About The Song
The origin of these lyrics was in a piece of verse Bob Dylan wrote in June 1965, after he had returned from an exhausting tour of England. He reworked it into four verses and a chorus of this song.
At first, this song made an unsuccessful demo in 3/4 time. Al Kooper, a session musician, helped Bob Dylan to finish it by improvising the organ riff.
Columbia Records wasn’t satisfied with both the song’s length (over six minutes) and its heavy electric sound. Only a month later they made a decision to release a single, after a copy had been leaked to a new popular music club and had been heard by influential DJs.
Despite the fact that radio stations were reluctant to play such a long track, “Like a Rolling Stone” reached number 2 on the US Billboard charts and became a hit throughout the world.