"Bob Dylan (1962)"
The albums kicks off with a fast paced, lo-fi rambling folk song and part of you can't help but wonder "What? Is this the same guy that recorded Highway 61 Revisited?" Not to say it's bad just that it's kind of shocking the guy who would years later stand up on stage and play Like a Rolling Stone 'f
ucking loud' to the shock of hundreds of folk fans to be so amateur, it's a charming album but if it wasn't for Dylan's trademark nasally vocals you wouldn't think this was the same guy who even sung the line "How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?"
The album consists of a variety of old folk covers and a few originals that while are good, are nothing special, though Song To Woody is a great song and the obvious highpoint in the album. This debut isn't the cancer on his career fanatics insist it is, but you have to wonder what would've happened if his recording contract had come later, would his debut have been stronger and less rough? Probably. This avid Guthrie fan shows to be a good folk artist, a bit obsessed with death, but there's no real hints here at the genius to come. It just seems like another 60s folk album, a good and enjoyable one, but just another one.
Favorite Lyric: "Here's to Cisco an' Sonny an' Leadbelly too / An' to all the good people that traveled with you / Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men / That come with the dust and are gone with the wind."
Favorite Songs: Song To Woody, Talkin' New York, Pretty Peggy-O