Bob Dylan “Highway 61 Revisited” 1965. Today, May 24th, is Bob Dylan’s birthday (b. 1941). Highway 61 Revisited is Dylan’s 6th studio album and one of his most acclaimed, credited by some as the record that really kicked off the 60′s. It went to #3 in the US and #4 in the UK with its combination of folk, blues rock-n-roll and expansive poetry. It’s probably heresy, but I am not a fan of Dylan in general. (Though I should be – as my dad pointed out to me a month or so back as I went through my parents’ record collection, “If it wasn’t for Dylan, you probably wouldn’t exist.” My folks are huge Dylan fans and I think he was one of their first and main bonding moments.) I don’t care for his voice, his rock isn’t quite hard enough for me and I’m a music-first girl – lyrics are always secondary. That all said, I do like some of this record. It’s named for an old highway that stretched from Duluth, Minnesota (where Dylan grew up and a city we visit almost every summer) to New Orleans. The first track, “Like a Rolling Stone” (released as a single, hitting #2 in the US and #4 in the UK, ranked consistently in the top 10 greatest songs of all time) is really awesome – Dylan famously was booed during its performance at the Newport Folk Festival in ‘65 for “plugging in” – and while not a lyric girl, it’s hard to deny the lines “You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat/ Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat/ Ain’t it hard when you discover that/ He really wasn’t where it’s at?/ After he’s taken everything he could steal.” I also really like “Tombstone Blues,” “From a Buick 6”  and the title track “Highway 61 Revisited,” all upbeat blues rockers. On other songs that most people fall over themselves loving, though, I just can’t get past Dylan’s voice (most especially “Queen Jane Approximately” which I recall liking when the Grateful Dead performed it but I’m sincerely questioning that now). I realize and appreciate that Highway 61 Revisited is an important note in music history and popular culture and it paved the way for a generation of blues-rockers and aspiring poets but Dylan will never be on heavy rotation on my turntable.