The Cavern
Rock & Words
BOB DYLAN (1962, Album)
Artist: Bob Dylan (B+)
Recording Date: November 1961
Release Date: March 19, 1962, USA
Record Label: Columbia
Producer: John H. Hammond
Rating: 6.5
Era: Folk, Folk-Rock (1940 -???)
Subgenre: Folk
Best Song: Baby Let Me Follow You Down o In My Time Of Dyin'Tracklist: 1) You’re No Good; 2) Talkin' New York; 3) In My Time Of Dyin'; 4) Man Of Constant Sorrow; 5) Fixin' To Die Blues; 6) Pretty Peggy-O; 7) Highway 51 Blues; 8) Gospel Plow; 9) Baby Let Me Follow You Down; 10) House Of The Risin' Sun; 11) Freight Train Blues; 12) Song To Woody; 13) See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.
Did you know that Robert Zimmerman isn't Bob Dylan's real name either? Well, I didn't know it either, but Bob's Hebrew name is Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham. It doesn't really matter much musically, I just wanted to point out that I was delving into Dylan's origins and came across this interesting tidbit (can you imagine if we had to refer to him by that name?!).
Bob was born in Duluth, Minnesota, USA, the grandson of Jewish immigrants from what is now Ukraine and northern Turkey. From childhood, he listened with fascination to blues and country music on an old radio, and as soon as he could, he bought a beat-up guitar, with which he learned to play crudely (and apparently never got past that stage... Ha! (sorry, I couldn't help myself)). Starting in high school, Bob began forming bands, which he obviously led, played guitar, and sang. Contrary to what one might think, at this stage, like 99% of American and British teenagers, his fascination lay with Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. His school performances were therefore more inclined toward Rock & Roll than Folk or Blues, so he was a more or less normal teenager, despite the myth that, from puberty onward, he would skip school on trains to play his Blues and Folk in the Rockies.
His encounter with Folk music didn't come until he entered the University of Minnesota in 1959. The young Zimmerman was rather introverted, and there he found a circle of intellectual friends who introduced him to two of his gurus: Woody Guthrie in music, and Dylan Thomas in literature. He was so impressed by the latter's poetry that he changed his last name to Dylan in homage. And upon discovering Guthrie's Folk music, he lost all interest in Rock & Roll, saying it was no longer enough for him. So he stopped forming bands and dedicated himself to playing solo, accompanied only by his guitar and harmonica. However, Bob was a bookworm, and he had countless influences that would later help him become the most brilliant songwriter of his time, from Robert Burns, Eliot, Keats, and Tennyson. Musically, in addition to Guthrie, other influences included Ewan MacColl, A.L. Lloyd, and Rabbit Brown.
The fact is that by September of '61, the now-named Bob Dylan had a local following in the cafes and bars where he stopped to play. Robert Shelton gave him a good review in the New York Times after seeing him at a folk festival. Around that time, Dylan played harmonica on Carolyn Hester's third album. It turns out that the producer, John Hammond, was intrigued by the young man and ended up helping him sign with Columbia Records after getting him an audition with the label's head, Mitch Miller.
La sesión de grabación fue programada para finales de Noviembre, entre los días 20 y 22, y costó únicamente $402 dólares! Considerando que no hubo otros músicos, sino Dylan y su guitarra, no fue realmente costosa, pero aún así Dylan aún bromea de vez en cuando sobre el “precio de la fama”.
The result is a debut album that we might consider weak and modest today for several reasons, but it also needs to be put into context. Dylan was very nervous about what he was going to play on this first LP. By this point, it's safe to assume he already had a lot of his own compositions, and at least half of Freewheelin' finished, but he was presumably looking to include more well-known songs to feel more confident and, to some extent, to please the record label. Let's also remember that it was 1961, and albums with more than two original compositions were rare, unless you were already an established artist. So he opted for a lot of covers. Some will sound more familiar than others because of later versions, like "House of the Risin' Sun" with the original (more raw) lyrics than the ones that later became famous in the definitive version by The Animals. Or "In My Time of Dyin'," which Led Zeppelin would later transform into an exquisite masterpiece. There are only a couple of original songs: "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody."
From this first recording, Dylan displayed his character. Hammond would later complain that he didn't listen to advice. Bob overemphasized his p's and s's, or stretched out some syllables almost to the last breath in his lungs, as in "Man of Constant Sorrow," or the falsettos in "Freight Train Blues." He refused to do second takes under any circumstances (what we hear on the record are the first takes exactly as recorded), and for this reason, four songs with false beginnings were discarded out of a total of 17 takes, and "Song For Woodie" had to be edited to fade in so it could be salvaged.
The album is humble, repetitive, but enjoyable—a solid effort for 1961-62. It's generally overlooked, and reviewers usually start with Freewheelin', but this is the true beginning of Bob Dylan. It's not a concept album by any means, but the selection of covers seems to revolve around sadness, desolation, and death. Although it's based on blues, it couldn't be anything else. And in his singing style, Bob varies too much; he's still searching for his identity and seems to be improvising different influences, so at times he sounds almost comical imitating Black accents, as in "Fixin' to Die Blues."
The legend begins with "You're No Good", originally by Jesse Fuller. A song with a very fast tempo, with a very rough way of singing in which he suddenly strains his throat to produce a raspy, forced tone that doesn't suit him, and seconds later he's on the verge of bursting into laughter. Then bursts of country harmonica accompany the rapid style. The lyrics are about those femme fatales who can drive a woman crazy. During the 1:40 that it barely lasts, Bob seems to be telling a joke more than singing a song.
Next is "Talkin' New York", an original by Bob. In it, he narrates how New York received him when he arrived to play in cafes. It's a very simple song, with almost spoken phrasing and a 1000 rpm tempo that's barely understandable. A generic folk song. Its value might lie in its lyrics, already showing glimpses of the irony and double-edged nature that would come later: “People going down to the ground, Building going up to the sky” or “A lot of people don't have much food on their table, But they got a lot of forks and knives, And they gotta cut something.” It's a very generic song, without hooks or melody, but the story and the lyrical flashes save it (if you can even understand anything)..
“In My Time Of Dyin’” strikes me as the best song of the bunch. Bob stays true to the semi-arpeggiated style of the traditional version, with a crystalline guitar and some fantastic slides (made with a lipstick his girlfriend lent him!). It’s also Bob’s best instrumental performance, truly shining on the guitar, at times sounding like two lyres. He sings with ferocity, reminiscent of Robert Johnson, extracting the raw essence of the song and transporting us to the Mississippi Delta, with something dark and menacing about it. And all this without the gimmicks of Zeppelin’s mammoth version, which is still good, but which they also plagiarized by claiming the composition as their own. The most remarkable thing is that, before this session, Dylan had never played this song!
Next up is “Man Of Constant Sorrow”, which will sound more familiar in the versions by George Clooney (so to speak) and the Coen brothers. Here Dylan delivers a much more stripped-down version, obviously without the harmonies, but in return, he perhaps provides the most memorable harmonica work on the album. The guitar arrangement is understated, but it suits the song well, and the hook he uses, stretching out the first syllables for ages, makes this one of the most memorable tracks.
Then there's "Fixin' To Die Blues", originally by Bukka White. Dylan modified the melody, changed some verses, and even added others entirely, but he didn't claim it as his own. Instead, he seems to maintain the "black voice" of the original, and this effort at times makes him sound unintentionally comical. For the guitar, he uses a very fast arpeggio alternating with strumming and descending bass lines. It's good, but it becomes repetitive. Bob has a blues foundation, but let's face it, he's by no means a "bluesman." Even so, it's a good effort.
Next up is “Pretty Peggy-O”, another traditional song. This time it strikes me as too generic, with a dreadful harmonica that sounds like it's being played haphazardly by a five-year-old. Plus, those “woo-hoo”s mid-harmonica breaks are unbearable.
We continue with Curtis Jones’s “Highway 51 Blues”. Here lies the very distant seed of what would become “Highway 61 Revisited.” He mentions it in “Visions of Johanna.” It features an aggressive guitar riff that alternates with the verses, but it’s a very modest and simple song.
“Gospel Plow” is another traditional song, perhaps a gospel tune that Bob arranged with a lightning-fast guitar. And although it deals with death, Dylan sings it as a summary of the album, almost sarcastically. The whole album seems to be a regular joke about death rather than something reflective. Although, to be honest, I don’t know what Bob’s intention was. The truth is that Bob will never sing the same way on any other album.
“Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” is a folk song written by Eric Von Schmid, and Bob spends a third of the song clarifying this and mentioning that he met him at Harvard. The song is simple, but the arpeggios are beautiful, letting the crystalline notes fall like raindrops. The harmonica again has a memorable line, and Bob sings with great tenderness. I couldn't find the original, but of all the covers (including the Animals'), this is by far my favorite. One of the most underrated tracks from Dylan's early catalog. It's a shame it's so short, considering the long intro.
Next comes his version of “House of the Rising Sun”, which, interestingly, the Animals also covered. It's clear that Eric Burdon wasn't influenced by Dylan, hahaha. This is a very old blues song, of unknown authorship. Alan Price of the Animals even claimed it was an 18th-century folk song. It's perhaps the album's most famous track, thanks to the massive hit the Animals would have with it a couple of years later. Here, Bob delivers a stripped-down version, with a simple yet effective guitar and a less pronounced chord progression. But he sings it with a profound desolation that's truly captivating. Again, he seems to be "acting" the song, rather than simply singing it, but this time in a positive way. Note that, unlike Eric Burdon, Dylan sings the original line "And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl" instead of "poor boy." This gives the song a different nuance, singing it from the perspective of one of the girls in the infamous house. The intensity builds until he ends up singing almost furiously. I definitely much prefer the Animals' more elaborate and dramatic version, but who knows if that version would have existed without this one.
Next up is “Freight Train Blues”, with its fast-paced, country-tinged harmonica, folk guitar riffs, and almost unintelligible phrasing. It could be just another generic song. The problem is when Bob sings the chorus, specifically the song title, in a falsetto that doesn't always hit the right note, and he drags it out for ages, making my nerves fray. I suppose those who have heard it would agree.
We continue with “Song To Woody”, the second original track on the album. A gentle ballad, a tribute to his idol Woody Guthrie. The guitar riff is simple and warm, but it ends up becoming somewhat repetitive. The lyrics are still somewhat innocent by Dylan's standards, but the second verse is very good: “Hey hey Woody Guthrie I wrote you a song, About a funny old world that's coming along, Seems sick and it's hungry, it's tired and it's torn, It looks like it's dying and it's hardly been born.” It ends up being a sincere tribute, but too generic and not very memorable.
The album closes with “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean”, which is like the lyrics of “In My Time of Dying,” with the same structure as “Fixin' To Die Blues” but slower. Bob again uses that furious bluesman intonation that doesn't suit him at all. I think that's the problem with good old Bob. The blues is very simple; it's patterns of three or four chords with repeated lines. It's all about the character with which it's played and sung. And well, as much as Bob tries on this album, he's not a blues master, nor does he have a soulful voice.
Perhaps that's the problem. Without the true soulful character that many of these songs require, the tracks come across as bare, flat, mere generic-sounding songs. There are two or three good songs when he decides to own them and sing them like Bob Dylan. The rest are good attempts, but they sound like they're being played through a mask, and that makes them seem mediocre. In short, this isn't an album to start with when you're new to Dylan. It's for hardcore fans and collectors, or only if curiosity gets the better of you and you want to discover Bob's true origins, since many still think his debut is Freewheelin'. You won't actually find Bob Dylan here, contrary to what the title and cover art suggest. But you will find the writers and the music that nurtured and shaped him, and that would lead him to become one of the most influential songwriters in history. Here you will find the roots of the legend.
By Corvan
Jan16/2013
