Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

Any year that can produce two albums from one artist (never mind his contemporaries for the moment) in which this is the weaker just has to be operating on the kind of higher plane in which we wish we could spend every waking moment of our lives. Ah, nostalgia. While I appreciate the raw bleat of the first side – "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Maggie's Farm," "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream," all that – it's the second side that still gives me stone chills. As with, oh say, "Blowin' in the Wind," the best version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" is by Bob Dylan. Accept no substitutes. "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," in which even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked, may go over the top at 7:32, but no one can deny it's riveting. Enjoy the cream. That's what it's there for. P.S. Album cover worth studying.