‘Like a Rolling Stone’ was recorded 50 years ago today
Bob Dylan’s hit has been called the “greatest song of all time.’’
How does it feel to know that 50 years ago today, Bob Dylan made history when he walked into a Studio A at Columbia Records in New York and recorded “Like a Rolling Stone?’’ He had just turned 24.
The track was released a month later, and it soon rocketed to Number Two on the Billboard Top 100 beneath The Beatles’ “Help!’’
Rolling Stone has called it the greatest song of all time.
“That snare shot sounded like somebody’d kicked open the door to your mind,’’ Bruce Springsteen said of the hit when he inducted Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. “When I was 15 and I heard ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ I heard a guy who had the guts to take on the whole world and who made me feel like I had to too.’’
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The song was recorded all by ear, without any sheet music; Al Kooper, who played organ on the session, told Rolling Stone “it was totally disorganized, totally punk. It just happened.’’ But the song had been incubating while Dylan was on his solo acoustic tour, chronicled in D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary Don’t Look Back, according to Rolling Stone.
On July 20, 1965, Dylan played “Like a Rolling Stone’’ live as part of his first-ever electric set. Apparently, Columbia Records didn’t have high hopes for the song, according to Rolling Stone, since it was six minutes long. It was also a stark contrast from Dylan’s previous work. It became the single biggest hit of his career.
Read more about the creation of the iconic rock song here.
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