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Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – Columbia (1963)

Favorite Song:  Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright
Favorite Song I’d Never Heard:  Girl From the North Country

I’m going to warn you now, I absolutely love Bob Dylan.  You don’t ever want to argue with me on the talent of Bob Dylan as I might end up punching you.  You either love him or you hate him.  Bob Dylan is the biggest conflict I have with my inlaws.  At least once a month I mention something about Bob Dylan simply to get a rise out of them.  “He can’t sing!” they say to me.  Does he sing off key?  No.  Does he have a unique voice?  Yes.  Is his voice for everybody?  No, but it should be.  Seriously, a person that can’t sing doesn’t sing the right notes.  Bob Dylan sings the right notes and no one else in the world sounds like him.  Of course, what the crap do my inlaws know about music, they listen to Rush for crap’s sake.  Of course, when I bring up their love of Rush I’m sure to mention that they are not allowed to talk about Bob Dylan not being able to sing if they think Geddy Lee can.  I thought he was a woman until I saw him.  Seriously, Rush?  Ugh.  My wife doesn’t make her opinion known, probably because she knows she has to go home with me.  But I digress…

I haven’t listened to many of Dylan’s older full albums, I’ve mainly stuck to his later (70s) stuff, a few of his live “bootleg” albums and “The Essentials”, and it’s now that I realize that I’ve made a huge mistake.  Oh, I know all the classics and a few of the more obscure ones, but have missed out on a few hidden gems.  This album is fantastic, though the quality kind of starts to drop off at the end.  I’m not a big fan of the “Talkin’ Blues” style songs, unless it’s Todd Snider’s “Talkin’ Seattle Blues.”  The first 3/4 of this album, however, must be heard.  It starts with what is possibly Dylan’s most well known song “Blowin’ In the Wind” and then goes into a few you may or may not have heard, but should:  “Girl from the North Country” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”  As I type this, I’m hearing “Corrina, Corrina” for the first time and will soon be learning this on the guitar so I can play it myself.  “Don’t Think Twice” makes me think of my homie Taylor.  We used to sing this just so we could say “babe” like Bob does.  If you like Bob Dylan at all (and as I mentioned before, you very well should), give this album the full listen it deserves.

Bottom Line:  Rush Sucks.
Final Grade:  A

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 7:00 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.