BACKGROUND: Once again, Dylan’s words precede the events. The seminal title track soon proved less relevant to events that had already occurred than to those that were on the bleak horizon. Between the time the recording sessions were completed and the time the album was released, a great change had already taken place: Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed the presidency in the wake of JFK’s assassination in Dallas. The image of his swearing-in aboard Air Force One with a bloodied Jacqueline Kennedy at his side was seared into the national memory. Most likely, as the album appeared on record store shelves in January, the public assumed that the country’s tragedy had served as Dylan’s inspiration. At this point Tom Wilson has replaced John Hammond as Dylan’s producer at Columbia Records. During 1964 he will also produce Simon & Garfunkel's debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m. (He can be seen in D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Don't Look Back watching Dylan work at the piano on a very early version of I'll Keep It With Mine.)
THE RECORDING: The Songs: The Times They Are A-Changin’, Ballad of Hollis Brown, With God on Our Side, One Too Many Mornings, North Country Blues, Only A Pawn in Their Game, Boots of Spanish Leather, When the Ship Comes In, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, Restless Farewell. (Other songs recorded during the same sessions, but released years later: Eternal Circle, Moonshiner, Only a Hobo, Percy’s Song, Lay Down Your Weary Tune, Paths of Victory. At this point, one can only conjecture about the production choices made.) Listening to the CD this week had a surprising effect. There were, of course, the songs that seem, at this point, as familiar as Amazing Grace or America, (the title song, With God on Our Side, Only A Pawn in Their Game and When The Ship Comes In) that bobbed to the surface immediately, quickly followed by The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll which I’ve come to know well during the months I’ve been combing through Dylan’s discography trying to find the important songs I’d previously missed. But, beyond those (yes, I know, those are amazing) many of the others seem lackluster, not just in comparison to the gems, but in comparison to those on Freewheelin’. I did become rather enamored of One Too Many Mornings in its haunting dejectedness. When I took the time to isolate the tracks that were not standing out among their companions, I realized that they (Boots of Spanish Leather, North Country Blues, Ballad of Hollis Brown, Restless Farewell along with Hattie Carroll) were a product of Dylan the storyteller, not Dylan the composer. And wonderfully told stories they are—a true folk tradition, but they are long and, as songs, they offer little for the listener to claim musically. Contributing to this effect is the absence of the intricate finger-picking evident on Freewheelin’ and Gaslight that, in those recordings added a level of lyricism to Dylan’s performance. Instead, bare-bones, flat rhythm chords accompany these tales.
THE RECORDING: The Songs: The Times They Are A-Changin’, Ballad of Hollis Brown, With God on Our Side, One Too Many Mornings, North Country Blues, Only A Pawn in Their Game, Boots of Spanish Leather, When the Ship Comes In, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, Restless Farewell. (Other songs recorded during the same sessions, but released years later: Eternal Circle, Moonshiner, Only a Hobo, Percy’s Song, Lay Down Your Weary Tune, Paths of Victory. At this point, one can only conjecture about the production choices made.) Listening to the CD this week had a surprising effect. There were, of course, the songs that seem, at this point, as familiar as Amazing Grace or America, (the title song, With God on Our Side, Only A Pawn in Their Game and When The Ship Comes In) that bobbed to the surface immediately, quickly followed by The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll which I’ve come to know well during the months I’ve been combing through Dylan’s discography trying to find the important songs I’d previously missed. But, beyond those (yes, I know, those are amazing) many of the others seem lackluster, not just in comparison to the gems, but in comparison to those on Freewheelin’. I did become rather enamored of One Too Many Mornings in its haunting dejectedness. When I took the time to isolate the tracks that were not standing out among their companions, I realized that they (Boots of Spanish Leather, North Country Blues, Ballad of Hollis Brown, Restless Farewell along with Hattie Carroll) were a product of Dylan the storyteller, not Dylan the composer. And wonderfully told stories they are—a true folk tradition, but they are long and, as songs, they offer little for the listener to claim musically. Contributing to this effect is the absence of the intricate finger-picking evident on Freewheelin’ and Gaslight that, in those recordings added a level of lyricism to Dylan’s performance. Instead, bare-bones, flat rhythm chords accompany these tales.
Note: It is with this album that Dylan begins to use liner notes as another outlet for his writing. Included here are the often quoted and perpetually culled for biographical tidbits "11 Outlined Epitaphs."
CONCLUSION: Whether a result of the change in record producers, the increased demands on Dylan’s time for public appearances, the rapidity with which he was turning out new material or Columbia Record’s possible desire to release the new Dylan album as soon as possible, this record, despite the important songs it contains, is uneven and less engaging than Freewheelin’. And, frankly, I wonder why Percy’s Song was not included in place of a few of the others. It, too, is a story, but with much more musicality, so that even at nearly 8 minutes it has a presence that some of the ones included here do not—at least in the form they took at the time of this recording.
CONCLUSION: Whether a result of the change in record producers, the increased demands on Dylan’s time for public appearances, the rapidity with which he was turning out new material or Columbia Record’s possible desire to release the new Dylan album as soon as possible, this record, despite the important songs it contains, is uneven and less engaging than Freewheelin’. And, frankly, I wonder why Percy’s Song was not included in place of a few of the others. It, too, is a story, but with much more musicality, so that even at nearly 8 minutes it has a presence that some of the ones included here do not—at least in the form they took at the time of this recording.
