Desolation Row (track)
by Bob Dylan
Year: 1965
From the album Highway 61 Revisited (track #9)
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Desolation Row appears on the following album(s) by Bob Dylan:
- Highway 61 Revisited (track #9) (this album) (1965)
- The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (track #5) (1998)
- The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (track #22) (2005)
- MTV Unplugged (track #7) (1995)
- The Original Mono Recordings (track #67) (compilation) (2010)
- The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert (track #5) (2016)
- The 1966 Live Recordings (track #5) (compilation) (2016)
- The 1966 Live Recordings (track #20) (compilation) (2016)
- The 1966 Live Recordings (track #36) (compilation) (2016)
- The 1966 Live Recordings (track #50) (compilation) (2016)
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Desolation Row ratings
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Showing latest 5 ratings for this track. | Show all 718 ratings for this track.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Track ratings | Avg. track rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01/27/2026 18:32 | Robert_fripp | 823 | 86/100 | |
| 12/15/2025 20:39 | Arnio | 173 | 64/100 | |
| 12/10/2025 19:50 | Exist-en-ciel | 80,327 | 70/100 | |
| 11/17/2025 06:35 |  Norshammar | 1,432 | 87/100 | |
| 10/27/2025 15:51 | Smith | 2,693 | 84/100 |
Rating metrics:
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(*In practice, some tracks can have several thousand ratings)
This track is rated in the top 1% of all tracks on BestEverAlbums.com. This track has a Bayesian average rating of 91.1/100, a mean average of 90.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 91.3/100. The standard deviation for this track is 13.8.
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Desolation Row comments
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Almost as good as Like a Rolling Stone and that's as big of a compliment as it gets.
ffudnebbuh 11/21/2019 11:42 | #245046
I find this song tiresome....He must have been reading too much modernist literature ( proust , etc) ..yes the world is falling apart and corrupt and you need a new consciousness to see the world the way it really is..science and religion won't help you ( a gross generalization) Dylan came to these conclusions from books..while other people such as gay people who are thrown outside of society from the day they are born without role models. they have to construct an objective map of the world naked..by the time they finish high school or college, they lived through everything he got from books..through six or seven didactic verses he slogs through clumsy metaphors trying to communicate something profound that only he as the teacher/preacher can give you....nothing new here
Goliath 11/11/2018 15:31 | #224316
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One of the best songs ever. The lyrics, the guitar play, the feels!
Bob Dylan's best song.
Onater 01/09/2017 01:53 | #182065
Quite possibly the best lyrics ever written.
nitomano 08/11/2016 05:08 | #172727
Amazaing, beautiful, staggering, masterpiece
What a masterpiece
I heard this album for the first time yesterday! It changed my view on sixties music and Bob Dylan! This is the perfect ending to this and any album!
Me at the beginning of the song: 11+ minutes? Ugh
Me at the end of the song: T_T this is one of the most beautiful songs ever
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