With a Mind That Multiplied the Smallest Matter: John Wesley Harding (1967)
Produced by Bob Johnston
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that the nature of Bob Dylan is to contradict while being consistent and to lie while simultaneously speaking truth. It is only natural then for him to follow up easily his most musically dense, melodically rich album with a sparse, stripped back set of tunes recorded with a three-piece band consisting of himself, a bassist and a drummer. Recorded once again in Nashville, John Wesley Harding remains to this day perhaps Dylan’s single most challenging album. The songs are biblical in scope and prose, and present to the listener tangled webs of mystery and imagery… all while rarely stretching past the 4-minute mark. John Wesley Harding has a bit of a reputation for being the black sheep of the 60s Dylan albums, and for good reason. I have no idea how one would even begin to categorize this record: it’s certainly not rock and roll, certainly not country, certainly not folk… and yet it’s definitely all of those things at once. The most renowned song here is of course ‘All Along the Watchtower,’ which was later famously covered and transformed by Jimi Hendrix. Even Dylan recognized the superiority of Hendrix’s version himself, and future performances of the song echoed the changes Hendrix made. But what if I told you I like this version better? Where Hendrix’s version feels like the apocalypse, this version feels more like the calm before the storm, like a messenger returning to a castle with a thunderstorm brewing at his back, bearing ill news of a catastrophic invasion at the hands of a foreign army. Perhaps that would be the best description of John Wesley Harding: storm music.
Tracklist:
1. John Wesley Harding
2. As I Went Out One Morning *
3. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
4. All Along the Watchtower *
5. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
6. Drifter’s Escape
7. Dear Landlord
8. I Am a Lonesome Hobo *
9. I Pity the Poor Immigrant
10. The Wicked Messenger *
11. Down Along the Cove
12. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight *
Throw My Ticket Out the Window: Nashville Skyline (1969)
Produced by Bob Johnston
If John Wesley Harding was a flirtation with country music, Nashville Skyline was a full-on marriage to it. Teaming with the best studio musicians in the business and even bringing aboard Johnny Cash for a few sessions, Dylan, in one fell stroke, almost casually played a major role in radically changing the country music landscape forever. Nashville Skyline stands as a landmark release in both Dylan’s catalogue and the history of country music as a whole, proving to the world the range of Dylan’s creative capabilities and opening the floodgates for the likes of Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson to completely embrace their own artistic intentions within country music. Despite this, I can think of no other album that sounds quite like Nashville Skyline does; it’s like a sunny afternoon drinking iced tea at the lake: a wholly innocent, happy, beautiful collection of intricate melodies paired with simple yet effective lyrics. It’s one of the most bold and unique albums in Dylan’s entire discography, and yet often it does not receive the praise it’s due because it’s so unassuming and unprovocative in nature. ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ may indeed be one of his greatest songs, but in a way, so is ‘Peggy Day’: AM country, pedal steel shuffle gold set to these nursery rhyme-tier lyrics… it’s truly beautiful. With Nashville Skyline, you’re taken back to a time you forgot to know how to remember, and you’re left with nothing else to do but kick back, relax, and enjoy the memories…
Tracklist:
1. Girl from the North Country (feat. Johnny Cash) *
2. Nashville Skyline Rag
3. To Be Alone with You
4. I Threw It All Away *
5. Peggy Day *
6. Lay Lady Lay *
7. One More Night
8. Tell Me That It Isn’t True
9. Country Pie
10. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You *
How’m I Supposed to Get Any Riding Done: Self-Portrait (1970)
Produced by Bob Johnston
During the chaos of the 60s, Bob Dylan was held up as a countercultural iconoclast; a hero to the hippie generation, a voice who could say the things no one else could find the words to say. As tensions were rising higher in the mid to late 60s, Dylan famously got in a motorcycle accident which nearly left him paralyzed. After this experience, he claimed to have had an epiphany: that he was a song and dance man and had no desire to be some kind of ‘voice’ for these people. This resulted in his sudden turn towards country music and set off a chain reaction of decisions that culminated with the release of 1970’s infamous Self-Portrait. Simply put, this is one of the most critically panned albums ever released, and it left Dylan fans and the world at large entirely confused about what the intention was. Greil Marcus of Rolling Stone famously wrote: ‘I once said I would buy an album of Dylan breathing heavily. But not of Dylan breathing softly.’ Ouch. Self-Portrait is a sprawling double album of… covers of old country songs, American songbook standards, folk ballads, and other weird nonsense. It contains material from four separate sessions and a live performance, presenting about four or five separate Dylans crooning or belting across this album. So, you wanna know what I think of it? Well, I think it’s a hell of a lot of fun. His vocal performances on the AM country songs like ‘Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go)’ are truly excellent… his covers of ‘The Boxer’ by Paul Simon and ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’ by Gordon Lightfoot are certainly strange inclusions, but as a fan, it’s delightful to hear Dylan in a space where he is simply a fan of music, playing and interpreting the stuff that makes him happy and fostering his own connection to the muse. Self-Portrait, if nothing else, is just a vibe… pleasant and relaxing, and at times genuinely beautiful.
Tracklist:
1. All the Tired Horses
2. Alberta #1
3. I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know About Her *
4. Days of ’49 *
5. Early Mornin’ Rain
6. In Search of Little Sadie
7. Let It Be Me
8. Little Sadie
9. Woogie Boogie
10. Belle Isle *
11. Living the Blues
12. Like a Rolling Stone
13. Copper Kettle *
14. Gotta Travel On
15. Blue Moon *
16. The Boxer
17. Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) *
18. Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go) *
19. Take a Message to Mary
20. It Hurts Me Too
21. Minstrel Boy *
22. She Belongs to Me
23. Wigwam *
24. Alberta # 2