Enduring Legacy
"Blonde on Blonde" remains one of Dylan's most celebrated works. It's a monumental achievement that finds him at his most iconoclastic, charting a path of abstraction that is still being talked about today.
Related: At His Lowest, Bob Dylan Made His Darkest Album — Then It Won Album of the Year
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