Author(s): Opher Goodwin

Performing Arts

One of the the most pivotal albums in the evolution of rock music, no other recording has had more impact than the 1965 classic Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home. In the mid-sixties, Rock Music was about to explode into psychedelia, prog and jazz fusion. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan had made an enormous impact on songwriting with his first four acoustic albums. He had created a different way of writing songs with themes such as civil rights, anti-war protests and social issues that lifted rock music from teenage love songs to serious poetic works of art full of symbolism. But with Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan shot his lyrics through with surreal hard-edged Beat poetry and charged the music from acoustic to blues-based loud electric rock. It alienated him from many of his peers in the folk community but contains classic cuts like 'Mr Tambourine Man' 'Maggie's Farm' and 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'. Dylan had opened the door on experimentation. The Beatles, Stones, Who, Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream all listened and responded. Songwriting rose to new heights with few boundaries. In the wake of Bringing It All Back Home, music was forever changed.