Like a Rolling Stone
| "Like a Rolling Stone" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Side A of retail US single | ||||
| Single by Bob Dylan | ||||
| from the album Highway 61 Revisited | ||||
| B-side | "Gates of Eden" | |||
| Released | July 20, 1965 | |||
| Recorded | June 16, 1965 | |||
| Studio | Columbia 7th Ave, New York City[1] | |||
| Genre | Folk rock[2] | |||
| Length | 6:13 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan | |||
| Producer(s) | Tom Wilson | |||
| Bob Dylan singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
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"Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted from a grueling tour of England. Dylan distilled this draft into four verses and a chorus. He recorded "Like a Rolling Stone" a few weeks later for the album Highway 61 Revisited as its opening track.
During a difficult two-day preproduction, Dylan struggled to find the essence of the song, which was demoed without success in 3
4 time. A breakthrough happened when he recorded it in a rock format and the rookie session musician Al Kooper improvised a Hammond organ riff.
Columbia Records, unhappy with the song's six-minute length and electric sound, hesitated to release it. A month later, a copy leaked to a popular new music club, and influential DJs encountered it. The song was then released as a single. Although many radio stations initially refused to play such a long track, "Like a Rolling Stone" reached No. 2 in the US Billboard charts (No. 1 in Cashbox) and became a worldwide hit.
Critics described "Like a Rolling Stone" as revolutionary in its combination of musical elements, the youthful, cynical sound of Dylan's voice, and the directness of the question "How does it feel?". It completed the transformation of Dylan's image from folk singer to rock star, and is considered one of the most influential compositions in postwar popular music. Rolling Stone listed it at No. 1 on their 2004 and 2010 "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" lists.[3] It has been covered by many artists, from the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Rolling Stones[4] to the Wailers, Cat Power, Titus Andronicus and Green Day. At an auction in 2014, Dylan's handwritten lyrics fetched $2 million, a record for a popular music manuscript.[5]
- ^ Considine, Shaun, "The Hit We Almost Missed", The New York Times, December 3, 2004
- ^ Unterberger, Richie. "Great Moments in Folk Rock: Lists of Author Favorites". www.richieunterberger.com. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
RollingStonelistwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Rolling Stone singing Like a Rolling Stone, retrieved 2021-09-10
- ^ Blistein, Jon (24 June 2014). "Bob Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone' Lyrics Sell for $2 Million; Four-sheet draft includes scratched-out ideas, rhymes and doodles". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 27 June 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014.