Although
folk music was being played throughout the United States in the early 60s, its
listenership was mostly limited to college and bohemian circles before The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan came out.
This record extended the reach of folk music to a wider audience, and thereby
heralded the prominent role that singers/songwriters would have in popular
culture from then on. It is therefore no surprise that The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is among the first 50 records preserved
by the National Recording Registry, alongside with other seminal works such as
Scott Joplin’s ragtime compositions, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven
recordings and Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is the second record released by Bob Dylan and the
majority of the songs therein are original versions, the cover of traditional
“Corrina, Corrina” being the only exception. The whole record is a successful
blend of protest statements, love songs and lyrical surrealism. The protest
statements are perhaps most vehement in “Masters of War”, a harsh denunciation
of the war industry with arrangements based on the English medieval song "Nottamun
Town". My favorite love song, although Dylan did not conceive it as such,
is “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” where a sweet guitar melody underlies
bitter words of unrequited love. The best piece of lyrical surrealism is
arguably the closer “I Shall Be Free”, a true whirlwind of a song where the
singer namedrops everyone from JFK to Elizabeth Taylor.
I
invite you to listen to one of my favorite songs in the record, “Girl From the
North Country”, performed live by Dylan and Johnny Cash in 1969:
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