Dylan's back pages - Recording information for 'Like A Rolling Stone' sessions, June 15-16, 1965

(CBS France / Sony Legacy)

Forty-five years ago, Bob Dylan spent two days recording one of the most influential and groundbreaking recordings in music history, "Like A Rolling Stone". The single, Columbia 4–43346, released on July 20, 1965, would be the lead off track on the album Highway 61 Revisited.

These would be the last sessions with Tom Wilson as producer.

Dylan with The Rolling Stones

Here's the lowdown, according to Olof:

Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York; 15 June 1965
The first Highway 61 Revisited session, produced by Tom Wilson.

1-9. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
10-12. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence
13. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
14-16. Sitting On A Barbed-Wire Fence
17-21. Like A Rolling Stone

Bob Dylan (guitar, piano, harmonica, vocal), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Al Gorgoni (guitar), Frank Owens (piano), Bobby Gregg (drums), Joseph Macho Jr. (bass), Al Kooper (organ).

Notes.
· 2, 3, 5, 14, 15, 17-20 are false starts.
· 4, 10 are interrupted
· Only released tracks and probably 10 are in circulation.
· 1-9, 13 Phantom Engineer on recording sheet.
· 10-12 Over The Cliffs, pt 1 on recording sheet.
· 14-16 Over The Cliff on recording sheet.
· Recorded 2:30-5:30 pm.
 

Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York; 16 June 1965
The second Highway 61 Revisited session, produced by Tom Wilson.

1-15. Like A Rolling Stone
16. Why Should You Have To Be So Frantic?

Bob Dylan (guitar, piano, harmonica, vocal), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Al Gorgoni (guitar), Frank Owens (piano), Bobby Gregg (drums), Joseph Macho Jr. (bass), Al Kooper (organ).

Notes.
· 2, 3, 5-7, 9, 10, 12, 14 are false starts.
· 13 is interrupted
· 3, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 are not in circulation.
· 4 is available as rough mix of the original master tape.
· 16 is a song with real title unknown and CO-number 86449. It has also circulated as Lunatic Princess Revisited.
· Recorded 2:30-5:30 pm.
 

There has been some controversy over the years about what really happened at these and other sessions. While searching something else recently, I came across this "exchange" between Al Kooper, who played organ on these sessions, and Michael Gray, who researched and wrote about much of Dylan's career. You can read it here, here, and here.

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Dylan wrote "Like A Rolling Stone" in early June, 1965, after finishing his last solo acoustic tour in the United Kingdom. He had stated at the time that he had written  "a long piece of vomit", edited it down, and it became "Like A Rolling Stone". We should all be so nauseous.   

"Like A Rolling Stone", 1966

Parts of the sessions from these dates were released on The Bootleg Series (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, Volume 2, in 1991, and the interactive music CD–ROM Highway 61 Interactive in 1995.Take four from June 16 was picked for official release in 1965. Radio station disc jockeys received a special edit with the track divided into two parts, for those not able to play the complete version. You can see different versions of the single at Searching For A Gem.

Forty days and forty nights after the first session, Dylan would turn the entire music world upside down when he performed the song on stage for the first time at the Newport Folk Festival.

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