Dylan plays with song structure and length on this album to outstanding effect, including on "Visions of Johanna" which runs to over seven minutes. You can see why John Lennon was a fan right here. So much of this album is foremost Dylan, but next track up is a high watermark with "Visions of Johanna" so strong lyrically it's the sort of track you've simply got to take time out to listen to carefully. Next track up "Pledging My Time" is also rooted in the Delta Blues, with Dylan wearing his influences on his sleeve, alternating lyrics with strong harmonica blasts. Opening with the bizarre "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" a giggling Dylan leads off the album with a track that is based in the blues and features what sounds like a Salvation Army band attacking their instruments in a rasping, gruff manner playing them so hard you'd think their lives depended on it.
Recorded principally in Nashville following largely unproductive sessions in New York, that move to the home of Country raised some eyebrows but allowed Dylan to access some of Nashville's prime session musicians who were blended with members of his new backing band The Hawks, and who went on to become The Band - all superb musicians in their own right due to constant touring and rehearsal. The third in a strong trilogy of electric albums following "Bringing It All Back Home" and "Highway 61 Revisited", Dylan's ability with a lyric seemed to step up a notch even from the supreme standards of what had gone before. An astoundingly assured whole, this was one of the very first rock double albums, with the wealth of material on show over nearly 73 minutes almost audacious.
Frequently listed as one of the greatest albums of all time, it's easy to hear just why this 1966 collection garners such generous praise as it features so many bona fide Dylan classics it's practically an early "Best Of".
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