Bob Dylan released his classic single ‘Like a Rolling Stone’.
At the time of it’s release, the song was seen as a departure for Dylan, featuring a more classic rock n roll sound as opposed to the softer, folksier approach of his early work. As a result, Dylan received criticism from some of his fan base, most famously when he debuted the track at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to jeers and boos from sections of the crowd. Despite this early reaction, the song has become one of the most critically acclaimed of all time. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine declared it ‘the greatest song of all time’ and it currently ranks at no.1 on acclaimedmusic.net, a website that presents a collaboration of music critic’s lists.
The song was recorded just a month before it’s release, but it’s origins stretch back much further. According to Dylan, the song began life as a 20 page story he had written. “(I had) this long piece of vomit, 20 pages long, and out of it I took ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and made it as a single,” said Dylan, in an interview with Montreal’s CBC Radio, “and I never written anything like that before and it suddenly came to me that was, that was what I should do. After writing that, I wasn’t interested in writing a novel or a play or anything, like I knew like I had too much, I wanted to write songs.” Dylan went on to structure the song on the piano, writing four verses and the chorus, before recording the it on the guitar with various musicians over two days in the studios of Columbia Records, New York in June 1965.
The song was initially rejected as a single by Columbia Records, due to it’s duration. At six minutes it was much longer than usual for the era, with most singles lasting no longer than three minutes. However, Dylan’s producer, Bob Johnston, went ahead and released the song regardless and the song became Dylan’s biggest hit at the time. It was kept off the number one spot in the US by The Beatles’ hit ‘Help’. The track was then included on Dylan’s classic album, ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, which was released a month later in August 1965.
The song has influenced, and been covered, by many artists since it’s release. Legendary artists such as Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Bob Marley have all performed their own versions of the song. When inducting Bob Dylan into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame, Bruce Springsteen said: “The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your mind.”
The song stayed in the US charts for twelve weeks, and peaked at number four in the UK. It began a period of classic releases from Dylan after his departure from folk music which would cement his reputation as one of the most iconic and influential artists of the twentieth century.
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