Blonde On Blonde by Bob Dylan on CBS records, 1966, value - mono £100, stereo £65

THERE have been plenty of quotes by Bob Dylan. My personal favourite is when Dylan said, "When I first heard Elvis's voice I just knew I wasn't going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail." Years later Dylan was thrilled when Presley recorded Tomorrow Is A Long Time and Don't Think Twice It's All Right. Captivated by the image of James Dean, later Elvis Presley, one of Dylan's early forays into the world of rock 'n' roll was as a keyboard player with pop singer Bobby Vee's band. Vee apparently sacked him saying, "He wasn't a good pianist and couldn't sing in tune." Despite that, Dylan's other influence was based on the Woody Guthrie romantic hobo character in the film Bound For Glory.

In 1962, with just his acoustic guitar, Dylan had several residential spots at venues in and around Greenwich Village, New York. His first album simply titled Bob Dylan was a collection of Guthrie inspired songs on themes not just about romance, but also covering political issues, siding with the oppressed, the abandoned, including victims of injustice, musically representing those we refer to as the 'underdogs'. In 1965 after his last acoustic album Highway 61 Revisited things went surprisingly wrong on July 25 at the Newport Folk Festival. Dylan performed with an electric blues band and was booed by the crowd and left the stage shell shocked. He did return later and performed acoustic versions of It's All Over Now Baby Blue and Mr Tambourine Man. Despite the rejection of his electric band he decided to continue with that musical format and gradually won his fans over.

Blonde On Blonde was his magnificent return as an electric guitarist. It was the first double album (a two disc record) ever released and has been critically acclaimed as containing his finest work. It is simply a collection of his greatest songs notably for the 11 minutes and 23 seconds of Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands believed to be a wedding song for his wife Sara Lownds whom Dylan married in November 1965; the song takes up all of side two. At the time, Dylan claimed,"This is the best song I have ever written." A truly mesmerising song, the first time I ever heard it, it left me spellbound.