1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 36. Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)

The first of what I assume to be many albums by His Bobness and, although this is his second album, it’s the first composed almost entirely of self-penned songs. Here we have Dylan at his most basic, a young man with a guitar, a harmonica, and poetic words. The eternal protest anthem Blowin’ In The Wind, the lovelorn Girl From The North County (inspired by Scarborough Fair and probably about Suze Rotolo, the girlfriend on the famous cover art), A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (which Dylan describes as made up of opening lines to songs he never wrote), and the oft-covered Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright. One of my favourites is the driving polemic Masters of War. Only on Corinna, Corinna do we get some backing music. 

Having now heard Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, I recognise the talking blues format of Talking World War III Blues, although both Dylan and Elliott got their inspiration via Woody Guthrie. 

 I appreciate that Dylan’s nasal vocal stylings may not be everybody’s cup of tea, and for me personally I like the later work on albums like Highway 61 Revisited, Desire, and Blonde on Blonde, with a larger backing section to round out the sound. But coming back to this one and listening to it streaming via headphones rather than on an old record (from my mother's collection) on a cheap record player, it sounds fresh and crisp, and is one of the first albums on this list to tackle current social issues rather than folk tales, love songs, and just plain old nonsense. 

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