If you weren't there in that time frame, when we were collecting 45s, you probably wouldn't have known about this unusual record that you had to turn over to hear the whole song. When you look on Wikipedia, they don't even show the first pressing of "Like a Rolling Stone," the single. Instead, you'll find a photo of another version of the 45, with this song on Side A and "Gates of Eden" on the B-side.
The song has a legendary history. According to one Dylan interview, the song's reception by the public gave both the creator and his career a major boost. It also catapulted Al Kooper from being like a complete unknown to "that guy who created the memorable organ track on one of the great songs of history." Kooper was a 21-year-old guitar player who "just happened to be there." When the organ player was moved to piano, Kooper audaciously filled the empty seat at the organ. (Evidently "nature abhors a vacuum" even in a studio.)
It's no secret that Rolling Stone magazine took its name from the song and decades later named it #1 on its list of 500 Greatest Songs. (Fwiw, their most recent list bumped Dylan down to fourth with Aretha Franklin in the supreme slot.)
When I was in junior high school at Hillside School, Bridgewater, NJ, the school dances were held in the auditorium with a record player on the stage and a DJ making selections from stacks of 45s all laid out on a table. Every record was three minutes, and "Like a Rolling Stone" was six minutes. This meant you could slow dance for twice as long when this song played. Yes, this is kind of a strange song to dance to, but it was slow enough for a two-step, and who really cared what the lyrics were when we were 13. I would go ask Nancy Black if she would dance with me and it seemed like she always did.
These were the days when teachers stood around the dance floor with rulers in their hands to make sure you were not closer than a foot apart. (They were probably used to measure hemlines as well, which were supposed to be no more than an inch above the knee, if I remember correctly.) For the record, I was too shy to talk to Nancy, either while dancing or while off the dance floor.
Greil Marcus points out in his book about this song, subtitled Bob Dylan at the Crossroads, that Like a Rolling Stone was not the first record that took up two sides of a record. In 1959 In 1959 both Ray Charles ("What'd I Say") and the Isley Brothers ("Shout") released records that needed to be flipped.
As for Nancy Black, if you see her, say hello. (She might be in Tangiers.)
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The song became the opening track on one of the great albums of all time, Highway 61 Revisited. Dylan's mid-sixties albums opened whole new territory with regard to the possibilities of rock and roll. But that's another story.
In 2014 the handwritten lyrics of this song sold for two million dollars. You can read more about that here:
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