HIGHWAY
61 REVISITED
Part II: The Recordings in Detail
Overall Sound of the
Different Releases
The original mono album seems the best benchmark for the comparison of other versions, since this is the mix that Dylan probably had the most involvement in. It has a solid, punchy sound, with plenty of bass and with the snare drum more prominent than on any of the stereo mixes. If it has any fault, it's a very slightly tight and forced quality in the mid-range. Possibly this is an effect of the compression which was sometimes applied to mono pop music recordings in the 60s in order to prevent the quieter moments from getting lost in the noise on AM radio.
I find the Sundazed mono vinyl reissue somewhat disappointing. Compared with the original UK CBS pressing, at least, it seems rather dull and lifeless. The 2010 mono CD, on the other hand, sounds to me almost too bright, and gets a little tiring over the length of the whole album. Note I have not heard the 2010 mono vinyl reissue, but I'm told it sounds practically identical to the CD.
All of the tracks
on mono copies I've heard are slightly above musical pitch,
Note and therefore sound slightly
faster than on stereo releases; whether this was Dylan's intention (as it
apparently was on Blonde On Blonde's
"Rainy Day Women") is hard to guess.
It could possibly be just an error introduced in 1965 at the mixing
stage. All
stereo versions that I have heard run at correct musical pitch, whether on
vinyl or CD.
The unreleased "rough
mix" tape is in mono, but it has a cruder sound than the released mono
LP, with the percussion much more
prominent. All circulating copies appear to have an intrusive noise on several
of the tracks, which sounds like mains-borne electrical interference; this was
probably introduced during an amateur tape-copying operation. Note
As presented on the Highway 61 Revisited Again bootleg CD the speed is slightly below
true musical pitch, but since the tape had almost certainly been copied several
times in analogue form before being bootlegged, nothing can be concluded from
this.
All of the released album’s
songs except for “Like A Rolling Stone” were included in the set of acetates
given to Emmett Grogan, which have since circulated on tape and on CD-R. These are, with one minor editing
difference, the same mixes as on the released mono LP, and allowing for the
wear on the acetates and some fidelity lost in the copying process, sound very
similar. The set also contains mono
mixes of “Positively 4th Street” and the better, more familiar take
of “Can You Please Crawl Out You Window?; these sound pretty much the same as
the original 45rpm vinyl releases (in the latter case it was of course the
mistaken release under the title “Positively 4th Street”).
Stereo vinyl copies of the album have always had a
much weaker, thinner sound than mono copies, and the bass drum cannot really be heard on any
of the tracks. This is a common problem with 1960s stereo
records - see the general article on mono versus
stereo.
The
original CD, which first appeared in 1987, gains some
clarity over both mono and stereo vinyl, particular in high frequencies, but it
is just as lacking in bass as the stereo vinyl. The result is a very harsh, strident sound. There is noticeable tape hiss in quiet
spots, possibly because the CD was mastered from a tape several generations
away from the original studio tapes.
The stereo imaging and presence is also poor, probably for similar
reasons.
The
remastered DCC gold CD sounds just right to me, with the same warmth and solidity of bass that the mono LP
had, but with a greater clarity and a more natural, relaxed sound. The
high frequencies are extended but without the harshness of the original CD,
there is very little tape hiss and the stereo imaging is excellent. Note
The one criticism that is sometimes levelled at this edition is the degree of
sibilance in Dylan’s vocals: the “S”s are often noticeably hissy, in a
slightly fluffy sort of way. However, it seems to me that the same problem
exists on all the earlier versions of the album too – even the mono LP. It's
just more noticeable on the DCC disc because of the generally improved
clarity. I suspect the fault was probably either with Dylan’s microphone
technique or with the engineering of the original recording.
The later Japanese 20-bit CD is a noticeable improvement over the original Sony CD, at least on good stereo equipment; it has a slightly more refined sound and better stereo presence, but to my ears it is no match for the DCC version. The bass is still very much attenuated, and there is audible tape hiss, so it was probably mastered from one of Sony's many tape copies equalised for vinyl production. The improvements in sound compared with the original standard CD are perhaps attributable to the Super Bit Mapping technology.
Greg Calbi's remastering for the 2003 SACD edition (and since 2004 used on the standard CD edition) is something else again, and demonstrates just how much control and choice there is in the digital mastering process. It's fair to assume it was mastered from the same original stereo mix-down tape as the DCC edition, but the sound is very different. Where Steve Hoffman gave the album a warm, natural sound, Greg Calbi's later effort makes it bright, hard and aggressive. It's decidedly more lively and dynamic than the old Sony CD, and has a little more bass; but it's still very much treble-dominated. It seems to me that the two remastering engineers have responded to different aspects of the album's character: Hoffman to the richer instrumentation and the world-weary softness that had crept into Dylan's voice since the previous album, and Calbi to the caustic nature of much of the album's lyrics. It's like "It Takes A Lot To Laugh" versus "Tombstone Blues".
One thing Calbi definitely achieved on the 2003 edition (both CD and SACD layers) was to make the vocal sibilance less noticeable; but I suspect he did just this by boosting the necessary narrow band of high frequencies across the board, and this has contributed to the over-bright sound. To my ears this version lacks the warmth and balance that have always made the DCC album such a pleasure.
However, it has to be said that both of these remastered versions of the 1965 stereo mix now sound rather flat and two-dimensional compared with the much newer mixes of Bringing It All Back Home and Blonde On Blonde; there's too much dead space in between the instruments, and a consequent lack of unity to the overall sound.
The Tracks in Detail
In the following notes the
"stereo mix" is that which can be heard on all official CD and stereo
vinyl releases; the only exception is
that noted for "From A Buick 6".
The "mono mix" is the one which can be found on all mono LP
issues. The remastered stereo editions are only mentioned where they
display particular features not covered in the general comments above. Otherwise
you can assume that the comments on the stereo mix apply equally well to all
editions.
Side 1
Like A Rolling Stone
The stereo mix provides a
longer version of the track than the original single or the mono LP, fading out
around 8 seconds later. The rough mix
continues for a further 20 seconds, until the players run out of steam with a
final organ chord from Kooper.
Many
stereo issues of the album (including all CD releases) display a sonic fault in the first verse of this
song: as Dylan sings ". . . bound to
fall, you thought . . .", his voice shifts towards to the right hand side
and back to the centre. According to engineer
Steve Hoffman, who remastered the album for the DCC gold CD, "It's
just a drop-out on the original tape. Some Columbia tape copies don't have this
drop out; they were made before the dropout occurred due to tape wear. Some tape
copies do have this drop-out; they were made after the drop-out occurred." Note
A slightly different mono mix of the song appeared on early Columbia acetates; in this mix it is Bloomfield’s lead guitar, rather than the piano, which dominates the opening bars. Two of the three acetates concerned are double-sided 45 rpm discs, with the song split into two parts. This suggests that the radio station promo single, which was similarly split into Parts 1 and 2, may also have used this mix; but I have yet to hear a copy.Note
Tombstone Blues
This track is the album's
finest showcase for Mike Bloomfield's lead guitar playing, and the stereo mix gives
us another three seconds or so of his wired-up improvisation on the
fade-out. The rough mix tape continues
for a further 16 seconds, but Bloomfield goes slightly off the rails and then
drops into less inspired riffing before the whole thing falls apart, with the
pianist the last to give up.
The early mono master reel
which surfaced on the Emmett Grogan acetates (see Appendix C) contains the
normal mono mix of this song, but faded out 14 seconds later than on the
released mono LP.
It has been reported
elsewhere that the Chambers Brothers were brought in after the recording
sessions were complete, probably on August 4, to record a vocal overdub on the
choruses of “Tombstone Blues”. This was
of course not used for the released album, but the composite recording was put
onto an acetate, and a recording of this has circulated in recent years.Note Bob
Johnston can be heard introducing it as “Tombstone, Number 3 overdub”, and
offering to play it back to the singers at the end. Other than the added vocals on the choruses it is the standard
mono mix, though with the ending extended as on the rough mix tape.
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A
Train To Cry
This lovely song displays
the biggest difference between the mono and stereo mixes, with the stereo
version nearly 40 seconds longer. While
this was a marvellous novelty on first hearing the stereo LP, I don't find it
much of a gain in artistic terms. The
mono version fades out at a logical point, on completion of the instrumental verse,
and wisely leaves you wanting more; the
stereo version continues with Dylan (on harmonica) and the band falling into a
jam that seems to lose the shape of the song's verse pattern for half a minute
or so, until the final repetition of the descending chord sequence. Dylan seems particularly short of ideas for
the harmonica on the "flat" stretch, and the only justification I can
think of for its inclusion is that the chugging groove is maybe reminiscent of
the train in the song's title. The
rough mix tape gives us a further 9 seconds before it finally fades out.
From A Buick 6
Concentrating first on the
standard take of the song, the stereo mix adds 9 seconds to the end of the mono
version. The rough mix tape, unusually,
fades out a couple of seconds earlier than the released mono track; this is perhaps because it was seemingly
added to the tape from a 33 rpm acetate rather than directly from the
multi-track master reel.
The alternate take on the
Japanese and early US and Canadian LPs is a decidedly weaker performance of the
song. It starts off with a solo
harmonica introduction, then settles into a faster tempo than the normal
version; but it is saddled with an
insistent and uncharacteristically weedy guitar riff from Bloomfield, and has
an overall sound which is thin even in comparison with the other stereo vinyl
tracks. The drumming is also decidedly rickety. On the plus side, it does have one or two word changes, most
notably "She comes running down the thruway / With her dynamite and her
thread". In overall length this
version is just a few seconds shorter than the stereo mix of the standard take.
While this alternate take
has only been officially released in stereo format, a mono mix was made, and
surfaced some years ago on the Emmett Grogan group of acetates, though it was
not on the discs derived from the mono master detailed in Appendix C. Characteristically, the mono mix is more
compact, faded out 17 seconds earlier than on the stereo cut.
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Here the stereo mix extends
the song by 6 seconds over the mono version, allowing us to hear at full volume
the curious moan Dylan makes before he gets down to some glissando work on the
piano as the track fades. The rough mix
tape has a further 5 seconds which reveal Dylan chuckling, perhaps at what he's
doing on the piano, before the tape finally cuts.
The most interesting thing
about the rough mix of this song, though, is what it reveals about the released
mono and stereo versions: that they
both contain a spliced-in section at the end of the penultimate verse. The
studio records bear out the fact that an insert was recorded following the
final complete take. On the rough mix
tape we hear the original unedited Take 3, in which the reason for the splice
is apparent: organist Paul Griffin plays an ill-judged chord at the start of
Dylan's line "Give me some milk or else go home". In the released composite version the
re-recorded insert runs from the start of this line through to the end of
". . . Mr Jones" in the chorus which follows.
Side 2
Queen Jane Approximately
This is one of the songs
which was most extended in the stereo release: it outlasts the mono mix by
nearly half a minute, during which we have to endure some fairly strained
harmonica playing in addition to the famously out-of-tune electric guitar. If
this was the best version, what were the other three complete takes like? This one must have been chosen in spite of
its blemishes, either on the strength of Dylan's vocal performance or for the
inspired piano work - probably Paul Griffin again.
The rough mix of this song
provides just another couple of seconds, then comes to an abrupt stop.
Highway 61 Revisited
Here the ten seconds of
extended play-out in the stereo mix do at least give us a little bit more
singing by Dylan - a sort of hummed blues riff in between his blasts on the
"police car" whistle, plus a shout just as the track fades. The rough
mix adds another eleven seconds, including some nice guitar runs from
Bloomfield, and then fades out.
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Once again the stereo mix
adds substantially to the harmonica-led instrumental section at the end of the
song - around 17 seconds this time, with the rough mix continuing for a further
7 seconds before fizzling out.
Desolation Row
The final song of the album, this is the only track which isn't faded out; yet still the ending of the mono and stereo mixes are different. If you listen closely to the very end of the mono version you can hear Dylan give a laugh, presumably in relief at having got through the take. This is much harder to hear in the stereo mix, even with the volume turned all the way up.
On
the new hybrid SACD the clarity of this track is astonishing, and Charlie
McCoy's steel-string guitar sounds remarkably solid, particularly on the SACD
layer; but you have to put up with very obvious tape hiss at the start.
This released version of the song, according to Michael Krogsgaard's research, is a spliced composite of two separate takes, but despite much close listening I can’t hear the join.
The rough mix
tape contains an earlier take of the song, recorded with different musicians. The
released version has the aforementioned acoustic second guitar
played by Charlie McCoy and a stand-up bass probably played by Russ Savakus. The out-take, recorded a day
or two earlier, has Harvey Goldstein/Brooks on electric bass guitar and Al
Kooper playing electric lead guitar (don't forget that when Kooper turned up at
the "Like A Rolling Stone" session he came as a guitar player, even
though he left as an organist).
Given this different
instrumentation you would expect the out-take to have a different feel to it,
but in addition it is played a tone lower, and a lot slower - so much so that
despite having no harmonica verses it is nearly 40 seconds longer than the
released version.Note The result is a very, very dark version of
the song, made even more stark by its celebrated lyric variation: "They
are spoon-feeding Casanova / The boiled guts of birds". This version appears to be a composite too:
at the beginning of the seventh verse (“Across the street they’ve nailed the
curtains”) the sound changes noticeably, with Dylan’s acoustic guitar much more
prominent and the electric guitar correspondingly less so. Perhaps this flaw was one factor in Dylan’s
decision to re-record the song.
Conclusions
The story of Highway 61 Revisited is very much
simpler than that of Blonde On Blonde,
at least as far as the music is concerned. There are really only two versions
which could claim to be definitive: the original mono mix, so far only
officially released on vinyl, and the corrected stereo mix containing the
standard version of "From A Buick 6".
I personally find the more concise endings of the mono version give the album more impact, and I'm sure this reflects Dylan’s original intentions regarding the album’s editing. It's great that this version has now been reissued by Sony in a choice of formats. If you buy The Original Mono Recordings CD set (and there are many good reasons to do so) then you'll have an excellent, digitally imperishable copy in a beautifully presented package; or for not much money at all you can buy the individual album as a download. If you prefer vinyl despite its fragility then either the vinyl box set or the individual album from Music On Vinyl will by all accounts give you an improvement on the Sundazed edition; or if you happen to have a mint original copy then just keep playing it!
The 1965 stereo mix has now been digitally mastered three times for different editions. The original Sony CD is easily dismissed - it really has nothing in its favour. The DCC edition is the one I like best, for its warm, unforced sound and good bass end - but it is now rare and usually pretty expensive. Failing that, you'll find the SACD or the post-2004 standard CD edition a worthwhile upgrade from the old Sony CD.
However, all the stereo CD editions are based on a primitive and poorly edited 1960s stereo mix which really doesn't do the music justice. I hope that before too many more years have passed, Sony and Dylan's organisation will acknowledge that the way the 1960s albums were mixed for stereo (really wide, and mostly with the drums out on one side) just isn't good enough as the standard representation of the music. Then the next time they reissue his catalogue they might have these albums remixed in a sensible style, and edited to mirror the original mono versions. They've already done this with Dylan's first album, so there's some cause for optimism. We'd have to buy the albums yet again (how many copies is that now?), but it would be worth it.
Last updated February 2011