The Times They Are A-Changin', recorded Aug-Oct 1963, Released Jan 13, 1964

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.

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.

Musings I: Sources and Resources

Having recently posted the Sources: Print, Sources: Media and Annotated Bibliography here, I feel I should explain the criteria for the inclusion of materials on the 3 lists (and one that is still to come). First, the 2 source lists are comprised of what I feel are the most reliable documents from which I am gleaning information about the recordings on a regular basis. Generally, I will mention them, at least by title, when stating information derived from them and will, sometimes, quote from them as well.

On the other hand, the materials in the Bibliography will probably not be used as resources for explaining the recordings. These books are but a fraction of those available in bookstores, libraries, etc. about a myriad of Dylan-related topics. People who write about Dylan tend to be very thorough, I have found, in their chosen subject area as if they want to make sure that there is no way someone else could find additional information relevant to the little piece of virtual-turf they’ve staked out for themselves. The ones listed here are not particularly better or worse than the ones that I haven’t included, these are just the ones that I’ve actually come across along the way and have had time to evaluate. My annotations are very subjective (which is fun for me since, in my job, I would be required to be much more formal, objective and compleat in the production of a bibliography). Therefore, my reactions are not definitive, merely mine.

I expect not only to add to the Bibliography as I come across more materials in my travels, but to also create a similar section that will explore the Dylan-related websites with which I am familiar. They, too, are of a great number ranging widely in scope, depth and quality. The best of them, like my Sources, have already been listed in “Major Dylan Info Sites” links section at the top of this page.

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, recorded 4/62-4/63, released 5/63

BACKGROUND: May, 1963. Sharp edges are beginning to wear through the cloak of contentment and complacency purchased for the U.S. by the Allied victory in WWII. If the rumblings of the Cold War and plight of southern blacks that has made its way to the national news in its coverage of school busing, sit-ins, and, most recently, the magnificent sight of the tens of thousands of demonstrators framing the reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial as Martin Luther King spoke is not enough to grab the attention of Middle America, the assassination of JFK will soon do the trick.

Once again recorded under the tutelage of the renowned John Hammond, Dylan’s second studio album was produced at a more leisurely pace than Bob Dylan, taking a year to record. During this period, Dylan came into Albert Grossman’s sphere of influence and had signed, at Grossman’s behest, with M. Witmark & Sons as his music publisher. This alliance delivered Blowin’ in the Wind, Quit Your Lowdown Ways and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right to collective lap of Peter, Paul and Mary, the widely popular trio conceived and contrived by Grossman as a vehicle to bring folk music to the record-buying masses. Their version of Blowin’ in the Wind (the fastest selling single in the history of Warner Brothers Records at the time) succeeded in introducing Dylan’s music to the nation. Most likely, many who first purchased Freewheelin’ had found Dylan by way of PP&M. Time magazine, in their July 19, 1963 issue remarked, “Blowin’ is young Dylan at his lyrical best. It sounds as country-airy as Turkey in the Straw, but it has a cutting edge.”

Dylan obligingly provided the a poem-like piece that served as the liner notes for PP&M’s In the Wind album, also released in ’63. It begins “Snow was piled up the stairs an onto the street that first/winter when I laid around New York City/It was a different street then—/It was a different village—“ and end with “But all ‘f us find our way a knowin when it’s morning—/An once yuh know the feelin it don’t change—/ It can only grow—/For Peter’s grown/An Paul’s grown; An Mary’s grown/ An the times’ve grown.”

THE RECORDING: During the two previous weeks I stood in line, bought my ticket, climbed aboard and fastened myself into a seat. This week I’ve actually begun to experience the exhilaration of the roller coaster ride that traces the Dylan discography.

First, let’s just enjoy the cover: snow underfoot, a VW bus parked on one side of the street, an early fifties (late forties?) model car on the other side; Suze Rotolo—the quintessential girlfriend—smiling, long red hair flowing, snuggled up to Dylan’s suede-jacketed shoulder. Both look cold, yet happy…

But we should get on to the music.

Blowin’ in the Wind leads off the 13 song selection—an old friend these days and, as mentioned above, most likely a familiar song, albeit in a more mellifluous form, for the contemporary listener. Four other songs, A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall, Girl from the North Country, Masters of War and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right included here are still strong members of the Dylan canon. And, though Dylan himself may derive great pleasure from finding new settings for his standards in live performance, these are the renderings which the Dylan fundamentalists consider to be the ‘real’ versions. They are sparse, vocal/guitar/ harmonica-bridge arrangements—his signature sound at the time. Guthrie’s influence on young Dylan’s vocals is still unmistakable.

The lesser known (to modern audiences) songs include Down the Highway—an almost recited rather than sung piece—that was presumably written in response to Suze Rotolo’s parentally-forced estrangement; Bob Dylan’s Blues (which includes a spoken introduction that makes the distinction that this tune was written in the USA rather than in Tin Pan Alley!) and Talkin’ World War III Blues both in the talkin’ blues tradition. These, along with I Shall Be Free, are peppered with sardonic humour, both in content and performance, and sixties socio-cultural references. Oxford Town is the first recorded effort concerned specifically with a civil rights confrontation. The upbeat rhythm of Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance has an obvious rock ‘n’ roll influence as does Dylan’s arrangement of Corinna, Corinna which, surprisingly, is recorded with piano, bass, additional guitars and drums. Finally, there’s Bob Dylan’s Dream, a poignant song about the loss of youthful enthusiasm and naïveté—a striking example of the understanding-beyond-his-years quality of Dylan’s compositions of the time—that has since fallen by the wayside in Dylan’s own repertoire (perhaps replaced philosophically by Forever Young) but has been beautifully covered by Judy Collins as well as PP&M and others.

Lyrics 1962-2001 provides an additional 5 titles from the time of this recording: Whatcha Gonna Do, Walls of Red Wing, Who Killed Davey Moore?, Seven Curses and Dusty Old Fairgrounds. Some, along with several of the twenty-seven earlier unreleased compositions, were either recorded during the Freewheelin’ sessions or shortly thereafter, but do not surface officially until Biograph or The Bootleg Series: Vols. 1-3.

CONCLUSION: As is my long-standing predilection, after multiple playings of an album, a few songs begin to rise to the top like cream. These are the ones that I eventually skip/ff to or just set on ‘repeat’ until I’m satiated. I was surprised to find that the first one in this set to have that effect was bluesy-rock rendering of Corrina, Corrina, which, rather than being among the majority of original compositions, is a reworking of a traditional song and it is one of the two tracks (the other being Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right) that has additional instrumental support. Does this mean, at least for me, that Dylan’s original, fundamental style fails to resonate in 2007? I don’t believe that that is truly the case. Rather, the phenomenon operating here (besides the fact that several of the songs are as familiar today as the national anthem) is that this song gives the listener a taste of what is to come from Dylan in the future. With Corrina, Corrina he does not have to be concerned with the success or failure of the language/story/image component of the song. That is already tried and true. Therefore, he can concentrate solely on presentation: chord changes, rhythm, vocal expression, etc. Later on, as he becomes more confident about the truth of expression within his own compositions, his talent for choosing (and, is the case these days, rethinking) the musical setting for his lyrics comes into play. Here, that talent is apparent in its fledgling stage.

As a whole, the album is a triumph, a showcase of Dylan’s growing talents. Listening, even without the knowledge of hindsight, one knows that there is more to come. The excitement and enthusiasm of Bob Dylan is still here. You know that he’s having fun with this and that he’s bursting with more ideas, more things he wants to try, more things he has to say.

[One last note: Times have changed. When Freewheelin’ (and Bob Dylan and several of the titles that will follow) first appeared, it was a monaural recording. ‘Record players’ were the popular method for listening to 45s, and LPs (that’s “Long Playing” for the uninitiated). Stereophonic systems were for the elite and well-heeled—Dave VanRonk’s ‘bourgeois class’. Finding a ‘stereo’ version of an album in the bins of your local record store (the kind that had listening booths in which Dylan, in No Direction Home, admits to being able to commit a song to memory after “one—or two” plays) was usually a difficult task. For that reason, I presume, this ‘Super Audio CD/Direct Stream Digital/SACD Stereo’ version to which I’ve been listening, for all its forced techno-glory, delivers Dylan’s vocals and harmonica riffs from one set of speakers and his guitar from the other. This division was, no doubt, digitally derived from the sound picked up by the two separate microphones into which he played.) The odd experience for today’s listener, though, is the perception that Dylan is either in two separate pieces or lying horizontally!]

"Bob Dylan" (recorded 11/20&21/61, released 3/62)

BACKGROUND: So here’s our boy at age twenty. He’s been in New York City since the previous winter. Less than two months ago Robert Shelton’s fabled rave review of his set at Gerde’s Folk City ran in the New York Times. On this day he’s recording his first album. It’s a Monday. Outside the studio Americans are looking forward to Thanksgiving. The turkeys on their holiday tables three days hence will cost less than 30 cents a pound. This evening they are likely to tune into episodes of Surfside Six, Ben Casey, The Andy Griffith Show, Pete and Gladys, 87th Precinct and The Price is Right after watching the day's news digested into a half-hour run down by Walter Cronkite on CBS or Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, in her syndicated My Day column, is concerned with the recent death of House Speaker Sam Rayburn. John F. Kennedy is in the tenth month of his already remarkable presidency.

The studio is sparsely furnished: moveable partitions/sound baffles, two microphones—one for Dylan, one for his guitar, a table with a stainless water pitcher, a glass tumbler and an ashtray. Dylan’s open guitar case is on the floor. Visionary record producer John Hammond surveys the scene of what his colleagues will soon call “Hammond’s Folly”. Photographer Don Hunstein is ostensibly on hand to capture the event for posterity.

THE RECORDING: Listening to the CD, it’s impossible to miss Dylan’s desire—need—to perform. Each song of the thirteen songs has a unique personality, a unique sound that Dylan melded from the performances he’s heard and studied with nearly religious fervor. At the time, Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Dave VanRonk were probably among the strongest influences. Yet, there’s a distinctive quality that permeates them all. If I could only use one word to define that quality, I’d probably choose ‘exuberance’. It’s in his voice, his breath, his harmonica, his guitar. But there’s more: humour—most definitely humour—and there’s joy and there’s the sound of a singer who is captivated by each song’s story.

All of that said, I must admit that I’ve tried to imagine what recorded music consumers in the early 60’s would have thought when they first heard this thirty-seven minute grab bag of styles and moods that was about to launch a musical Sputnik, particularly those who trusted the red Columbia label to bring them the likes of honey-throated Johnny Mathis, etc. From that perspective I would guess that many of the tunes would have been too rough and grating for their delicate ears. Still, I don’t think even those listeners would have missed the sincere, heartfelt offering in Song to Woody, the fun-poking of Talkin’ New York Blues, the humble introduction to and sing-along quality of Baby, Let Me Follow You Down or the counterpoint of vocal/harmonica melody with guitar-picking rhythm in Man of Constant Sorrow.

CONCLUSION: There's much here—some endearing, some enduring, and some fueled as much by nervous energy as talent. If this were the first Dylan album I heard, as it would have been in the early sixties, I would be cautiously on the look-out for a follow-up, wanting to see what this youngster will offer in the future, but not surprised if Columbia soon found a way to homogenize his sound.

The Quest Begins

Well, I have gathered and numbered my Dylan recordings in preparation for tomorrow: Day 1, Week 1. The list is posted here under "The Recordings". I have set a few parameters which I believe will not only enhance the historical aspect of this experience, but present the material in the fairest manner:

1. No unsanctioned bootlegs.
2. No compilations (greatest hits, etc.)
3. No recordings where Dylan is not the primary focus (i.e. Traveling Wilburys).
4. Listen in the order in which they were recorded, not as they were released. (This places a live concert from 1966 in 1966 when it was recorded, not in 1998 when it was released.)

The recordings are numbered in the order I'll be hearing them. Asterisks denote recordings that will not be included in the project but that I wanted to include in the list for chronological perspective. I'll be listening to these recordings on my commute to and from work each day devoting one week to each album (about 100 miles driving each week) which will give them approximately equal listening time (taking into account the luck of the draw with rush hour traffic) and similar listening circumstances.

I plan to do a bit of research about the historical (what was happening in world & national news, etc.)timeframe for each recording and, if I am aware of actual Dylan comments about the recording and/or composition process for particular songs I will take them into account. (These would include mentions in his autobiography, Chronicles, Part I, recorded interviews and reliably published interviews.) Any such references will be duly cited.

I do not plan to critize or analyze Dylan's work either on a musical or literary level, but rather to approach them as one who enjoys listening to good music or reading good writing. Nor will I refer to the myriad of subjective musical and literary criticism out there or to unsubstantiated connections to events in Dylan's personal life that may or may not have a bearing on the composition or performance.

Elsewhere in this blog I hope to create an annotated bibliography (gee, I'm a librarian...what do you expect?) that will present bibliographic information and my personal reactions--both positive and negative--to the published critical and biographical materials with which I am familiar as well as a 'webography' with similar information about several of the numerous websites dedicated to some aspect of the Dylan phenomenon.

Finally, along the way I expect I'll have some thoughts not only about this project, its process and purpose, but about Dylan's role as a creative being. Frankly, creativity is a subject by which I am thoroughly intrigued and which is, truly, the foundation for this effort.

For those of you who join me on this journey, welcome aboard. I hope you find it both enjoyable and, with any luck, thought provoking.