Blonde on Blonde is the name of Bob Dylan’s seventh studio album recorded and released in 1966. It is regarded by music critics, almost universally, as one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time. It is also one of my favorite albums ever. I am a big music geek and an even bigger Dylan fan. So when I was in Nashville, Tennessee last month for an immigration law conference I had to make a pilgrimage to the studio where this monumental record was made.

First, a little background. During late 1965 and early 1966 Bob Dylan was in the midst of his North American tour hot off the heels of the hugely successful album Highway 61 Revisited. ’65 and ’66 turned out to be two of the most prolific and productive years of Dylan’s career. Dylan did not want to waste any time in getting back to the studio, so he booked several sessions with his touring band The Hawks at Columbia’s Studio A in New York City. After 10 recording sessions in New York Dylan and the Hawks didn’t have a single usable song for an album (however one song from the New York sessions was subsequently chosen for the album).

Bob Johnston, Dylan’s producer at the time, suggested they move the recording sessions to Columbia’s Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Johnston had lived in Nashville and had a lot of experience working with the session musicians that worked on “Music Row.” Columbia had acquired the studio in 1962 from famed country music producer Owen Bradley. Many great country artists had recorded music at Bradley’s “Quonset Hut,” including Johnny Cash.

Quonset Hut recording studio, late 1950s.

Johnny Cash at the Quonset Hut studio, 1958.

On February 14th 1966 Dylan brought Al Kooper and Robbie Robertson with him to Nashville, while Johnston recruited the best session musicians in the city to sit in the sessions with Dylan. What took place next was unpredictable. Bob Dylan–the quintessential New York hipster–and the Nashville studio cats, having only met a short time earlier, sat down and recorded one of Dylan’s greatest masterpieces, the 7 minute 33 second track, Visions of Johanna in the first complete take. The rest is, as they say, history.

Visions of Johanna (Blonde on Blonde – 1966)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2011/1/13/3058461//(Bob%20Dylan)%20-%2003%20-%20Visions%20Of%20Johanna.mp3

Columbia’s Music Row Studio B – Nearly all of Blonde on Blonde was recorded in the late-night hours. In a famous Playboy interview years later, Dylan remarked that it was “that thin, that wild mercury sound” he wanted to record. Blonde on Blonde is a great album to listen to during the slow burn of the late night.

Sadly, in 1982 Columbia (by that time owned by Sony Music) sold the studio and it was converted into office space. In 2006 philanthropist Mike Curb purchased the Quonset Hut and the building that had been built around it and restored it. Today it serves as the recording studios for Belmont University’s music classes.

Last month I drove from my hotel room to the famous Music Row district in Nashville (the heart of country music recording). With some help from google maps I found the Quonset Hut and what used to be Columbia Studios. I’m not very superstitious but I do find something special about physical spaces with historical significance. So I sat on a bench in front of the location where Blonde on Blonde was recorded 46 years ago and listened to the entire album on my iPhone. I know it doesn’t get much nerdier than that but it was a really cool experience.

Belmont University’s recording studios (formally Columbia Music studios).

The back of the building and entrance to the original Quonset Hut studio.

The building seen here was built around the original Quonset Hut, which can still be seen in the right hand corner.

The Quonset Hut behind the building.

Parking lot still has Sony Music markings.