From a Buick 6

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"From a Buick 6"
Positively 4th Street Album Cover.jpg
US single picture sleeve
Single by Bob Dylan
from the album Highway 61 Revisited
A-side "Positively 4th Street"
ReleasedSeptember 7, 1965 (1965-09-07)
RecordedJuly 30, 1965
Studio Columbia, New York City
Genre
Length3:19
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Bob Dylan
Producer(s) Bob Johnston
Bob Dylan singles chronology
"Like a Rolling Stone"
(1965)
"From a Buick 6"
(1965)
"Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"
(1965)
Audio sample

"From a Buick 6" is a song by Bob Dylan from his album Highway 61 Revisited , which was also released as a single on the B-side of "Positively 4th Street". It was recorded on July 30, 1965. [2]

Contents

Musical style

The song is a raucous blues song played recklessly by a band that included Al Kooper on organ and Mike Bloomfield on guitar. [3] The guitar part is patterned after older blues riffs by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Big Joe Williams. [4] It also features a backbeat from drummer Bobby Gregg, a bass line from Harvey Brooks, and a soaring harmonica break. [3] [5] The song starts with a snare shot that is similar to the opening song of Highway 61 Revisited, "Like a Rolling Stone". [2] [5] It is essentially a 12-bar blues pattern, played with power chords, and is notable for Brooks' almost indiscernible substitution of an F in the tenth bar of all but the first verses, while the guitar and organ play the G-chord.

The song is partially based on Sleepy John Estes' 1930 song "Milk Cow Blues", even taking a few lyrics from the older song, but its approach is more similar to The Kinks' version of a Kokomo Arnold song that was also called "Milk Cow Blues". [3]

Cash Box described it as a "rollicking, fast-moving blues-drenched folk rocker." [6]

Legacy

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References

  1. "Highway 61 Revisited review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  2. 1 2 Polizzotti, M. (2006). Highway 61 Revisited. pp. 29, 90–95. ISBN   978-0-8264-1775-6.
  3. 1 2 3 "From a Buick 6". allmusic . Retrieved 2009-06-24.
  4. Shelton, R. (1997). No Direction Home. p. 280. ISBN   0-306-80782-3.
  5. 1 2 Gill, A. (1998). Don't Think Twice It's Alright. p. 86. ISBN   1-56025-185-9.
  6. "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. September 18, 1965. p. 16. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  7. "From a Buick 6 covers". Allmusic . Retrieved 2014-08-11.
  8. This performance was not included in The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration double-album.
  9. Sweeting, Adam (5 April 2001). "Driven to distraction". theguardian.com . Retrieved 20 January 2018.