Like a Rolling Stone
At 6 minutes long, it was twice the length of a standard pop single. Radio programmers initially refused to play it. Dylan allegedly wrote it in a cathartic burst after considering quitting music. Rolling Stone ranked it #1 of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Changed the scope of what a pop song could say and how long it could be. Dylan's sneering, baroque imagery announced that rock music was now literature. The organ riff by Al Kooper — he wasn't even supposed to play on the session — is iconic.
Recorded in June 1965, when Dylan was about to go electric at Newport Folk Festival and be booed by folk purists. The song is a farewell to innocence — his own and the decade's.
Songs became anthems for equality, blending spirituals with contemporary R&B.