May 2nd, 1965: On The Road With Bob Dylan - Part Two - Writing New Songs

It’s likely that aside from giving a slew of press interviews, Dylan spent much of May 2nd, 1965 in his hotel room working on new material for the Highway 61 Revisited recording sessions scheduled for June 1965. Take the video below, which shows Bob tapping away at the typewriter while Joan Baez sings Dylan's "Percy's Song" in the background and Marianne Faithfull watches on, for example.

According to D.A. Pennebaker, Dylan was nearly always at work on new songs during his available time away from the press and the stage. See the clip below from Don’t Look Back showing Dylan running through an early version of “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”.

Here is another scene from Pennebaker’s film showing Dylan at work on a tune that didn’t find its way onto a subsequent album. Tom Wilson, who had just produced Bringing It All Back Home and would go on to produce "Like A Rolling Stone", is the man sitting next to the piano.