1. Blowin' In The Wind
2. Girl From The North Country
3. Masters Of War
4. Down The Highway
5. Bob Dylan's Blues
6. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
7. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
8. Bob Dylan's Dream
9. Oxford Town
10. Talkin' World War III Blues
11. Corrina, Corrina
12. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
13. I Shall Be Free
First the Beatles, and now Dylan! It seems the '60s have finally begun in earnest. 'Bout friggin' time, too. I was getting sick of the constant, never-ending jazz-pop albums that were seemingly inescapable.
This album is quite unlike any album I've listened to so far. It's actually intelligent. Sure, Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis and all those albums are intelligent, but they don't have any lyrics. This album totally wrecks the established songwriting tropes that dominated the early '60s, thank goodness. It was only able to do that because it was a folk album, but Dylan's growing popularity in rock circles (not to mention his conversion to rock music 2 years later) meant that this album completely changed the way rock musicians wrote their lyrics. Quite the feat.
Anyway, compared with the lyrical material of the past month this album is nothing short of amazing. A multitude of topics and moods are strewn about the album and none of it feels out of place. 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' is such a lyrically complex song that it's a wonder it managed to coalesce in 1963. 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright' completely turns the lost love song trope on its head, and by doing so writes perhaps the greatest breakup song of all time.
'Masters Of War', similarly speaking, is one of the greatest of protest songs. It's completely unsubtle, but makes up for by being scathing as all hell. Even better, it's non-specific enough that you can apply it to many situations. It works just as well for all the War on Terror nonsense of the last decade as it does for the Cold War nuke-stockpiling warmongering maniacs of '63. Plus if you can fit Obama's name in the last verse you can sing it at Tea Party rallies.
Oh, did I mention there's this song on here called 'Blowing in the Wind'? You might have heard of it.
It's not all deathly serious doom and gloom stuff, though. There's a good amount of humorous songs on here that are actually (gasp) funny! Don't get used to it though. Later period Dylan is about as humorous as a deflated tire whose mother has just died. Except for the Christmas album.
Unfortunately, Dylan isn't quite as good a tunesmith as he is a lyricist, at least not yet. Most of the melodies of these songs, from what I've read, are taken from classic folk tunes. As I am not a foremost expert on old folk songs, I don't really mind a bit, because Bob Dylan's lyrics are probably better than most of the originals anyway. Also, this album is a bit sparse musically, being made up of nothing but acoustic guitar and harmonica save for one song. This might be a bit challenging for dumb people who suck, but Bob Dylan kicks ass so much that this album very rarely drags on at all. You go, Dylan! An extra large cookie for you. 9/10
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