Gonna have to disagree with you there, "Chips". Of course it's all down to your personal perception of the album, but I am going to challenge some of the points you made.
You claim that the album didn't "age well". I find this to be a particularly vague criticism. What about the album didn't age well? How is a song like "Like a Rolling Stone" not addressing a timeless theme, much in the same way that "The Times They Are-a-Changin'" did? If you don't like the song, then fair enough, but isn't the topic of fair-weathered fame, 15 minutes in the sun before a lifetime of obscurity, the tragically addictive stories of fame, wealth, and power turned destitution and misery just as (if not more) relevant than it ever was in the 60s?
I don't really understand how you can compare this "ageing" with the longevity of The Beatles, as if "Ballad of a Thin Man" has aged...or is no longer relevant...how would a song like "I am the Walrus" or "Nowhere Man" still be considered relevant? It's all nonsense rhyme after all.
What is it specifically that means that this album can't live outside of the 60s? "Tombstone Blues", "Desolation Row" and "Highway 61 Revisited" are all removed from any particular political/social/musical era. The reason why there is so much hype around Dylan's lyrics is not simply because that's the "way things are remembered/perceived by history". The man has no lyrical rival. The Beatles are still brilliant..but nowhere near as hard-hitting or provocative, and Springsteen was never as poetic.
I think your review is heavily prejudiced, but had you fallen asleep during Blonde on Blonde I perhaps wouldn't have been so quick to challenge...as that is a truly overrated album (in my humble).
My point made concise is that many of these songs are not about any particularly identifiable thing...how can "Desolation Row" age when its ostensibly about nothing? I think the reason Dylan is still popular is because there hasn't been an artist since him who's managed to consistently out-do him in the lyrical department. ..but maybe you just don't dig the vibe.
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'Well, I'm a common working man,
With a half of bitter, bread and jam,
And if it pleases me, I'll put one on ya man,
When the copper fades away!' - Jethro Tull
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