Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone | by Jacob Uitti [American Songwriter]

In case you ever wondered who took this most classic of portraits it's by Lisa Law.

"After “Like a Rolling Stone” had been written, Bob Dylan invited Mike Bloomfield to his Woodstock home in Upstate New York for the weekend to play the new material. In an interview, Bloomfield later said, “The first thing I heard was ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. I figured he wanted blues, string bending because that’s what I do. He said, ‘Hey, man, I don’t want any of that B.B. King stuff.’ So, OK, I really fell apart. What the heck does he want? We messed around with the song. I played the way that he dug, and he said it was groovy.”

Dylan and company recorded the song on June 15 and 16 in 1965 at Studio A of Columbia Records in New York City. It was produced by Tom Wilson (and was the last song Wilson would produce for Dylan). Along with Bloomfield, Wilson recruited musicians Paul Griffin for piano, Joe Macho Jr. on bass, Bobby Gregg on drums, Bruce Langhorne on tambourine. 

On the second day of recording, Al Kooper joined the session. Then, just 21 years old, Kooper was known as a guitar player. He wasn’t even supposed to play on the session, but when he had a chance, Kooper sat down to take part in the proceedings. As the day continued to transpire, Kooper, who had now ingratiated himself in the session, later told the powers that be that he had a good organ part for the song.

At first, Kooper was scoffed at and was told “no.” But when Dylan heard a playback, which included Kooper’s organ part, he insisted that the organ be turned up, even though Kooper was not a formal organ player. The rest is history. In total, the band did 20 takes and ended up using take No. 4 as the final. 

Many have speculated as to the identity of the song’s main character, Miss Lonely. While the figure may be made up or an amalgamation of several people, many big names have been suggested as to the identity of the central figure, from model Edie Sedgwick to folk heroin Joan Baez. 

Dylan performed the song for the first time live within days of its release in Newport, Rhode Island at the Newport Folk Festival. Famously, many in the audience protested Dylan going electric. "

By

Jacob Uitti / American Songwriter

Lisa Law at the Smithsonian