Another Side of Bob Dylan
Bringing It All Back Home
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde
John Wesley Harding
Blood on the Tracks
Desire
Slow Train Coming
Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Live 1975
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
Bob Dylan�s sophomore album and for most people, the first one to really strike a chord with the public. I won�t ever claim to be a Dylan scholar, mainly because I enjoy him but don�t worship the man. Here though is folkie Dylan at his finest. This basically means that if you can�t stand a whole 50 minute plus album of acoustic picking and harmonica then you should probably avoid this, as that is what describes all but one song here (The melodies are all solid though, doing so much with so little is one reason people like him I suppose). This is one of the iconic albums in music history though and the back sleeve is priceless, Bob with his girl (Sara? Too lazy to look it up) and he looks so uncomfortable and she looks so happy. I think that sums things up.
�Blowin� in the Wind.� Well everyone knows this song of course. Lyrics don�t make sense but that�s sort of a given because hey, its Bob, it must have meaning (Just imagine a modern day drunk hippie dancing to this...yeah you got it). �Girl From the North Country� is the prettiest song here, showing a Dylan vocal that sounds fragile and human. I think Johnny Cash covered it or Dylan covered Cash or whatever, doesn�t matter as it is a superb song. The blast of harmonica at the end is a bit annoying, but if you concentrate it becomes beautiful. �Masters of War� is another famous one here, with monotonous strummed chords and a menacing vocal. It is a bit harsh though, but Dylan being harsh for some reason sounds poignant instead of petty. �Down the Highway� is a sparse blues with a repeated guitar strummy riff thing and isn�t much of anything at all. �Bob Dylan�s Blues� is uh, another blues. His records are full of stuff like this, which could be classified as filler. In fact filler is what I shall call it, although the Lone Ranger and Tonto ranting is pretty funny. �A Hard Rain�s A-Gonna Fall� is about nuclear war and sports a really catchy chorus but it is a bit lengthy and preachy.
�Don�t Think Twice, It�s All Right� is probably my favorite on here. It has a warm vocal from Dylan and is really catchy with its quick picking. Sounds romantic too, which means that it is hiding bitter sarcastic lyrics. I suppose we all should thank Bob for being a loser when it comes to women, so we all have music to relate to. Emo dudes never really had ladies anyways. �Bob Dylan�s Dream� shows that Bob�s dreams must be really boring. It�s actually sort of sentimental, but its more tripe then anything touching. �Oxford Town� is a short catchy ditty about race riots or some such. �Talkin� World War III Blues� is the first in a long line of surrealistic stories Dylan would put into song form. They would get much funnier after this one, which pretty much describes it�s title. �Corrina, Corrina� actually showcases a full band backing up Dylan, and even has steel drums. I will pass though, yes it is pretty but overall its pretty sleight. �Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance� is a light hearted ditty that sounds like pretty much everything else here. �I Shall Be Free� ends things on a bizarre ramble that is quite funny. For all of his pretensions and worship people gave him, Dylan could be pretty darn funny after all.
Final Comment: You already have an opinion on him I�m sure, but give him a chance and he will manage to grow on you. As for this one, yeah go get it, its not superb in my book (I don�t love Dylan at this point in my life: subject to change) but it sure is history.
Score: ***�
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