The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?


1. Blowin' in the Wind
Bob Dylan 2:49

2. Girl from the North Country
Bob Dylan 3:23

3. Masters of War
Bob Dylan 4:38

4. Down the Highway
Bob Dylan 3:32

5. Bob Dylan's Blues
Bob Dylan 2:28

6. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Bob Dylan 6:53

7. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Bob Dylan 3:40

8. Bob Dylan's Dream
Bob Dylan 5:02

9. Oxford Town
Bob Dylan 1:50

10. Talkin' World War III Blues
Bob Dylan 6:27

11. Corrina, Corrina
Traditional 2:44

12. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
Bob Dylan / Henry Thomas 2:00

13. I Shall Be Free
Bob Dylan 4:47



Review: It might be his 2nd album, but The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the folk maestro's first album of any significant and lasting importance.  And what significance it is!

Within 5 seconds of pushing the play button, the listener hears the familiar refrain "How many times..." of 'Blowin' in the Wind,' one of the great American folk songs of the 1960's and all time for that matter.  Of course it was a bigger hit for the more conventional voices of the group 'Peter Paul and Mary,' but Bob's voice is confident and powerful throughout this record.  His voice has deepened a bit and he sounds like he's singing with his voice, not trying to sound like someone else as he did on some cuts from his debut album Bob Dylan.  Despite his youth, Bob sounds like a much older man, with the knowledge and experience of someone who has seen much.  He doesn't yet have the drawl, mock, and sneer that he would gather for his mid 60's trilogy of Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, but he sounds like Bob Dylan, if a bit better at this point than many of the imitators would have you believe.

What else can be said about 'Blowin' in the Wind'?  I leave that to the listener to decide.  Suffice to say it is still relevant today, like many of Bob Dylan's anthems on this album and it's follow-up, 'The Times They Are A-Changin'.  Sadly, it will likely still be relevant in 50 years.

Bob follows up 'Blowin' with the beautiful love song 'Girl from the North Country.'  He borrows the melody from 'Scarborough Fair' but the song is separate enough from 'Fair' to stand on its own.

Next we get another protest song, 'Masters of War.'  If Eddie Vedder did a magnificent cover at the 30th Anniversary Concert in 1992 (and numerous other times in concert), Bob's vocal is focused and angry, effectively conveying his sense of disdain and fury towards those who would send our kids off die.  Bob would later claim the song was geared toward the Military Industrial Complex, and this is heard early on in phrases such as "Those who build the big bombs" and "Those who build the death planes."  Still, it is hard not to see this is an antiwar song.  Bob played it in a ramshackle fashion in 1991 at the Grammy Awards, when operation Desert Storm was in effect.  Quite clearly he was protesting.  These 3 songs have frequented Bob's live set throughout much of his career, and rightfully so.

After 2 less complex songs - 'Down The Highway' and 'Bob Dylan' Blues', Bob performs the magnificent 'A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall.'  A jaw-dropping lyric with a fine melody to match.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?

I met a young child beside a dead pony

I met a white man who walked a black dog

I met a young woman whose body was burning

I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow

I met one man who was wounded in love

I met another man who was wounded with hatred

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard

It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

The above is just one verse out of five equally brilliant ones.  If anyone still doubted Bob's lyrical ability at this point, surely this song put those doubts to rest.  In just under seven minutes, Bob essentially writes a treatise on the fear and unease many had at this time with respect to nuclear war.  But instead of writing it in a straightforward manner he writes words a poet would be proud to have signed.

As if that wasn't enough, Bob drops another masterpiece on the listener next with 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright.'  A goodbye to a one night stand or a relationship?  Either way, "I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind / you could've done better but I don't mind / you just kinda wasted my precious time / but don't think twice it's alright." Some of the best acoustic finger-picking of his career thus far (Girl of the North Country is another good example) and a whining low harp solo after each lonely verse.

7 songs in at this point, and 5 of them are downright classics.

The rest of the album is more scattershot: A (rare) sentimental ode to his friends, 'Bob Dylan's Dream;' the brief protest song 'Oxford Town;' The semi-funny 'Talkin' World War III Blues;' a fine full band arrangement of 'Corrina, Corrina' that effectively shows a bit of Bob's vocal chops.  The final 2 songs are reminiscent of the earlier run of 'Bob Dylan's Blues' and 'Down The Highway': The silly 'Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance' and a song called 'I Shall Be Free' which is never as funny as Bob seems to intend it to be.  'Dream' and 'Corrina' are the best of this latter-half lot.  'Corrina' shows that Bob is capable of performing with a full band, albeit entirely acoustic, and 'Dream' is a fine song showing a side of Bob we rarely see, speaking fondly of his friends who he will apparently never see again, "ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat, I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that."

A vast improvement over his first album, obviously due to the inclusion of his original songs.  There are some songs here you can skip, but even those are better than the filler on much of his first album.  The original songs here - notably those first 5 of 7 tracks - are so great, and so enshrined in American culture, that I can't rate this album any higher than the maximum,  Bob would follow up this masterpiece with more protest material with his next release, 'The Times They Are A-Changin'.

Rating: 10/10 **********/**********

Best Song: A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall (today, anyway)

Best 3-Track Run: Blowin' in the Wind / Girl from the North Country / Masters of War

Tier A: Blowin' in the Wind, Girl from the North Country, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Don't Think Twice It's Alright, Masters of War

Tier B: Bob Dylan's Dream, Corrina, Corrina, Oxford Town

Tier B-: Talkin' World War III Blues, I Shall Be Free

Tier C: Down the Highway, Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance, Bob Dylan's Blues

Song I'm most likely to skip: Probably none of them, but if I had to choose ... 'Down the Highway' has a guitar part that is repetitive and its stuck in between so many classics...


Steven Sroczynski is an author and attorney from Massachusetts.  He can be reached at Steve.Sroczynski@gmail.com

Copyright 2015 by Steven Sroczynski.  All rights reserved.  
This blog may not be reproduced, whole or in part, without the express consent of its author, Steven Sroczynski.  

Bob Dylan (1962)

Now, a very great man once said

That some people rob you with a fountain pen

1. You're No Good
Bob Dylan / James Fuller 1:40

2. Talkin' New York
Bob Dylan 3:20

3. In My Time of Dyin'
Blind Willie Johnson / Traditional 2:40

4. Man of Constant Sorrow
Traditional 3:10

5. Fixin' to Die
Booker T. Washington White / Bukka White 2:22

6. Pretty Peggy-O
Bob Dylan / Traditional 3:23

7. Highway 51 Blues
Curtis Jones 2:52

8. Gospel Plow
Traditional 1:47

9. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Rev. Gary Davis / Eric Von Schmidt 2:37

10. House of the Risin' Sun
Terry Holmes / Traditional / Booker T. Washington White 5:20

11. Freight Train Blues
Mississippi Fred McDowell 2:18

12. Song to Woody
Bob Dylan 2:42

13. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
Blind Lemon Jefferson 2:43


Review: Released a couple months before he turned 21, Bob Dylan's self-titled debut is striking in a number of ways.  The first is his method of singing: His voice, as it should, sounds younger than on any other of his albums.  It is higher, less raspy, less nasally, still unique but more typical of the folk singers of the day.  He still sounds gruff at times on it, but the gruff sounds on purpose - Dylan sounds as though he is purposefully trying to rasp/deepen his voice at times on many of the tracks.  He is trying to emulate the blues singers that he admired.  Indeed, this album can form a trilogy along with Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong which came along 30 years later.  All of these albums are largely comprised of covers (the latter 2 entirely so) and have other similarities: the gruff, raspy voice (on the latter 2, not on purpose but due to decades of wear and tear), and the only accompaniment being self played acoustic guitar and heavy harmonica use.

Indeed, of the 13 tracks, only 'Talkin' New York' and 'Song To Woody' are wholly original compositions.  Bob gives himself partial arrangement credits on 'You're No Good' and 'Pretty Peggy-o', and the rest are straight covers or Traditional songs.  The most famous is surely 'The House of the Risin' Sun,' made famous by 'The Animals' a short time later.  Bob's version is, as expected on this wholly acoustic affair, laid back, but nonetheless an impressive sign of Bob's ability to interpret songs.

The other notable songs on the album are 'Song To Woody', which has now shown up on some compilation albums,   The song is a warm, pleasant, plaintive dedication to his mentor Woody Guthrie "and to Cisco and to Sonny and to Leadbelly too."  Bob would revive the song for some fine renditions during his later touring years, notably in 2000.  The melody is lifted from one of Guthrie's own songs, but still it stands as the most promising sign of Bob's talent at this point.

So what of the rest of the album?  'Talkin' New York' is Bob's first stab at the "Talkin' Blues", and its not bad at all.  He would improve upon this with 'Talkin Bear Mountain Massacre Blues' and 'Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues' which he wrote a short time after.

Looking at the song titles, the album seems preoccupied with death: 'In My Time of Dyin,' 'Man of Constant Sorrow,' 'Fixin to Die,' 'Gospel Plow,' 'House..,' and the closer 'See That My Grave is Kept Clean.'  A bit dire for a man not yet 21?  Still, he is emulating the bluesmen of the day, and what better topic to be down about than death?  'Constant Sorrow' and 'Baby Let Me Follow You Down' are well done renditions of songs that would later show up in his live setlists.  In the case of 'Baby,' as soon as famous his 1965/1966 World Tour, of course in an electric arrangement.  It would then largely disappear.  'Constant Sorrow' made a brief, but welcome, appearance in 2002 as a rip-roaring distorted electric riff.

The rest of the album is largely forgettable, if unoffensive.

One of the other more striking things about the album is the harmonica: How often it appears and how well played it is.  The harp has long been recognized as the only instrument Bob had any sort of unique acumen for (guitar?  piano?  more on that in future posts), and at this early stage Bob was able to play harp interludes that were some of his more melodious.  That being said, he still showed his tendency that would hold true throughout his career to linger and whine on a single note well after the note overstayed its welcome.

Overall, a fine effort, but it really doesn't come close to hint at the legendary folk classics he was about to start writing and recording (Blowin in the Wind, The Times They Are A-Changin'), much less his epic mid 60s electric rock records that he would put out just a few years later.

Rating:  6/10 ****** / **********     

Best Song: Song To Woody

Best 3-Track Run: Talkin' New York / In My Time of Dyin' / Man of Constant Sorrow


Steven Sroczynski is an author and attorney from Massachusetts.  He can be reached at Steve.Sroczynski@gmail.com


Copyright 2015 by Steven Sroczynski.  All rights reserved.  
This blog may not be reproduced, whole or in part, without the express written consent of its author, Steven Sroczynski.