The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The album that carried Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall, and made Dylan's name.
Bob Dylan, 1963
- Released
- 27 May 1963
- Recorded
- 1962-1963
- Studio
- Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City
- Label
- Columbia
- Producer
- John H. Hammond and Tom Wilson
- Length
- 50:04
Dylan plays acoustic guitar and harmonica and sings throughout, with one exception: Corrina, Corrina, which adds a small band of Howie Collins, Leonard Gaskin, Bruce Langhorne, Herbie Lovelle and Dick Wellstood. His first band session came in October 1962. Those rockabilly-flavored sessions produced a single, Mixed-Up Confusion, which was left off the album. Dylan also withdrew from The Ed Sullivan Show after CBS objected to Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, and four songs on early pressings were replaced with newer material.
It peaked at 22 on the Billboard 200 and sold about a million copies in the United States. In the UK it reached number one in 1965. AllMusic's Erlewine wrote that it is hard to overestimate its importance, and a 2002 Library of Congress citation said some consider it the most important collection of original songs issued in the 1960s.
Track listing
- Blowin' in the Wind2:48
- Girl from the North Country3:22
- Masters of War4:34
- Down the Highway3:27
- Bob Dylan's Blues2:23
- A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall6:55
- Don't Think Twice, It's All Right3:40
- Bob Dylan's Dream5:03
- Oxford Town1:50
- Talkin' World War III Blues6:28
- Corrina, Corrina2:44
- Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance2:01
- I Shall Be Free4:49
Personnel
- Bob Dylan vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
- Howie Collins guitar on Corrina, Corrina
- Leonard Gaskin bass on Corrina, Corrina
- Bruce Langhorne guitar on Corrina, Corrina
- Herbie Lovelle drums on Corrina, Corrina
- Dick Wellstood piano on Corrina, Corrina
- Nat Hentoff liner notes
- Don Hunstein cover photograph
More from Bob Dylan
The Times They Are a-Changin' (1964), Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Blonde on Blonde (1966), John Wesley Harding (1967), Blood on the Tracks (1975), The Basement Tapes (1975), Desire (1976), Time Out of Mind (1997), The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998), Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)
Sources
- The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Wikipedia
- The freewheelin' Bob Dylan (sound recording), Library of Congress