Once Upon A Time: Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" at 45

45 years ago today, a sharply dressed, chain-smoking 24 year-old hipster named Bob Dylan strolled into Columbia Records’ Studio A in NYC, Wayfarers on, harmonica holder around his neck, plugged in and laid down what many say is the greatest rock song of all time, “Like a Rolling Stone.”

While it is not my favorite Dylan song (as with a lot of epics, I’ve heard it too many times), "Like a Rolling Stone" is a genuine work of genius. The lyrics are masterful, the performance is electrifying (literally) and in every respect it a quantum leap from all the music that came before it.

The song details a New York debutante's fall from fabulousness – it was rumored to be about Edie Sedgwick, one of Andy Warhol’s stable of beautiful people who had been involved with and cast off by Dylan, and fell into hard times. More importantly, it is sung in language and cadence that came right from the streets.

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 took from you everything he could steal?
How does it feel?


"Like a Rolling Stone" made it to #2 on the charts despite being almost 7 minutes long and needing both the A and B sides of a 45 to contain its vitriol. Thereafter, rock & roll became Rock, and any subject matter, language and length was suddenly fair game. Knowing the stakes had been raised, The Beatles quickly went from singing things like "She's in love with me and I Feel Fine" to singing about Taxmen, Lonely Spinsters, Paperback Writers and Days in the Life.

Dylan took the confrontational nature of the song up a notch when he played it live – his performances of it with The Hawks (later The Band) in 1966 are iconic moments in rock history, and thanfully, some were filmed.


45 years on, "Like a Rolling Stone" has lost none of its power. And though many have tried, no one has produced a more powerful, more electrifying anthem. Jimi Hendrix, a huge Dylan fan, did a memorable version at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, but he wasn't the only one to take a crack at Dylan's impossible-to-top original.


Bob Marley & The Wailers: Betcha never heard this one.


The Rolling Stones: I bet this was Mick's idea.


Seal, Robert Palmer & Jon Bon Jovi: Until I saw this, I didn't think it was possible for this song to be boring.


Articolo 31: This version by the Italian hip-hop group was featured in Dylan's film Masked and Anonymous. Kudos to them for not treating the tune with undue reverence. But what the deal is with this video, I have no idea.