 "Bob Dylan" | 2009-06-11 |
| - Reviewed By rangers88 |
Bob Dylan being Dylans debut and his 1962 release was recorded when Dylan was 20 years and this album is quite impressive. The lyrics are astounding and Allmusic gives this album 4 stars out of 5 and I agree with this assessment of the album. Stacey Williams and writes great liner notes and we also get the review written by Robert Shelton for The New York Times that talks about Dylans performance at the Gerde Folk city. We also get some great photographs of a very young Dylan. 4/5.
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 "Outstanding Music by The Minnesota Kid Who Helped Wake Up a Country" | 2008-04-10 |
| - Reviewed By bootleg_press |
Back in 1962 I was a high school sophomore at Lakewood High School in Lakewood, California, a bed city just north of Long Beach and East of L.A. Bob Dylan was only a kid then too. The music he made wasn't a bit like what they'd been playing on the top forty and none of the songs on this record made the hit parade, but the record made it to my house, as I was kind of into folk music. Man, like I was digging the Kingston Trio and Glenn Yarborough back then, but right from the get go I knew this was different.
I fell in love with Bob Dylan's voice and even though my dad told me he stole the composition of "House of the Rising Sun" from Dave Van Ronk, I didn't care. My dad, a long time Frank Sinatra fan was into music big time, all kinds. He knew stuff and one of the things he knew was that this kid from Minnesota was going places. My dad was from Minnesota.
When I listen to this record, I try to take myself back to the world the way it was then. Lots of people think things were better back in the day. Life was simpler. Well, no it wasn't and one of the people who was going to help wake us all up to the fact that there were plenty of things wrong in the land of the free and the home of the brave was going to be this Minnesota kid.
All of the songs on this record stand out, but that maybe somewhat controversial version of "House of the Rising Sun" really shines, as does my personal favorite, "Song to Woody." That wasn't always my favorite track on this record, but when I heard Dylan's live performance of it on the Tribute Record I went back and listened to this record with a fresh ear. It had been awhile. This record still takes me back. Life was good. It was hard, it wasn't fair, but it was good nevertheless.
Ken Douglas, author of Dead Ringer, Desperation Moon & Running Scared. |
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| "My first taste of Dylan" | 2007-12-27 |
| - Reviewed By shaggy4425 |
| In my opinion, his best record. It was my first exposure to Dylan, and has been my most played since I bought it. I am a huge fan and own all of his albums, and many bootlegs, but this remains my favorite. The raw talent you hear on this album is incredible, and indicative of the bounty of music to come from this musical genius. |
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| "Lots of people need to own this..." | 2007-03-17 |
| - Reviewed By adamsfam34 |
1. Any real Dylan fan should have his debut release, just to know that Bob did not spring from the earth singing "Like a Rollin' Stone."
2. Any true fan of traditional folk should have a copy, to hear what the 20-year-old found interesting way back in 1962.
3. Anyone interested in the history of American recorded music in the second half of the 20th century should shelve this CD, in order to appreciate that once upon a time, Columbia Records paid smart people to find unique talents and produce records by them, even if they had no audience at the moment, and were not likely to win a big one with their first effort.
4. Bob's original "Song to Woody" is of historic significance, since at this early stage of Dylan's professional career, he was visiting Guthrie in the hospital, meeting Cisco Houston, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger and other friends of the tragic genius.
5. It grows on you, even if you don't like blues and Dylan's early voice so much. His guitar and harmonica playing are also strong on this one. |
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| "not as good as his other stuff but still quite good" | 2006-08-28 |
| - Reviewed By sebasto20002002 |
| well this album is good as are all bob dylan-musical geniuses.the stand out songs are "i am a man of constanr sorrow".yes its the same one on the movie "oh brother where art thou?"im not a real big fan of the song "house of the rising sun".but i know a lot of people are so i mentioned it for you.theres a real old timey,pure folk tune called the frieght train blues"i really liked also.then he does a song for his idol in his pre-christian days who is woodie guthrie.its his 1st album.good but theres better out there. |
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 "A good start" | 2006-07-30 |
| - Reviewed By kingseamonkey |
Bob Dylan's first album, released in 1962, has only two Bob Dylan songs on it, and they're markedly different from the rest of the material on the album. The two songs, "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody" hold together well, both marked by an easy pace, conversational tone, and an attitude. A sort of bewildered, amused at the world mood, a shake your head and laugh at the absurdity of it all kind of attitude. In "Talkin' New York he mispronounces "Greenwich Village" and writes verses like
I get up on the stage sing and play
man there say come back some other day
you sound like a hillbilly--
we want folksingers here
punctuated by the harmonica after the punchline, where the laugh track would go if this were a sitcom.
The rest of the songs on the album are traditional folk songs. Funny, though, the songs he chooses; I've been listening to Joan Baez's self-titled 1960 release alongside this one, and all those songs are also labelled traditional folk songs. Baez's songs, however, often show their European roots: they sound like Irish jigs, Scottish folk songs, and so on. Bob's songs sound wholly, thoroughly American. I wonder if he chose them for that reason.
My favorite song is "Baby Let me Follow You Down," a real simple song that sounds so Dylan-ish I can hardly believe he didn't write it. After that are a series of hard, fast blues, the best of which is Highway 51 Blues, others being Fixin' to Die Blues, Freight Train Blues (which hiccups and yelps rockabilly style) and Gospel Plow. Gospel's prominent here, as is death. There are two slower blues ballads, See That my Grave is Kept Clean and In My Time of Dyin', which features a slide guitar, the only song on the album to stray away from the guitar, harmonica, voice formula.
Bob's version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" seems awfully pale compared to the version made popular by "O Brother Where Art Thou." And I just don't think his blue collar, undeniably masculine voice does much for "House of the Rising Sun--" a song about a woman of hard luck in New Orleans. I'll take Joan Baez's version. Such a tale needs a feminine voice. |
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