"Rewind Button:" Cruising Down Hwy 61
(April 5, 2012)

Every Thursday 1throne joins other elite sites in the "Rewind Button" project, reviewing the top-40 albums of all-time. This week: Bob Dylan, "Highway 61 Revisited."

Cover 1throne likes numbers. This is no secret. Especially numbers with the number 1 in them. Thus, it will surprise no one that 1throne enjoyed Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited."

Yet this week's review was not without challenges. From the outset, Dylan urged listeners to "revisit" Highway 61. Obviously, 1throne cannot "revisit" highways. Indeed, it cannot escape them in the first place. As King of the internet highway, 1throne wears a highway as it wears its own skin. Every breath it takes is doubled, trebled in force by air gusting in its face, as 1throne.com and the internet move forward, ever forward, at breakneck speed.

Fortunately, the intent of Mr. Dylan was not lost on 1throne.

To say Bob Dylan captured the highway sensation would be an understatement. He captured it on track one, let it fly free as a bird on track two, only to recapture it by track three. My friends, it is not that he captured it, but how he captured it.

None of the lyrics make sense. Like someone who says they never visited 1throne.com. You look at them like they were speaking Greek. Not Russian. Russian you can make out a word here and there.

So none of the songs make sense. Or do they? Oh, they do. Very much so. Not the way simpleton "artists" make sense nowadays: lyrics, rhythm, and notes, each reciting the message in full, so that the same simple message is hammered into your brain over and over. And I say "simple," for the message must be simple if each little part is to fully carry it.

Dylan's lyrics were never meant to carry the full meaning. For, as our friend Haviland Tuf may say, Dylan has a "keen perception of the obvious." Lyrics are, in fact, only part of the song. Rather than each part carry the full message, Dylan has each only carry part of the message; together they form the whole. Individually, the parts make no sense but in tandem they do. There is something very elegant about that. Something very 1throne.

What is Dylan's message? You can't express it in words alone. The beauty of his message is it was never restricted by words, and so has the ability to surpass them. Again, very 1throne.

Too much tappin'

Now, let's cut to the chase. The best and worst songs.

There are no worst songs. Only dangerous ones. Tombstone Blues got 1throne's foot a-tappin'. Too much. Luckily 1throne was wearing shoes, otherwise the flesh on its feet would've been scraped raw.

1throne also enjoyed the final track, "Desolation Row." Desolation is not something 1throne is familiar with. Too many Twitter followers and visitors to the site. But 1throne can dream. This track allowed 1throne to dream.

The other elite websites who travelled Highway 61 this week are: