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The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (180 gm Vinyl)

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After his self-titled debut album, Dylan stunned 1963 listeners with his second disc, which opens with three Dylan classics in a row: "Blowin' in the Wind" is a timeless classic which has been covered countless times by countless artists. 40 years later, its power to convey what's wrong with the world has not diminished one bit. "Girl From the North Country" remains one of Dylan's classic love songs. "Masters of War" is a song that will be topical as long as war is waged in any portion of the planet. Two other tunes, "Hard Rain" and "Don't Think Twice" are among the best songs Dylan ever wrote. Dylan still performs these tunes in concert nearly four decades later. It's really quite amazing how well these songs hold up after all the years since their initial release. Great songs will always be great.

The Dylan of 1963 sought to tell us about the world and what was happening in it as he saw it, but he also wanted us to have a couple of laughs. "Talking World War III Blues" and "I Shall Be Free," though dated only by the characters named, are still great examples of Dylan's sharp wit (which, by the way, has not decreased at all in 2002).

'Freewheelin'' marks the first time Dylan wrote or co-wrote nearly all of the songs on the album. ("Corinna, Corinna" is the lone exception.) The disc is finally being recognized as one of Dylan's best, alongside 'Blonde on Blonde' and 'Blood on the Tracks.' It's about time.

Disc Time - 50:06

"Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" offers Bob Dylan's most superb folk/protest album of them all! This is the album that changed many lives for the better with it's powerful, provoking lyrics, catchy melodies, with just the right touch of blues tossed together with a witty sense of humor.

The album contains classics like "Blowin' in the Wind", "Master of War", "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Oxford Town" and "Talkin' World War 3 Blues". Every song is great and Bob's singing and harmonica playing is cleared than at any other time during this artistic period. Bob's liberalism comes shining through, but he was being quite "politically incorrect" at a time when these views were definately not as accepted as they are today. His other folk/protest albums are great, but this is the best.

Even if Bob Dylan had never released another album after his 1963 sophomore effort, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, his place in the history of twentieth century music history would be perfectly secure. The album is an absolutely landmark for folk music.

It is not Mr. Dylan's approach that makes the LP so exciting. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the sound of a folk singer doing what folk singers have always done: sing to the common people of what is going on across the country. It was the alarming developments going on across the country that was so exciting. The Cuban Missile Crisis had just past, Vietnam was right around the corner, and, as the nuclear arms race escalated, everything seemed as if it could be gone tomorrow. Meanwhile, a new generation was arising, one that would test the uncharted waters of post-WWII society, inherit a world on the brink and decide how the norms must change to meet a tomorrow than never seemed more different than yesterday. It was a brave new world and someone had to sing about it.

Mr. Dylan was the first folk artist to show an understanding of the more terrifying and far-reaching changes that were engulfing the world around him. Resounding with a poet's clear-headed sharpness and folkie's wide-eyed innocence, dazzling Freewheelin' songs such as "Masters of War," "Talkin' World War III Blues," "Oxford Town" "I Shall Be Free," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "Blowin' in the Wind" brilliantly recapitulated this fascinating atmosphere. Sometimes Mr. Dylan's approach was wry and zany. "Talkin' World War III Blues" is a tongue-in-cheek recount of jaunting across a postapocalyptic city while "I Shall Be Free" places a merry drunk in the world of JFK and air raid drills. Sometimes it was gravely serious. "Blowin' in the Wind" is an open-hearted pat-on-the-back to troubled denizens of the day while "Masters of War" is perhaps the most scathing insult to callous, warlord politicians ever put into verse. No matter what his tone, no songwriter had a greater grasp on the almost incomprehensible times than the brilliant, young Mr. Dylan. He may not have been the first somewhat politically minded folk-singer but he was the first with the intelligence, skill and bravery to face, head-on, many of the more overwhelming troubles that had recently entered the world. To put it bluntly, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the sound of folk music entering the second half of the twentieth century.

Not every song on album is steeped in revolution, though. An album so densely coated in insight and immensity would boggle the mind so Mr. Dylan treats us to some quaint, more traditionally minded, gems about love and wanderin' between the heavier songs. "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" and "Bob Dylan's Blues" are easy-going country ramblers while "Girl from the North Country" and "Bob Dylan's Dream" are sincere, mournful dirges. The greatest of Freewheelin's personal songs, however, is "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," a shove-off to an former lover that features Mr. Dylan's seething wit at its best.

The songs of the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan sparked a sensation. In the coming years they would be covered countless times, chanted at protest rallies and on street corners and their messages would be incorporated into the values of a new generation. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the seminal force of folk music entering a new era, stronger than ever.

One of the single most important albums of the 1960s canon of music, THE FREEWHEELIN' BOB DYLAN, along PLEASE PLEASE ME, introduced that era with a bang. Sure, the decade had been underway since 1960, but with this release we finally get the Dylan that will change the face of popular music. Although the album before this one can be entertaining in spots, no one could guess the genius of this sophomore effort by listening to the first Bob Dylan disc. And what genius it is. It also has a lesson produces nowadays could learn from: you don't need tons of insturments to produce an effective sound or music. This is just Dylan, a guitar, and a harmonica with the exception of "Corrina, Corrina," and he makes it work. Boy does he ever. Compositions like "Blowin' in the Wind," "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," "Masters of War," and "Girl of the North Country," quickly established Dylan as the premier songwriter for the social conscious of the early 1960s, a role Dylan would quickly move away from (just listen to the mid 1960s trilogy of BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, and BLONDE ON BLONDE to see how far he left this stuff behind). However, Dylan would never cease to be the premier songwriter of rock and roll, and he is still regarded as the poet laureate of this genre. AMG ranks this as the single most important song collection released in the 1960s. While he did go radically reinvent himself, Dylan never sounded better here, and while he may have come up with music as good as the songs on this album he never made one that surpassed it. We also get the really mean Dylan with "Don't Think Twice," though he tells the lover off in such a way as to guise how mean it really is. This album produced many of his most important compositions and signature songs.

The central problem with protest albums is they have a tendency to become dated and awkward, but not here. These songs sound just as glorious as when they were first released. Where THE FREEWHEELIN' BOB DYLAN does sound dated, this effect actually enhances the album, especially on the last cut of the album where he is talking to President Kennedy who was alive at the time. That alone gives the cut an endearing quality. For the just utterly blah, monotonous routine protest albums can be we go to the next album, THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGIN', and while most of the cuts off that record are certainly worthy additions to the Dylan catalogue (considering the stuff that was being recorded at the time by Dylan, did we really need "With God On Our Side,") when taken as an entire album THE TIMES wears its listeners out emotionally. That is one album that desperately needed some light-hearted moments like "Eternal Circle" or something to break up the monotony. Sadly, two of the best compositions ("Percy's Song" and "Lay Down Your Weary Tune," both available on BIOGRAPH) were left off. Dylan does not make that mistake here. While certainly a protest album, it somehow transcends that and becomes a rather timeless piece of music. When compared to The Beatles' debut album, the other (much smaller, though to be fair The Beatles were very prolific for only being around seven years) body of work that all mainstream (and other) music is judged by, Dylan had them beat by a long way.

For those who are looking for a place to start, this album stands as an excellent introduction to Dylan. It makes more sense to start at the beginning and travel through his albums one by one to trace his artistic evolution. As for myself, I made a CD-R with a lot of the cuts that should have been on the album but weren't because of time restraints. For the new listener, they should also pick up THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 1-3, and should be one of their top five Dylan purchases. It provides a shadow history of Dylan, and many of his best cuts, including outstanding compositions from this album (most notably "Rambling Gambling Willie," "Let Me Die In My Footsteps," and "Talking Bear Mountain,") were, sadly and inexplicitly, left off...

Bottom line: Essential 1960s music. For those young ones out there, the generation previous has some excellent music being wrought in their era... From the looks of the current music scene, we'll never get another poet like Dylan. Right now, it looks like we won't even get passable music. What happened?????

After Dylan's 1962 effort, there was talk of Columbia dropping Dylan, but thanks to some clever maneuvering from John Hammond, Dylan got his chance to show what six months away from then girlfriend Suze Rotolo could do to one's creative spirit.
Dylan was never more focused than on this album, recording an incredible cannon of work, most of which has still not seen the light of day. Given the exhaustive amount of work to choose from, it's not surprising to find a well-rounded album that leaves no room for filler. It's a genuine LP at a time when singles were the norm, and albums were usually ways for the "unhip" to catch up to date with past singles.
Suffering from the six month absence of his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, who focused Dylan's Guthrie-esque love for the "underdog" into a compassion for the civil rights movement, is very much at the center of this album. (Not to mention the cover, where she appears with Dylan)
Already under criticism from some of the Greenwich Village folkies for going "commercial", Dylan reworked his album to include more overtly political songs like Masters of War and Talkin' World War III Blues.
But the genius of this album was it's ability to remain innocent and subliminal, despite the obvious implications and finger pointing intended. Dylan absorbs all his influences and refines them into an authentic voice of experience and truth, despite being 22 at the time.
Freewheelin' transcends the limitations of time and place, propelling Dylan light years beyond even his hero, Woody Guthrie by divorcing himself from becoming one voice.
From the beautiful melodic bliss of Don't Think Twice, It's Alright to Bob's remembrance of his first love in Girl From the North Country; there is an obvious humanistic element of love and innocence rarely found in the folk singer of the times.
The records benefits a great deal from John Hammond's deliberate attempt to under produce the album. Most songs were recorded after 2 or 3 takes, and so being, capture the real essence of Dylan's music and message through the rawness of his undisciplined guitar playing.
Blowin' In The Wind, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Oxford Town, and Masters of War all became classics of their time. Profound insights into the state of mind of the time, when Nuclear War seemed almost inevitable.
This record is recommended for people of all tastes and backgrounds. It's one of a few that truly transcends all genres and constraints of time without feeling contrived.
Dylan was never more focused, and never more enthusiastic and full of hope as he was on this album. A genuine masterpiece that tells not only the story of rock 'n' roll, but of America itself.

This is the album that forged the singer/songwriter movement of the early 60's. In my opinion, this is one of Dylan's most imaginitive (although there are dozens) albums. "I Shall Be Free" and "Oxford Town" are true classics in my mind. Primal Dylan. Not as raw as his first album, but much more politically and socially conscious (being Dylans own lyrics throughout the whole album.) As influential as his "Bringin' It All Back Home" electric debut, but in a less raucous and controversial manner. Absolutely essential for any folkie, but any folkie already has this one. Start here. Then move along Dylan's miraculous career album by album. Listen to him evolve. Absolutely incredible. Buy this one for sure.

The 1962 release of Bob Dylan's self-titled first album (actually recorded in a few sessions at the Columbia Studios in New York in 1961), left the world with a taste of the young Bob Dylan. Although Dylan refused to be labelled later in his career (not much later, actually) there is no doubt that he was, on this first album, playing folk tunes and blues-influenced if not straight-blues numbers on his steel strings. Yet tracks like "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody" suggested that Dylan was, perhaps, participating in the folk revival (which began, if we must put a date to it, with the Kingston Trio's 1959 recording of Tom Dooley) so that he might pave the way to say something revolutionary with this down-home, wholly American, pure form of music that has always had the ability to touch the soul. In this second album, Freewheelin', Dylan moved from his early blues-influences, abandoning the steel strings and the fork-fretted guitar riffs for a sound that was--musically--very folk indeed. But his consciousness to the world outside of his own personal trials (much traditional folk and blues deals with tales of love, betrayal, etc...) echoed of the consciousness of one of his idols, the then recently deceased Guthrie. "Blowin' In the Wind," although originally seen by some of the folk figures of Greenwhich village, including Pete Seeger, as a senseless collection of rhetorical questions, undoubtedly set the mood for the oncoming "protest movement." Again, Dylan loathed labels and never admitted to writing protest songs, but he did know that he was doing something that could change the world. While songs like "Girl From the North Country" and "Dont Think Twice Its Alright" lack this social consciousness, they are still true to their folk roots and are beautiful melodically and sung with a heartfelt passion that only a perfomer like Dylan could have delivered. "Masters of War" and "Hard Rain" demonstrate Dylan's hatred for war and the latter gives the world a first glimpse at his apocalyptic vision which would wax and wane but last even until the latest release (2001) of his album "Love and Theft". Of "Masters of War" Dylan recalls being startled himself. "I don't usually sing songs about wishing people would die," he would later say, "but this just came out of me." Songs like "Bob Dylan's Blues" and "Bob Dylan's Dream" are stand-outs of their own, and "Oxford Town" is another masterpiece, while perhaps not musically, but lyrically--throwing the issues of racism into the face of the country...most people, then and now you see, prefer to close their eyes to the wars mankind is waging. Again in "Talkin' World War III Blues," Dylan returns to the Talking Blues Pattern popularized by Guthrie before him to deliver his apocalyptic admonition with a peculiar mix of tragedy and comedy. "Corrina, Corrina" is a new twist on an old traditional that Dylan performs well. "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" is perhaps the one song on this album that echoes of the blues-influenced folk of his first (1962) record. It is powerfully performed. Finally, we are left with the multi-dimensionality of Dylan as he trails off with the witty "I Shall be Free," a song he would return to in the future in various forms to be found on such albums as "Another Side of Bob Dylan," released in 1964. While we were introduced to Dylan in 1962, this second album unequivically demonstrates the power that the folk-revival possessed. Beginning with topical "protest" songs, Dylan was now ready to move on to even greater things. The metamorphosis seems to be from blues-influenced folk singer to socially aware folk singer, to poet of the people playing something that he could only later call "mathematical music," "vision music" (1965 interview as released by Columbia.) Indeed, even I feel awkward trying to categorize and compartmentalize Dylan into stages of metamorphosis. Simply put, Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is a magnum opus from a not yet twenty two year old poet who, rambling out of the Midwest and soaking up all of the musical knowledge he could, began a one-man quest to change what he saw could not be the way things were meant to be. No Dylan fan should be without this album. It is simultaneously a moment of history captured and a timeless masterpiece that can be applied even to the tumultuous times of the present. Bobby Zimmerman, six strings, and a vision...one [heck] of a vision.

So I'm not that old but this album brings me back to my youth. I can't describe it but evertime I listen to this I feel this amazing calm and peace, like you know, everything will be alright, that the human race isn't so bad, like the sun is shining, like even though it may be cold outside I still feel warm. I'm not some Bob Dylan expert or anything like that. I just really like this album of his and don't know many other albums that put me in such a sound state of mind as this one does. If you're looking for a little piece of mind, this seems like a pretty good place to start.

Before Dylan went electric and went for more studio produced material there was a beautiful innocence to Dylan's music. "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" is an amazing effort for a second album and a classic.

The album opens with the classic 60's peace song "Blowin' In The Wind" which is still relevant as it was during the Vietnam war. "Girl From The North Country" is my personal favorite on the album, it's beautiful and gives us a break from the two heavy songs that sandwich it. "Masters Of War" is a haunting powerful song that everyone should hear that speaks the truth of War. The song can still be applied to recent events like Kosovo and the Middle-East. "Down The Highway" is classic folk. "Bob Dylan's Blues" show Dylan playing around with his vocals and see his great songwritting skills. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is another classic on this album that has a great message which is similar to Ginsberg's poem "Howl". "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" has an easing light feel with lyrics on a relationship gone bad. "Bob Dylan's Dream" was the first of a series of songs that would appear later on other albums. "Oxford Town" is a catchy sing-along Woody Guthrie type song. "Talking World War 3 Blues" is a satirical song about fear of another war. "Corrina, Corrina" has more depth musically to it than the past songs and is a highlight of the album. "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" is another great love song and Dylan uses his range of vocals on it. The album ends trimpumphinly with "I Shall Be Free".

Bob Dylan is one of the greatest songwriters of our time and this album is essential.

I had never listened to any Dylan albums until about 1-2 months ago. I had tremendous respect for Dylan even before I really had chance to listen to him. I started with Blood on the Tracks because after reading the reviews I thought this would be a good alubum to start with. Then I moved on to Highway 61 which I liked a little more than BOTT. I got hooked from these cds and I went all out. There was a deal were you could buy three albums for twenty dollars. It contained the his first three albums that he actually wrote the entire lyrics. The only one I have had a chance to sit and truely listen to is Freewheelin. This is one of the greatest albums I have had the pleasure to listen to. All of the songs are better than average but my favorite is I Shall Be Free. This is one of the first songs I have actually laughed out loud to while listening to it by myself. It seems like Dylan sings every song just for you. He is one of the most real singers I have ever heard.