In 1962, Bob Dylan burst forth onto the music scene with an
\nalbum comprised mostly of covers and two originals. Nowadays, we’d
\nprobably expect that his first album was met with commercial
\nacclaim; instead, it sold poorly. It was an excellent effort, but
\nit showed the artist still searching for his own voice.<\/p>\n
One album later, on 1963’s
\nThe Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan<\/i>, that voice was found. With only
\none song that Dylan didn’t at least co-write and a more socially
\nconscious stand to his songs, Dylan finally was being recognized as
\nthe next leader of the protest movement. It still isn’t perfect –
\nbut it’s damn near.<\/p>\n
\nThe Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan<\/i> is highlighted by two firsts for
\nDylan in his young career. From what I could hear, this is the
\nfirst time that he chose to use 12-string guitar on some songs,
\nsuch as “Blowin’ In The Wind”. It also is the first time that Dylan
\nuses more accompaniment than just his guitar and harmonica. But
\nmake no mistake, Dylan is still the star of the show – and
\nrightfully so.<\/p>\n
Looking at some of these songs in 1999, tracks like “A Hard
\nRain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “Blowin’ In The Wind” don’t sound like
\nangry statements about society in 1963. Then again, I never saw the
\nanger in “This Land Is Your Land,” so maybe I’m not the best judge
\nof the protest movement.<\/p>\n
It took me a long time to get used to the original version of
\n“Blowin’ In The Wind,” having grown up with the Peter, Paul &
\nMary version. But the effort proves to be worth it, as Dylan’s
\nfirst take has a certain magic about it, even if the time signature
\nisn’t always followed to the letter of the law. (Maybe this was the
\nbig difficulty I first had with this album; getting through
\nBob Dylan<\/i> actually helped me see this album in a better
\nlight.)<\/p>\n
What is evident on
\nThe Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan<\/i> is that Dylan is more comfortable
\nwith his role as a folk singer and as a songwriter; tracks like
\n“Girl From The North Country,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”
\nand “I Shall Be Free” all show images of an artist who has grown in
\nsuch a short time. If you need further proof, listen to the
\nscathing commentaries on tracks like “Masters Of War” and “Talking
\nWorld War III Blues”, the latter being one of my favorites off this
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
If you’re not familiar with Dylan’s style,
\nThe Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan<\/i> is occasionally a difficult
\nlisten. But if you take the time to get to know both the songwriter
\nand his own unique musical style, the end result will be quite
\npleasant. There’s a reason why many people consider this album to
\nbe a high-water mark of Dylan’s early career; listen to it again,
\nand discover why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5866],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36274","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-dylan","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36274"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36274"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}