9. Bob DylanHighway 61 Revisited
A lot of my choices have Dylan covers, so I have to try and pick a Bob Dylan album for this, and there are so many beautiful records to choose from, both studio and live. But for me, especially when I’m away from home, this is the definitive one. It’s such a classic that it’s hard to find anything new to say about it apart from how much I love it.
I came to this record fairly late, probably my late 20s, but once I’d lost myself in it I found I couldn’t live without it. ‘From A Buick 6’ is possibly my new favourite at the moment, particularly when I need a pick-me-up, but the whole album is absolutely sublime. It’s so fresh, raw and exciting from beginning to end; a constant flowing stream of ideas lyrically, and such a charged and electric sound in the band and the playing.
I listen to it all the time on tour, and also whenever I’m trying to write as it’s so endlessly inspiring and exciting. ‘Desolation Row’! What a song! A moment captured on tape that sounds as if it’s happening live in front of you every time you listen to it. But then the whole album’s like that. What more could you ask for in a record?
The sound, the songs, the cover, everything. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to hear this when it came out.
