Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the
pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead
wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep
with the record.
— Paul, Vinyl Curator
Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited
2014 · Columbia / Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 2-422 · Stereo · US · 2xLP, 45 RPM, gatefold box set · 45 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Columbia / Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab |
|---|
| Catalogue number | MFSL 2-422 |
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| Year | 2014 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Stereo |
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| Country | US |
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| Format | 2xLP, 45 RPM, gatefold box set |
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| Speed | 45 RPM |
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| Genre | Rock - Folk Rock/Blues Rock |
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| Producer | Bob Johnston, Tom Wilson (Like A Rolling Stone, Tombstone Blues) |
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| Composer | Bob Dylan |
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| Musicians | Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Al Kooper (organ, piano), Paul Griffin (piano, organ), Bobby Gregg (drums), Harvey Brooks (bass, credited as Harvey Goldstein), Frank Owens (piano), Charlie McCoy (guitar), Russ Savakus (bass) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: MFSL2-422A1 KW@MOFI 22235.1(3)
Side B: MFSL2-422B1 KW@MOFI 22235.2(3)
Side C: MFSL2-422C1 KW@MOFI 22235.3(3)
Side D: MFSL2-422D1 KW@MOFI 22235.4(2)
Condition
- Cover
- NM
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1965 - US Columbia CL 2389, mono, six-eye label, first pressing - no band
1965 - US Columbia CS 9189, stereo, six-eye label, first pressing - no band
1965 - UK CBS BPG/SBPG 62572, mono/stereo - no band
2014 - Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 2-422, 2xLP 45 RPM, numbered limited edition, Gain 2 Ultra Analog mastering <- this copy
2021-2022 - Columbia/Legacy CS 9189 reissue (Sterling Sound cut)
This Pressing
2014 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab numbered limited-edition reissue (MFSL 2-422), 2xLP cut at 45 RPM - not an original-era pressing.
The Album
Recorded in New York in the summer of 1965, this album marked Bob Dylan's full turn from acoustic folk toward electric rock, cut in the immediate wake of his controversial plugged-in performance at the Newport Folk Festival that same year. The sessions brought together a loose, improvisational band including a young guitarist recruited almost by accident on keyboards, giving the record its restless, organ-and-guitar-driven energy. The opening track became a landmark single that stretched the conventions of pop radio with its length and surreal, accusatory lyric, while the closing epic unspooled a sprawling cast of literary and historical figures over eleven minutes. The album arrived at the height of Dylan's mid-1960s creative surge, sitting between his transitional electric debut and the dense wordplay of the double album that followed it. Critics and listeners recognized almost immediately that rock lyricism had been permanently raised in ambition, and the record is now regarded as one of the most significant and influential albums in American popular music, a touchstone for generations of songwriters who followed.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Like A Rolling Stone
2. Tombstone Blues
Side 2
1. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
2. From A Buick 6
3. Ballad Of A Thin Man
Side 3
1. Queen Jane Approximately
2. Highway 61 Revisited
3. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
The Label
Side labels on this copy are the black-and-grey Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab design with the Columbia walking-eye logo and the MFSL Gain 2 Ultra Analog mark, printed with a 1965/2014 dual copyright and a Columbia-Sony manufacturing credit at 550 Madison Avenue - a label design that did not exist before Mobile Fidelity began reissuing Columbia titles under this joint-venture arrangement starting in the 2010s. The dual copyright line explicitly reads "1965, 2014," fixing this pressing's earliest possible date at 2014, well after the 1965 six-eye Columbia originals and the later-1970s orange-label Columbia reissues that preceded it. This places the copy as a 21st-century audiophile reissue rather than any pressing from the album's original release era, standing below every original-era Columbia issue in the pressing hierarchy regardless of how closely its sleeve reproduces the source artwork.
Fidelity
This pressing was remastered and cut by Krieg Wunderlich at Mobile Fidelity using the Gain 2 Ultra Analog chain, spread across two LPs at 45 RPM to maximize resolution from the original master tapes. Collectors generally rate this cut very favorably for clarity and dynamics compared to standard-speed Columbia reissues, prizing the increased headroom the 45 RPM format allows. Within the album's fidelity hierarchy it ranks among the more highly regarded audiophile cuts of this title, sitting above ordinary Columbia reissues though collectors continue to debate it against other specialist mastering efforts of the same recording.
Notes
This copy is the 2014 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab audiophile reissue, a numbered limited edition pressed on 180-gram vinyl as a 2xLP cut at 45 RPM. The labels carry a dual 1965/2014 copyright line, fixing manufacture at 2014 or later regardless of the original 1965 catalog material it reproduces. The runouts show Mobile Fidelity's own etched identifiers mastered by Krieg Wunderlich at MFSL, confirming this as the Gain 2 Ultra Analog cut rather than any Columbia original or later standard reissue.
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