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Princess on the steeple

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The New York Times has a fascinating op-ed today about how Bob Dylan’s classic “Like a Rolling Stone” was almost not released. Turns out, Columbia Records’ sales execs didn’t like the song.

Their objection to the song came on two levels. The unstated reason was that they just didn’t like raucous rock ‘n’ roll. The sales and marketing people had made Columbia a winner by selling mainstream American music - pop, jazz, country, gospel, the best of Broadway and Hollywood. But rock? No way. It was this thinking that had led the label to turn down Elvis Presley in 1955 and the first American album by the Beatles in 1963.

Of course, none of this was raised at the meeting about “Like a Rolling Stone.” What did come up was the length of the song. In 1965, three minutes was the average time for singles played on national radio. “Like a Rolling Stone” clocked in at one second under six minutes. The solution? Cut the baby in half, the wise Solomon of Sales decreed.

Read the whole thing. Definitely worth it.

Also, Grow a Brain has a bunch of great Dylan links, including some rare bootleg cuts.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 3, 04 @ 6:27 am

Comments

Good golly! If Shaun Considine did in 2004 what he did in 1965, he not only would have been fired by his employer, he would have been sued by the RIAA, and quite possibly handcuffed, shackled, and drug by the collar down 54th Street, and fined $250,000 (or whatever the current rate is for illicit sharing/playing of copyrighted works). Shaun Considine? A hero before his time!

Comment by Marie Friday, Dec 3, 04 @ 4:04 pm