Today in Music (1965): Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home released

Bringing It All Back Home Bob Dylan

Released: March 22, 1965 Peak: 6 US, 11 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.5 US, -- UK, 3.5 world (includes US + UK), 9.39 EAS Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Subterranean Homesick Blues [2:21] She Belongs to Me [2:47] Maggie’s Farm [3:54] Love Minus Zero/No Limit [2:51] Outlaw Blues [3:05] On the Road Again [2:35] Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream [6:30] Mr. Tambourine Man [5:30] Gates of Eden [5:40] It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding [7:29] It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue [4:12] Total Running Time: 47:21

Rating: 4.608 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings) Quotable ““If you’re…just starting your Dylan collection, this is the perfect place to start.” – Steve Marshall, The Night Owl Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Revolutionizng the Folk Scene “After a short period as a backup pianist for rockabilly star Bobby Vee, Dylan converted to the guitar and began exploring folk territory, heavily influenced by folk legend Woody Guthrie, whose potent celebrations of the common man would lure Dylan away from rock and roll and into New York’s acoustic Greenwich Village scene.” CS “With his early acoustic albums Dylan…revolutionized the early-1960s folk scene simply by writing his own songs.” TB Then “the floodgates opened and every sensitive teenager who could pick three chords on a battered acoustic guitar suddenly became a folksy singer-songwriter. Dylan was also seen as the inventor of protest music, so the eyes of the musical community were firmly fixed on him, watching his every move.” TB Plugging In Dylan made one of rock ‘n’ roll history’s most significant move in 1965 with the release of Bringing It All Back Home. He “broke all musical boundaries” NO with this “remarkable collection of songs unlike anything else up to that time.” NO “You can feel the excitement of the world being turned on its head, of a cult figure discovering his talent and joyously making the most of it.” RD “If you’re…just starting your Dylan collection, this is the perfect place to start.” NO He “lost some of his most loyal fans…after he did the unthinkable – he plugged in.” CS “With Another Side of Bob Dylan, Dylan had begun pushing past folk” AM and now, “for the first time, this folk music hero used an electric guitar.” NO “On Side One of this pioneering album, Dylan amplifies his cryptic, confrontational songwriting with guitar lightning and galloping drums” 500 and “blows folk music open.” RD “By fusing the Chuck Berry beat of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles with the leftist, folk tradition of the folk revival” CS Dylan created “a new kind of rock & roll.” CS Doesn’t Abandon Acoustic – And Was Always Electric Anyway “Dylan still remembers his folk heritage.” CS he “returns to solo acoustic guitar on the four superb songs on Side Two” 500 where he delivers “some of his best acoustic narratives. But for Dylan, the future was electric.” CS “The fact is that Dylan had always been an electric musician, with his journey into folk music only a temporary departure from his true home of pompadour haircuts and electric guitars.” CS “Bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed and rockers like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly [were] among his early appearances.” CS “Only the restraining hand of his producer John Hammond Sr. kept Dylan’s rock and roll cuts off his early albums, as Hammond knew Dylan was best marketed as an acoustic act.” CS Exceptional Songwriting “It’s not just that he went electric, either.” AM “The nominal folk songs derive from the same vantage point as the rockers, leaving traditional folk concerns behind and delving deep into the personal.” AM “From start to finish, Bringing It All Back Home is one of Dylan’s most enduring statements, containing some of Dylan’s greatest songs and performances.” NO “He’s exploding with imagination throughout the record.” AM Home “had the requisite folk tunes that fans expected, it also contained songs of introspection and paranoia, alongside beautifully poetic love songs – all within the confines of a single album.” NO “This is the point where Dylan eclipses any conventional sense of folk and rewrites the rules of rock, making it safe for personal expression and poetry, not only making words mean as much as the music, but making the music an extension of the words.” AM The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Subterranean Homesick Blues Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: 3/8/1965 (single), Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 39 BB, 52 CB, 53 HR, 6 AC, 2 CL, 9 UK, 4 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 72.18 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The “raucous leadoff track” NO from Bringing It All Back Home was Dylan’s first top-40 single and his “first single to show off his rock and roll interest.” CS This song and “Maggie’s Farm” are loud, caustic, and funny as hell.” 500 It “is a stream of nonsense consciousness.” RD It is “a rock ‘n’ roll song with nicely twisted lyrics that tells about the then current mood of things; this one at its release truly was the first rap song ever made.” KN Dylan “pays tribute to electrified rocker Chuck Berry by borrowing from his ‘Too Much Monkey Business.’” CS “The opener is only the beginning of the revolution” CS where Dylan plugged in and went electric.

She Belongs to Me Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 13.93 streaming About the Song: “The painfully shy She Belongs to Me” CS and Love Minus Zero/No Limit are “uncommonly beautiful love songs.” AM

Maggie’s Farm Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: 6/19/1965 (single), Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 12 CL, 22 UK, 6 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 18.91 streaming About the Song: “The rural rocker Maggie’s Farm” CS “and It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding openly criticize the American government.” CS This is “a great upbeat sounding song about something that is a downer, but you got to smile when you hear the nasty things that Bob has to say about Maggie’s family.” KN This and Subterranean Homesick Blues “are loud, caustic, and funny as hell.” 500

Love Minus Zero/No Limit Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 10.84 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: She Belongs to Me and Love Minus Zero/No Limit are “uncommonly beautiful love songs.” AM

Outlaw Blues Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.19 streaming About the Song: Outlaw Blues, an “up-tempo Chuck Berry-style workout,” TB “and On the Road Again are rambunctious 12-bar blues.” RD

On the Road Again Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.60 streaming About the Song: Outlaw Blues and “the hilariously surreal On the Road Again” TB “are rambunctious 12-bar blues.” RD This song “and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream are “uncommonly funny fantasias.” AM

Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.32 streaming About the Song: On the Road Again and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream are “uncommonly funny fantasias.” AM

Mr. Tambourine Man Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: 3/22/1965 (single), Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 4 CL, 3 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 156.15 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Dylan offers songs that are “individual, yet not personal” AM such as on “the whimsical poetry of Mr. Tambourine Man.” AM Of course, this song gained even greater fame when covered by the Byrds. Their #1 version of the song effectively kicked off the folk-rock movement in the 1960s.

Gates of Eden Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.13 streaming About the Song: “The dream-like Gates of Eden.” CS

It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 14 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 17.94 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: In Maggie’s Farm and the scabrous “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,” 500 with its “surreal paranoia,” AM Dylan “openly criticize the American government.” CS This “is another masterpiece that holds itself together and keeps building to its close almost 8 minutes later.” KN Dylan’s biographer called it the “ultimate protest song.” CS

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 16 CL, 10 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 39.89 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “The closing ballad, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, [is] arguably his finest, most affectionate song of dismissal.” 500

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 75. KN Keno’s Classic Rock Album Reviews NO Steve Marshall (2001). The Night Owl review RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher 500 Rolling Stone (2020). “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” CS Chris Smith (2009). 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music. Oxford University Press. Pages 30-2. TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Pages 60-3. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/7/2011; last updated 9/15/2026.

  

Today in Music (1966): Bob Dylan performed at “The Royal Albert Hall”

The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert (The Bootleg Series Vol. 4) Bob Dylan

Recorded: May 17, 1966 Released: October 13, 1998 Peak: 31 US, 19 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.06 UK Genre: folk rock

Tracks, Disc 1: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. She Belongs to Me 4 4th Time Around 6 Visions of Johanna (5 CL) 6 It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (16 CL) 4 Desolation Row 5 Just Like a Woman (9/10/66, 33 US, 28 CB, 26 HR, 3 CL, 43 UK) 6 Mr. Tambourine Man (single released 12/65, 4 CL) 4 Tracks, Disc 2: Tell Me, Momma I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) 3 Baby, Let Me Follow You Down 1 Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues 5 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat 6 One Too Many Mornings Ballad of a Thin Man 2 Like a Rolling Stone (7/20/65, 2 US, 1 CB, 2 HR, 1 CL, 4 UK, 2 CN, 7 AU) 5 Total Running Time: 95:18 The Original Studio Recordings: 1 Bob Dylan (1962) 2 The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1963) 3 Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) 4 Bringing It All Back Home (1965) 5 Highway 61 Revisited (1965) 6 Blonde on Blonde (1966)

Rating: 4.388 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Quotable: “The most famous bootleg in rock history.” – Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “The most famous bootleg in rock history, with the possible exception of Dylan’s own Basement Tapes.” AMG This “is a great performance from one of the most important performers of our time.” NO The album didn’t receive an official release until 32 years later when it was released in 1998 as part of Dylan’s Bootleg Series. However, “Dylan's performance at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966 (and the bootlegs that followed) set the music world on its ear.” NO The show is often misidentified as being at the Royal Albert Hall – hence the title in quotes on the official release. That show, on May 26, was one of the final shows from the same tour. “The one thing you can't argue is the significance of this tour; and more importantly, this particular show.” NO The first half of the show featured Dylan in a solo acoustic performance. “He was in fine form and turned in a gripping solo performance. The audience was ultra quiet during the seven songs. They had heard most of them several times before. It was familiar territory. They were comfortable.” NO The second half, however, is electric set in which he is accompanied by The Hawks, who later became The Band. “The crowd had no idea that what they were about to experience would change the face of rock music as they knew it.” NO The set opened with “the hard rocker Tell Me, Momma, which Dylan never recorded in the studio.” AMG Within the set, Dylan also performed “radical electric arrangements of songs that had originally been recorded acoustically (One Too Many Mornings, I Don’t Believe You).” AMG Dylan also “blazes through mid-‘60s classics such as Like a Rolling Stone and Ballad of a Thin Man” AMG and delivers “a killer rendition of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, featuring a great guitar solo by Robbie Robertson. The audience tries to drown them out, but they’re no match for the energy pouring from the stage.” NO Dylan fans were dismayed by what they viewed as a betrayal of traditional folk music as evidenced by the legendary moment when a heckler yells “Judas!” Another man shouts, “I’m never listening to you again, ever!” to which Dylan responds, “I don’t believe you” and “You’re a liar.” Then either Dylan or guitarist Robbie Robertson can be heard instructing the band to “play it fucking loud.” WK “Drummer Mickey Jones slams his snare like his life depended on it, and they kick into the best version of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ you’ve ever heard.” NO Film footage of the incident was found and used in Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary No Direction Home. Sometime in late 1970 or early 1971, the electric portion of the show started surfacing on bootleg LPs. Dave Marsh reviewed it in Creem magazine, calling it “the most supremely elegant piece of rock ‘n’ roll music I’ve ever heard.” WK All Music Guide’s Richie Unterberger called it “an important document of rock history. It captures…Dylan…at his most controversial and hard rocking.” AMG Critic Jon Landau notes “the booing, the names, the insults he endured just to be standing there with an electric band…The audience claps at the wrong time, claps rhythmically as if to deliberately throw his timing off.” WK While the bootlegs focused on the electric set, the official package is a two-CD set which “not only includes the eight electric rock songs from the original bootleg, but also the seven solo acoustic performances that comprised the first half of the show.” AMG “The acoustic disc is not as epochal, but on par with the electric half in the quality of material and performance.” AMG “It’s all in very good fidelity, about as good as any copies you could find through unofficial sources.” AMG This isn’t “just an interesting adjunct to Dylan’s ‘60s discography; it’s as worthy of attention as anything else he recorded during that decade.” AMG “Even if you’re not a Dylan fan, this CD is an essential part of any collection.” NO

Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Bob Dylan AMG All Music Guide review by Richie Unterberger NO TheNightOwl.com WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 5/17/2012; last updated 5/17/2024.