Barnes & Noble
Arguably one of the greatest rock 'n' roll records ever, Blonde on Blonde came out during a period of great creativity and considerable tumult for Bob Dylan: The 1966 classic followed two other seminal recordings, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, and came at a time when Dylan was playing his first concerts with a plugged-in band. His predominantly folk constituency booed him vociferously at most tour stops, but he was evidently roused by the response. Mostly written in hotel rooms during his tours in '65 and '66, Blonde on Blonde features enduring novelties like "Rainy Day Women #12 and #35" and "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" and bluesy romps such as "I Want You" and "Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine," as well as beautiful ballads like "Visions of Johanna," "Just Like a Woman," and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Although it was recorded in Nashville, there isn't a pronounced country sound on Blonde on Blonde. However, following a hiatus (reportedly due to a motorcycle accident), Dylan emerged with a more countrified sound on his following recording, John Wesley Harding, launching another controversial chapter his career. Martin Johnson
All Music Guide
If Highway 61 Revisited played as a garage rock record, the double album Blonde on Blonde inverted that sound, blending blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound. Replacing the fiery Michael Bloomfield with the intense, weaving guitar of Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan led a group comprised of his touring band the Hawks and session musicians through his richest set of songs. Blonde on Blonde is an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical and musical revelations on each play. Leavening the edginess of Highway 61 with a sense of the absurd, Blonde on Blonde is comprised entirely of songs driven by inventive, surreal, and witty wordplay, not only on the rockers but also on winding, moving ballads like "Visions of Johanna," "Just Like a Woman," and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Throughout the record, the music matches the inventiveness of the songs, filled with cutting guitar riffs, liquid organ riffs, crisp pianos, and even woozy brass bands ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). It's the culmination of Dylan's electric rock & roll period -- he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again. [In 2003, Columbia/Legacy reissued 15 selected titles from Dylan's catalog as hybrid SACDs, playable in both regular CD players and Super Audio CD players. Each title is packaged as a digipack, containing the full original artwork. On each of the titles, and on each of the layers, the remastered sound is spectacular, a considerable upgrade from the initial CD pressings. Blonde on Blonde was one of five titles that also included a 5.1 Surround Sound mix.] Stephen Thomas Erlewine