Bringing It All Back Home – When Dylan Plugged In and Folk Music Exploded

Artist: Bob Dylan · Album: Bringing It All Back Home · Year: 1965 · Label: Columbia · Rank: 61 / 500

Here’s the sound of the sixties cracking open. Bringing It All Back Home is Dylan’s declaration of independence: half plugged-in, half acoustic, fully revolutionary. He steps away from protest music, embraces surrealism, and reinvents himself—and American songwriting— in one swoop.

Side A: The Shock of Electricity

Folk purists were horrified; Dylan was ecstatic. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” arrives like a machine-gun telegram: part Beat poetry, part street report, part proto-rap.

“She Belongs to Me,” “Maggie’s Farm,” and “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” drift between swagger, irony, and tenderness. The band plays loose and joyful—rock music learning to talk like literature.

Side B: Acoustic Doesn’t Mean “Safe”

The quieter second half is even stranger. “Mr. Tambourine Man” is a dream disguised as a folk song. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” is brutal existential poetry delivered with monk-like intensity. “Gates of Eden” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” close the record like apocalyptic lullabies.

Impact

This album is the spark for everything from The Byrds to punk to indie rock. Dylan shows that a songwriter can be cryptic, funny, angry, tender, and absurd— sometimes inside the same verse.

How to Listen

Don’t separate electric from acoustic—listen to the whole pivot happening in real time. You’re hearing a genre shed its skin.