Record Reviews
📝 2096 reviews| Artist | Title | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | Bob Dylan | <p>Bob Dylan's first album is a lot like the debut albums by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones -- a sterling effort, outclassing most, if not all, of what came before it in the genre, but similarly eclipsed by the artist's own subsequent efforts. The difference was that not very many people heard Bob Dylan on its original release (originals on the early-'60s Columbia label are choice collectibles) because it was recorded with a much smaller audience and musical arena in mind. At the time of Bob Dylan's release, the folk revival was rolling, and interpretation was considered more important than original composition by most of that audience. A significant portion of the record is possessed by the style and spirit of Woody Guthrie, whose influence as a singer and guitarist hovers over "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "Pretty Peggy-O," as well as the two originals here, the savagely witty "Talkin' New York" and the poignant "Song to Woody"; and it's also hard to believe that he wasn't aware of Jimmie Rodgers and Roy Acuff when he cut "Freight Train Blues." But on other songs, one can also hear the influences of Bukka White, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, and Furry Lewis, in the playing and singing, and this is where Dylan departed significantly from most of his contemporaries. Other white folksingers of the era, including his older contemporaries Eric Von Schmidt and Dave Van Ronk, had incorporated blues in their work, but Dylan's presentation was more in your face, resembling in some respects (albeit in a more self-conscious way) the work of John Hammond, Jr., the son of the man who signed Dylan to Columbia Records and produced this album, who was just starting out in his own career at the time this record was made. There's a punk-like aggressiveness to the singing and playing here. His raspy-voiced delivery and guitar style were modeled largely on Guthrie's classic '40s and early-'50s recordings, but the assertiveness of the bluesmen he admires also comes out, making this one of the most powerful records to come out of the folk revival of which it was a part. Within a year of its release, Dylan, initially in tandem with young folk/protest singers like Peter, Paul & Mary and Phil Ochs, would alter the boundaries of that revival beyond recognition, but this album marked the pinnacle of that earlier phase, before it was overshadowed by this artist's more ambitious subsequent work. In that regard, the two original songs here serve as the bridge between Dylan's stylistic roots, as delineated on this album, and the more powerful and daringly original work that followed. One myth surrounding this album should also be dispelled here -- his version of "House of the Rising Sun" here is worthwhile, but the version that was the inspiration for the Animals' recording was the one by Josh White.</p><p>—<strong>Bruce Eder</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | Bob Dylan | <p>Bob Dylan's first album is a lot like the debut albums by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones -- a sterling effort, outclassing most, if not all, of what came before it in the genre, but similarly eclipsed by the artist's own subsequent efforts. The difference was that not very many people heard Bob Dylan on its original release (originals on the early-'60s Columbia label are choice collectibles) because it was recorded with a much smaller audience and musical arena in mind. At the time of Bob Dylan's release, the folk revival was rolling, and interpretation was considered more important than original composition by most of that audience. A significant portion of the record is possessed by the style and spirit of Woody Guthrie, whose influence as a singer and guitarist hovers over "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "Pretty Peggy-O," as well as the two originals here, the savagely witty "Talkin' New York" and the poignant "Song to Woody"; and it's also hard to believe that he wasn't aware of Jimmie Rodgers and Roy Acuff when he cut "Freight Train Blues." But on other songs, one can also hear the influences of Bukka White, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, and Furry Lewis, in the playing and singing, and this is where Dylan departed significantly from most of his contemporaries. Other white folksingers of the era, including his older contemporaries Eric Von Schmidt and Dave Van Ronk, had incorporated blues in their work, but Dylan's presentation was more in your face, resembling in some respects (albeit in a more self-conscious way) the work of John Hammond, Jr., the son of the man who signed Dylan to Columbia Records and produced this album, who was just starting out in his own career at the time this record was made. There's a punk-like aggressiveness to the singing and playing here. His raspy-voiced delivery and guitar style were modeled largely on Guthrie's classic '40s and early-'50s recordings, but the assertiveness of the bluesmen he admires also comes out, making this one of the most powerful records to come out of the folk revival of which it was a part. Within a year of its release, Dylan, initially in tandem with young folk/protest singers like Peter, Paul & Mary and Phil Ochs, would alter the boundaries of that revival beyond recognition, but this album marked the pinnacle of that earlier phase, before it was overshadowed by this artist's more ambitious subsequent work. In that regard, the two original songs here serve as the bridge between Dylan's stylistic roots, as delineated on this album, and the more powerful and daringly original work that followed. One myth surrounding this album should also be dispelled here -- his version of "House of the Rising Sun" here is worthwhile, but the version that was the inspiration for the Animals' recording was the one by Josh White.</p><p>—<strong>Bruce Eder</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | The Harry Belafonte Sessions | All outtakes of Harry Balafonte's "The Midnight Special" |
| Bob Dylan | The Freewheelin' Sessions | <p>The official Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album was culled from several sessions in 1962 and early 1963, resulting in quite a few unused tracks. Some showed up on The Bootleg Series and Biograph, but others have stayed in the vault. This is a superb 25-song compilation of the best unreleased material from the 1962 studio sessions, including interesting originals like "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," "The Death of Emmett Till," and "Let Me Die in My Footsteps"; a bunch of solid folk and blues covers like "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Milk Cow Blues"; and alternates of a few tracks that were released, notably "Corrina, Corrina" and "Mixed Up Confusion." Most fascinating of all are several tracks featuring electric band accompaniment, including the aforementioned "Corrina, Corrina" and "Mixed Up Confusion," but also "That's All Right," the Arthur Crudup blues covered on Elvis Presley's first single. The sound is excellent, and while the official Freewheelin' had much stronger and more innovative original material, the performances on this collection (featuring multiple versions of some songs) are extremely strong and assured. This is absolutely essential for Dylan fans, and one of the relatively few bootlegs that can be unequivocally recommended to general music consumers, not just specialist collectors. There's even an outtake from the Freewheelin' photo session on the cover.</p><p>—<strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | Live At The Gaslight 1962 | <p>The mysterious tape of early Bob Dylan performances said to have been recorded at the Gaslight Café in Greenwich Village in 1962 began turning up on bootleg albums such as Ode for Barbara Allen, The Gaslight Tapes, Dylan '62, and Barbed Wire Blues in the 1970s. In 1991, one track, "No More Auction Block," earned legitimate release on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased), but this ten-track disc is the first extensive issuance of the material in legal form. The mystery of the origins of the recordings remains, however. Dylan scholars tend to date them from the fall of 1962, but there is no assurance they were actually made at the Gaslight, and tapes circulating among collectors contain more songs than the 11 now commercially available. (Among the missing songs is an early version of "Ballad of Hollis Brown," later heard on 1964's The Times They Are a-Changin'.) Nevertheless, this album is a valuable missing link between Dylan's self-titled debut album (released in March 1962), which consisted mostly of cover tunes, and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (released in May 1963), which unveiled Dylan the songwriter. Most of the songs Dylan performs here are covers, but there are early versions of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," two of the major songs that would appear on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, as well as "Rocks and Gravel" (a free-form adaptation of Brownie McGhee's "Solid Road" and Leroy Carr's "Alabama Woman Blues"), which was recorded for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and even included on its initial version, and the antiwar "John Brown," later recorded for the various-artists album Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1. Those songs reveal Dylan's emerging songwriting talent (the lyrics of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" don't even seem quite finished), while the other six songs are more reminiscent of the gruff traditional folksinger of the Bob Dylan album, though one who can be gentler ("Barbara Allen") and more provocative ("Cocaine") than he seemed on his first LP. The recordings are considerably clearer than the bootleg versions, but they retain their unofficial quality, with occasional flaws, the most notable of which is the abrupt ending of the final track, "West Texas." [Live at the Gaslight 1962 was made available initially only at Starbucks coffee shops and at the Starbucks-owned Web site]</p>— <b>William Ruhlmann</b> |
| Bob Dylan | The Gaslight Tapes [Complete Flac] | <p>In October 1962 Bob Dylan took the stage of New York City's Gaslight Café as a singer of real promise -- and he left it the voice of his generation. Taking a break from sessions for his breakthrough sophomore LP, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the landmark "Gaslight Tapes" capture Dylan's evolution from prodigy to poet, transforming the raw materials of idols like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly to create his own postmodern folklore for the New Frontier. Galvanized by the earliest recorded live performances of the soon-to-be-classics "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," both the originals and the covers resonate with searing vitality and authority, serving notice that their creator has finally begun living the life his art's always evoked. Rattlesnake's Gaslight Tapes 1962 is an excellent presentation of this much-bootlegged material, boasting superior sound and packaging distinguished by lovely hand-colored photos. The Starbucks coffee chain gave this music belated official release in mid-2005 with its exclusive Live at the Gaslight 1962, but for unknown reasons the disc contains only ten of the 17 tracks that comprise the performance in its entirety. For now, serious Dylan enthusiasts still must seek out underground editions to hear the tapes in their entirety.</p><p>—<strong>Jason Ankeny</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | Blind Boy Grunt | |
| Bob Dylan | Gaslight Tapes | <p>In October 1962 Bob Dylan took the stage of New York City's Gaslight Café as a singer of real promise -- and he left it the voice of his generation. Taking a break from sessions for his breakthrough sophomore LP, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the landmark "Gaslight Tapes" capture Dylan's evolution from prodigy to poet, transforming the raw materials of idols like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly to create his own postmodern folklore for the New Frontier. Galvanized by the earliest recorded live performances of the soon-to-be-classics "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," both the originals and the covers resonate with searing vitality and authority, serving notice that their creator has finally begun living the life his art's always evoked. Rattlesnake's Gaslight Tapes 1962 is an excellent presentation of this much-bootlegged material, boasting superior sound and packaging distinguished by lovely hand-colored photos. The Starbucks coffee chain gave this music belated official release in mid-2005 with its exclusive Live at the Gaslight 1962, but for unknown reasons the disc contains only ten of the 17 tracks that comprise the performance in its entirety. For now, serious Dylan enthusiasts still must seek out underground editions to hear the tapes in their entirety.</p><p>—<strong>Jason Ankeny</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | Gaslight Tapes | <p>In October 1962 Bob Dylan took the stage of New York City's Gaslight Café as a singer of real promise -- and he left it the voice of his generation. Taking a break from sessions for his breakthrough sophomore LP, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the landmark "Gaslight Tapes" capture Dylan's evolution from prodigy to poet, transforming the raw materials of idols like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly to create his own postmodern folklore for the New Frontier. Galvanized by the earliest recorded live performances of the soon-to-be-classics "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," both the originals and the covers resonate with searing vitality and authority, serving notice that their creator has finally begun living the life his art's always evoked. Rattlesnake's Gaslight Tapes 1962 is an excellent presentation of this much-bootlegged material, boasting superior sound and packaging distinguished by lovely hand-colored photos. The Starbucks coffee chain gave this music belated official release in mid-2005 with its exclusive Live at the Gaslight 1962, but for unknown reasons the disc contains only ten of the 17 tracks that comprise the performance in its entirety. For now, serious Dylan enthusiasts still must seek out underground editions to hear the tapes in their entirety.</p><p>—<strong>Jason Ankeny</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | The Freewheelin' | <p>It's hard to overestimate the importance of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the record that firmly established Dylan as an unparalleled songwriter, one of considerable skill, imagination, and vision. At the time, folk had been quite popular on college campuses and bohemian circles, making headway onto the pop charts in diluted form, and while there certainly were a number of gifted songwriters, nobody had transcended the scene as Dylan did with this record. There are a couple (very good) covers, with "Corrina Corrina" and "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance," but they pale with the originals here. At the time, the social protests received the most attention, and deservedly so, since "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" weren't just specific in their targets; they were gracefully executed and even melodic. Although they've proven resilient throughout the years, if that's all Freewheelin' had to offer, it wouldn't have had its seismic impact, but this also revealed a songwriter who could turn out whimsy ("Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"), gorgeous love songs ("Girl From the North Country"), and cheerfully absurdist humor ("Bob Dylan's Blues," "Bob Dylan's Dream") with equal skill. This is rich, imaginative music, capturing the sound and spirit of America as much as that of Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, or Elvis Presley. Dylan, in many ways, recorded music that equaled this, but he never topped it.</p><p>—<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | The Freewheelin' | <p>It's hard to overestimate the importance of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the record that firmly established Dylan as an unparalleled songwriter, one of considerable skill, imagination, and vision. At the time, folk had been quite popular on college campuses and bohemian circles, making headway onto the pop charts in diluted form, and while there certainly were a number of gifted songwriters, nobody had transcended the scene as Dylan did with this record. There are a couple (very good) covers, with "Corrina Corrina" and "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance," but they pale with the originals here. At the time, the social protests received the most attention, and deservedly so, since "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" weren't just specific in their targets; they were gracefully executed and even melodic. Although they've proven resilient throughout the years, if that's all Freewheelin' had to offer, it wouldn't have had its seismic impact, but this also revealed a songwriter who could turn out whimsy ("Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"), gorgeous love songs ("Girl From the North Country"), and cheerfully absurdist humor ("Bob Dylan's Blues," "Bob Dylan's Dream") with equal skill. This is rich, imaginative music, capturing the sound and spirit of America as much as that of Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, or Elvis Presley. Dylan, in many ways, recorded music that equaled this, but he never topped it.</p><p>—<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p> |
| Bob Dylan | Folksingers Choice | |
| Bob Dylan | Best Of Bob Dylan | |
| Bob Dylan | John Birch Society Blues | |
| Bob Dylan | Just As Well 24 | |
| Bob Dylan | Poems In Naked Wonder | |
| Bob Dylan | Stealin' | |
| Bob Dylan | Talkin' Bear Mountain | |
| Bob Dylan | The Demo Tapes | |
| Bob Dylan | Live At Carnegie Hall 1963 | <p>CBS Records documented Bob Dylan's October 26, 1963, performance at New York City's venerable Carnegie Hall for a proposed live LP provisionally titled In Concert, pressing acetates and even printing cardboard sleeves before abruptly scuttling the project for good. The assassination of John F. Kennedy altered most everyone's plans, of course, and legend also proclaims that execs were flummoxed by the six-minute spoken narrative "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie," one of several cuts added to the album from an April 12 gig at New York's Town Hall. Bootlegs circulated for years, and in 1991 Columbia officially issued two cuts -- the ripped-from-the-headlines "Who Killed Davey Moore?" and the infamous "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" -- as part of the box set The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3. Finally, in conjunction with the 2005 release of Martin Scorsese's documentary portrait No Direction Home, the label released this six-song promotional disc, beautifully packaged in the vein of the original In Concert cover but still frustratingly incomplete (not to mention unavailable via traditional retail channels). What's left is an extraordinary record of the young Dylan at the apex of his craft, in transition from the protest anthems on which his early fame rests toward the deeply personal and hauntingly poetic songs that remain his greatest legacy. From a fiery rendition of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" to a jaw-droppingly beautiful "Boots of Spanish Leather," this is music that transcends space and time. Until the Sony BMG brain trust wises up and releases the Carnegie Hall tapes in full, consumers are heartily recommended to seek out bootleg releases, in particular Wild Wolf's 1997 release In Concert, which even boasts CBS' original cover design for good measure.</p><p>— <strong>Jason Ankeny</strong></p> |
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