What is so great about the song "Like A Rolling Stone"?

Just from my viewpoint hearing it when it first came out - that song is crushing!  Put it on the turntable, crank up the volume  and the beginning notes, that organ, piano, crashing guitar - the sound swallows you, and "electrifies" all the space. Not just because it was Dylan, but because that sound was so intense....it shock us up. Add to that the incredible scathing lyrics and you are dumbfounded. I loved that sound and I loved the length of it. It's the first 6 minute song released as a single I think. The song just goes on and on. Dylan uses his most nasally, sarcastic tone to bend those lyrics right into a listener's unconscious. Dylan was never my great hero or icon. But when Dylan had a few things in his mind to say and he was in a studio, look out, because he never held back. His lyrics in his best writing are filled with great imagery,  steady poetic crafting and a closeness one doesn't see or hear often from a writer. Dylan's best songs are sung to women. Either he loves them or he hates them. And  "Like A Rolling Stone" is directed at a real human being and the passion from Dylan is clear. It's as if no one else is listening. Dylan has a pipeline straight to this woman. And the crashing sound and sharpness of the lyrical content make this one of the top 5 greatest rock songs ever recorded. (Ahem, again this is only my personal perspective...)

It's an anthem to things not generally given anthemic interpretations.  The song speaks to the gypsy within us all, that spirit that seeks real freedom.  And it is a cautionary tale.  Freedom has its costs.

from wikipedia: The song's sound was revolutionary in its combination of electric guitar licks, organ chords, and Dylan's voice, at once young and jeeringly cynical.[58] Critic Michael Gray described the track as "a chaotic amalgam of blues, impressionism, allegory, and an intense directness in the central chorus: 'How does it feel'". The song had an enormous impact on popular culture and rock music. Its success made Dylan a pop icon, as Paul Williams notes: "Dylan had been famous, had been the center of attention, for a long time. But now the ante was being upped again. He'd become a pop star as well as a folk star ... and was, even more than the Beatles, a public symbol of the vast cultural, political, generational changes taking place in the United States and Europe. He was perceived as, and in many ways functioned as, a leader." Record producer Paul Rothchild, producer of The Doors' first five albums, recalled the elation that an American musician had made a record that successfully challenged the primacy of the British Invasion groups. He said, "What I realized when I was sitting there is that one of US—one of the so-called Village hipsters—was making music that could compete with THEM—the Beatles, and the Stones, and the Dave Clark Five—without sacrificing any of the integrity of folk music or the power of rock'n'roll." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_a_Rolling_Stone#Legacy

Subjective stuff: The song blew me away. The arrangement is fantastic, it's well written, and it has some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. And those pre-chorus and chorus parts gave me chills. It's just so... honest. But, that's all just a steaming, walking lump of subjectivity. I love something, you might not, and vice versa. So, to answer your question objectively... Objective stuff: Go read everything Richard H. Schwartz said.

Because it was the song that brought Rock 'n Roll into the realm of "serious music". It left the 3 minute time limit for radio hits in the dust, it melded the sounds of multiple musical traditions together in a way that nobody had heard before and in a way that everybody could find something to like, and it unabashedly cranked up the volume on the conscience and meaning-filled lyrical traditions of the folk music movement and freed them from all the preconceived notions that the music had to sound a certain way, and that it had to appeal to sophisticated (i.e., older) listeners in order to be worthy.

In one line - Listening to it makes you want to go out on a long ride, alone, into the wilderness, and explore life for yourself, tasting it to its last dregs. I love how Dylan has equated freedom with the unabated motion of a rolling stone. How does it feel How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone Ah! Rock music just couldn't get better.