#44: 33 1/3, Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti

As promised, I read another 33 1/3 on today’s flight between Texas and New York. There is something to be said for absorbing this kind of album while flying over the general midwest, but when I was trying to understand the breakdown of each individual song, I realized it was a futile effort at best. This book tried with all its might to bring Dylan history into the music. It took each beat and brought to the accompanying lyrics a sense of wonderment that I’m not sure Dylan himself would have understood. In fact, I’ve come to the possibly presumptuous and probably ill-informed opinion that the prolific myth behind Highway 61 Revisited is not only something in which we want to believe, but a thrill that brings us to others who want feel the same. Basically, I wonder if my decision to focus on this album while feeling as if I had two directions home rendered the entire experience moot. While Dylan may have wanted the listener to feel lost, or at least to identify with his own confusion, I found it incredibly comforting to know that my birthplace and current residence can always be revisited. And revisit them I will, again and again.