Bringing It All Back Home is often seen as the transitional album for Dylan in the sixties, marking the change from simply acoustic guitar and voice to Dylan backed by an electric group. This in all truth is quite a profound change of direction at the time, but the previous album Another Side showed that Dylan was moving in a new direction and was turning his back on the folk purists and turning on to a style of music that had been his original childhood passion. But this is purely transitional as it contains a side of electric songs and a side of electric tracks. Apparently there were electric versions of all the songs, but I am a yet to hear either an electric Gates Of Eden or It's Alright Ma, but then they are perfect just as they are. The main influence for the electric side is the blues, as would be for his next two outings, with the acoustic side taking on a much darker and lyrically probing journey compared to his folk songs of the past. Many people will speak of the general disgust at Dylan moving to the electric guitar, but I often think that this is over emphasised, and that truly the vast majority supported the change, as seen by the sales of the albums, but it of course makes a more interesting story to talk about a backlash. This is definitely the beginning of one of the best Dylan trilogies and although perhaps the electric side still needing some refinement, the acoustic side is one of the greatest sides of a record you will hear.

Often seen as a 'rap' song, this driving song features some rather muddled lyrics that look to dispel rumour and the dependence on the authorities. This starts the album off well and provides a powerful opener, with its driving guitar and bass line. The vocals themselves could be considered slightly rap orientated and the lines of the song are fast and furious, with the rhymes perhaps less evident than some modern rap songs. This combines Dylan's youthful enthusiasm with a political unrest in the hard guitar part and the intimidating speed with which the lines are spoken. An acoustic version of this song can be found on the Bootleg Series Volume 2 for anyone interested in a different perspective of this song.

This track picks up the pace again and provides a harsh attack at Dylan's manager that also serves to react against the civil rights movement leaders and the folk scene. He is often hear to say that at this point in his career, that he was sick of the folk scene and the people in it, and perhaps that is the main subject of this song, but other theories do arise and seem just as plausible as the last, but then that is the beauty of the lyrics as they are non-specific, and yet still contain a degree of personal injustice in them.

One of his best and most endearing love song, but for me the best version of this is the hotel room recording found on No Direction home, which is done on an acoustic guitar and is much more emotional and meaningful. But despite that, the electric arrangement on this version is good and the upbeat manner in which it is played contrasts with the lyrics and helps to put them in a lighter note when perhaps the vocals do otherwise.

A classic Bob Dylan track opens the acoustic half of this album, and most of you will probably know this already, although probably as a cover song more than the original. But this is a great track with some nice almost surreal lyrics and guitar that sets this song off nicely. I myself have always liked the version found on the Bootleg Series Volume 7, which was done in the Another Side Of sessions and is a duet with rambling' Jack Elliot. But then this song can be found in a huge number of versions, and I myself have 12 different versions of this song in my collection.

This is surely one of Dylan's most surreal and lyrically powerful songs ever, with lyrics that seem to swirl around and go nowhere than come back and hit you, with the meaning all so clear. This is really a gripe at modern society again, but then he was a young man, and the sixties were turbulent times for a young man. I love this song, it sits as one of my favourite acoustic tracks by him and the lyrics always get me with their underlying power and meaning, a classic.

Following on from the lyrical journey of the Gates of Eden comes this track which is even more encapsulating and will take in anyone who listens, as this is such a poignant and lyrically powerful track. The song itself deals with the ills in the world and how bad it has become, which is quite a heavy subject for a man only just into his twenties. The guitar is very dark and seems to create almost a vortex for the swirling lyrics, which just ride around in your mind and your soul and will absorb you. One of the greatest songs ever written, no one else but Dylan could write a song like this.