LIKE A ROLLING STONE
BOB DYLAN
SONGWRITER: ROBERT DYLAN
COUNTRY: U.S.A.
ALBUM: HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED/
LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS
GENRE: FOLK ROCK
YEAR: 1965
The
origin of these lyrics was in a piece of verse Bob Dylan wrote in June 1965,
after he had returned from an exhausting tour of England. He reworked it into
four verses and a chorus of this song.
At first,
this song made an unsuccessful demo in 3/4 time. Al Kooper, a session musician,
helped Bob Dylan to finish it by improvising the organ riff.
Columbia
Records wasn't satisfied with both the song's length (over six minutes) and its
heavy electric sound. Only a month later they made a decision to release a
single, after a copy had been leaked to a new popular music club and had been
heard by influential DJs.
Despite
the fact that radio stations were reluctant to play such a long track,
"Like a Rolling Stone" reached number 2 on the US Billboard charts
and became a hit throughout the world.
Highway
61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob
Dylan, released on August 30, 1965 by Columbia Records. Having until then
recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band
on every track of the album, except for the closing track, the 11-minute ballad
"Desolation Row". Critics have focused on the innovative way Dylan
combined driving, blues-based music with the subtlety of poetry to create songs
that captured the political and cultural chaos of contemporary America. Author Michael
Gray has argued that, in an important sense, the 1960s "started" with
this album.
Leading
with the hit song "Like a Rolling Stone", the album features songs
that Dylan has continued to perform live over his long career, including "Ballad
of a Thin Man" and the title track. He named the album after the major
American highway which connected his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota, to
southern cities famed for their musical heritage, including St. Louis, Memphis,
New Orleans, and the Delta blues area of Mississippi.
Highway 61 Revisited peaked at No. 3 in the United
States charts and No. 4 in the United Kingdom. It was
voted number 26 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums(2000).
The album was ranked No. 4 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All
Time". "Like a Rolling Stone" was a top-10 hit in several
countries, and was listed at No. 1 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All
Time list. Two other
songs, "Desolation Row" and "Highway 61 Revisited", were
listed at No. 187 and No. 373 respectively.
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
How does it feel?
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss
Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the
street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How
does it feel?
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the
jugglers and the clowns
When they all did tricks for
you
You never understood that it
ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people
get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome
horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a
Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover
that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you
everything he could steal
How does it feel?
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Princess on the steeple and all
the pretty people
They're all drinkin', thinkin'
that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you'd better take your
diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the
language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you,
you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you
got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got
no secrets to conceal
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Postagens
