Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan - 1962

"Like Elvis Presley, what Dylan can sing, he quickly masters; what he can't, he twists to his own devices" - Tim Riley

   

My history with Bob Dylan begins with only a vague knowledge of him in the 1960s. I was brought up largely on British chart pop, so Dylan sort of passed me by, unlike The Tremeloes or Manfred Mann.

I first became aware of him properly with the 1973 single Knockin' On Heaven's Door which I bought aged fourteen. Next up for me was On A Night Like This from Planet Waves. Thus began an exploration into his back catalogue that found me seeking out the single releases of Like A Rolling Stone and The Times They Are A-Changin'. I was hooked, line and sinker. Lucky was I that Dylan's next release was Blood On The Tracks. You can't ask for much better for my proper introduction into Dylan's albums. 

Thereafter followed a wonderful journey into the great sixties albums, and Desire, Street Legal and Slow Train Coming. Pretty soon I had everything he had released to date and subsequently bought the new releases as they appeared. I have stuck with him all those years, not as long as some have, of course, but it still seems like a long time. 

There have, as anyone will tell you, been ups and downs along the way, but I can honestly say that on every album, there are always one or two tracks that really do it. It has been a great journey. The man's music has provided a recurring soundtrack in my life Dylan may let one down here and there but let's be honest, the man is a genius, possibly the greatest lyricist popular music has ever known, certainly one of the most innovative, thoughtful, expressive and poetic. 

I can't actually find the words to do him and his work justice. It speaks for itself. I am certainly no Dylanologist, or would ever claim to be. Most of what I say about Dylan is probably horse shit, to be honest. None of us really know what went on in his head, it is endless fun trying to figure it out through his words and music. 

So, let's get started.....

 

Yes, I know this is where it all started for Bob Dylan, but, as someone who owns all his albums (save the last two "crooning" ones - Fallen Angels and Triplicate) I have to admit that I rarely play this album and find it a slightly grating and, at times, difficult listen. 

It is largely made up of old blues covers, but they are sung nowhere near as appealingly as they are say, by the older Dylan, on Good As I Been To You or World Gone Wrong. I find Dylan's young voice just a little irritating on this album in places, although of course, I realise what an effect the album had, having been released by one so young. It is nowhere near as good an album as The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan or The Times They Are A-Changin', though. Though released not long after, they are both light years ahead of this one. This set him on his way, though, but the whole folk/protest movement thing came over the next year or so, with his next two albums and contributions from other artists in the Greenwich Village folk scene. 

There are good moments though, it has to be said. Some of the more bluesier numbers I quite like - the cutting Talkin' New York; the powerful bottleneck blues of In My Time Of Dyin' (also memorably covered by Led Zeppelin);  the pure blues of Highway 51; the moving Man Of Constant Sorrow; the acoustic, aggressive, hard-hitting Fixin' To Die and my favourite, Baby Let Me Follow You Down. 

There is an almost punky, edgy, attack to Dylan's renditions of these songs, it has to be said, and his harmonica throughout is revelatory. Dylan's mournful take on House Of The Rising Sun is actually very evocative, but it is completely different to that made famous by The Animals (which was apparently inspired by a version by Josh White, not Dylan's version). 

Freight Train Blues, with that ridiculously drawn-out high-pitched bit just annoys me. In fact all the wailing on that track just doesn't do it for me. I do have time for Woody's Song, however, it was one of the few written by Dylan and in it you can hear hints of the two albums that would follow over the next year. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean has its good points too in its menacing, lamenting tone. The protest songs began with this one. Dylan approaches it with a verve and vigour and a cynicism too. 

Incidentally, the mono version of the album is excellent, particularly In My Time Of Dyin' and Highway 51.

The non-album single, Mixed-Up Confusion, was a skiffle-esque piece of lively fun. It would have nice for it have been on this album.