John Wesley Harding

Dylan recorded it in the autumn of 1967 at Columbia Studio A in Nashville, in under twelve hours over three sessions. On 17 October he cut I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine, Drifter's Escape and The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest. On 6 November came All Along the Watchtower, John Wesley Harding, As I Went Out One Morning, I Pity the Poor Immigrant and I Am a Lonesome Hobo, and the remaining work was finished on 29 November. The rhythm section of drummer Kenneth Buttrey and bassist Charlie McCoy was the only support for most of it. Pete Drake's pedal steel is on just two songs, Down Along the Cove and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, recorded between 9pm and midnight on the last night. Producer Bob Johnston said he suggested the steel guitar.

Robbie Robertson recalled that Dylan went to Nashville on a kind of whim. Dylan spoke to Robertson and Garth Hudson about overdubs, but none were added. The title takes its name from the Texas outlaw John Wesley Hardin, whose name Dylan misspelled. The cover photograph shows him with the Bengali Bauls Luxman and Purna Das, and behind him the stonemason and carpenter Charlie Joy. Dylan wrote the liner notes himself. It was his last LP issued in mono and stereo at the same time.

The album reached two in the US and topped the UK chart, and was certified gold less than three months after release. Rolling Stone ranked it 301 in 2003, 303 in 2012 and 337 in 2020. Heylin wrote that Dylan had never before constructed an album as an album so self-consciously.