From a Buick 6

The song is a raucous blues song played recklessly by a band that included Al Kooper on organ and Mike Bloomfield on guitar.^[4] The guitar part is patterned after older blues riffs by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Big Joe Williams.^[5] It also features a backbeat from drummer Bobby Gregg, a bass line from Harvey Brooks, and a soaring harmonica break.^[4][6] The song starts with a snare shot that is similar to the opening song of Highway 61 Revisited, "Like a Rolling Stone".^[3][6] It is essentially a 12-bar blues pattern, played with power chords, and is notable for Brooks' almost indiscernible substitution of an F in the tenth bar of all but the first verses, while the guitar and organ play the G-chord.

The song is partially based on Sleepy John Estes' 1930 song "Milk Cow Blues", even taking a few lyrics from the older song, but its approach is more similar to The Kinks' version of a Kokomo Arnold song that was also called "Milk Cow Blues".^[4]

Cash Box described it as a "rollicking, fast-moving blues-drenched folk rocker."^[1]

• "From a Buick 6" has been covered by musicians such as Gary U.S. Bonds, Mitch Ryder, Treat Her Right, Died Pretty^[7], Mike Wilhelm, Alex Taylor and Johnny Winter.^[8]
• G. E. Smith performed "From a Buick 6" with Booker T. & The M.G.'s during the tribute concert for Dylan's 30th anniversary as a recording artist on October 16, 1992, at Madison Square Gardens in New York City.^[9]
• The name of a 2002 novel by Stephen King, From a Buick 8 is adapted from the title of this song.
• The Billy Bragg song "From a Vauxhall Velox" on the 1984 album Brewing Up with Billy Bragg was written as a response to "From a Buick 6".^[10]