Blonde on Blonde [Remastered 2-CD] [Digipak]

Performer: Bob Dylan
Artist: Al Kooper; Joe South; Robbie Robertson
Producer: Bob Johnston; Bob Johnston; Steve Berkowitz (Reissue)
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: This is a multi-channel hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Bob Dylan; Robbie Robertson (guitar); Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano); Al Kooper (organ); Kenneth A. Buttrey (drums); Charlie McCoy (harmonica); Henry Strzelecki, Jerry Kennedy, Joe South, Wayne Moss, Bill Aitken. Audio Mixers: Michael Brauer; Steven Berkowitz. Recording information: Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville, TN. Photographer: Jerry Schatzberg. Only a year after HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, Dylan miraculously topped himself with further epigrams of surrealistic poetry and emotional intrigue. The pressure of a punishing touring schedule and high public profile helped drive him to an unbelievable fit of creativity as he spontaneously scribbled these gems in his hotel rooms. We were spoiled with a double album, more Dylan music than we had previously heard, yet still destined to endure. BLONDE ON BLONDE surrounds the folk-rock bard with the likes of Al Kooper, Robbie Robertson, Charlie McCoy and Kenny Buttrey, all seasoned musicians giving this album a relaxed confidence quite unlike the youthful energy of HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED. Decades later this album still rewards and surprises. A gigantic record in every sense. If Highway 61 Revisited played as a garage rock record, the double album Blonde on Blonde inverted that sound, blending blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound. Replacing the fiery Michael Bloomfield with the intense, weaving guitar of Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan led a group comprised of his touring band the Hawks and session musicians through his richest set of songs. Blonde on Blonde is an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical and musical revelations on each play. Leavening the edginess of Highway 61 with a sense of the absurd, Blonde on Blonde is comprised entirely of songs driven by inventive, surreal, and witty wordplay, not only on the rockers but also on winding, moving ballads like "Visions of Johanna," "Just Like a Woman," and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Throughout the record, the music matches the inventiveness of the songs, filled with cutting guitar riffs, liquid organ riffs, crisp pianos, and even woozy brass bands ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). It's the culmination of Dylan's electric rock & roll period -- he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again. [In 2003, Columbia/Legacy reissued 15 selected titles from Dylan's catalog as hybrid SACDs, playable in both regular CD players and Super Audio CD players. Each title is packaged as a digipack, containing the full original artwork. On each of the titles, and on each of the layers, the remastered sound is spectacular, a considerable upgrade from the initial CD pressings. Blonde on Blonde was one of five titles that also included a 5.1 Surround Sound mix.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.90) - Ranked #9 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...Dylan delivered some of his finest, clearest songs of comfort and desire..." Q (1/00, p.136) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...easily Dylan's most melodically honed albums....an insane rush of ideas carried by what he'd later call 'that thin, wild mercury sound'....Tunes, tunes, tunes....Dylan the tunesmith never had better days than these." Q (Magazine) (p.110) - "[BLONDE ON BLONDE] captured him at his most feverishly prolific....[With] an unstoppable flood of greet songs." Mojo (Publisher) (10/03, pp.124-6) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...The music takes on a genuine grandeur..." NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #17 in NME's list of the "Greatest Albums Of All Time."

Bob Dylan began as a Woody Guthrie acolyte, imitating the dust-bowl balladeer as faithfully as a baby boomer from Hibbing, Minnesota, could. It wasn't long before he found his own voice, spearheading the early-1960s folk revival as well as the singer-songwriter movement, and introducing poetry into pop music. Through countless changes in sound, image, and even religion, he retained his unique artistic vision even when his popularity occasionally waned. By the 21st century, he was enjoying an upsurge of critical and popular interest based on a series of powerful late-career albums that crystallized his aesthetics and unique world view.

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