Record: Bob Dylan
Release: March 1962
Label: Columbia
Songs / length: 13 / 36:54
The man, the myth. Always hard to tell the difference with Bob Dylan. As best I can, here's a quick bio that tracks some of the formative steps that transformed 18-year-old high-school leaver Robert Zimmerman into folk singer Bob Dylan:
– Graduates from Hibbing High aged 18 in 1959, where he played in rock & roll bands covering Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly & Little Richard (it's worth remembering that this music was Dylan's first love, before folk and blues)
Release: March 1962
Label: Columbia
Songs / length: 13 / 36:54
The man, the myth. Always hard to tell the difference with Bob Dylan. As best I can, here's a quick bio that tracks some of the formative steps that transformed 18-year-old high-school leaver Robert Zimmerman into folk singer Bob Dylan:
– Graduates from Hibbing High aged 18 in 1959, where he played in rock & roll bands covering Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly & Little Richard (it's worth remembering that this music was Dylan's first love, before folk and blues)
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| Rock & roller Robert Zimmerman in his 1959 high school yearbook |
– After a summer job in Fargo, he enrols at University of Minnesota in late 1959, where he adopts a new look and starts calling himself Bob Dylan. His musical tastes widen to folk singers Odetta, Pete Seeger, etc
– At university, he reads Woody Guthrie's semi-autobiography Bound For Glory and then listens to Guthrie's record Dust Bowl Ballads, both of which are huge influences
– Just before Christmas in 1960, Dylan drops out of university and heads to New York, where he will later meet Guthrie and start to sing and look like him
– He hangs out in Washington Square with other folkies and creatives, plays the Greenwich Village clubs and and gets a break opening for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City in April 1961 (Robert Shelton gave a glowing review of Dylan's warm-up performance at that same venue later in the year)
– In September 1961, he was recording in the studio for Columbia with folk singer Carolyn Hester, and his harmonica style (which uniquely emphasised rhythm over melody) impressed legendary producer John Hammond, who read the Shelton review and decided to offer Dylan a record contract
– Columbia was not really a folk label, but the success of the likes of Joan Baez meant the company wanted to branch out. Shortly after the deal, Dylan signed with promoter & impresario Albert Grossman, and his first gig as headliner was in November 1961
– Under Hammond's supervision, the Bob Dylan LP, featuring Dylan wearing his then trademark corduroy cap on the cover, only took a few days to record in late November 1961. Four months later, in March 1962, the record was released but was a commercial flop (and Dylan came to be known as "Hammond's folly")
When Dylan arrived in New York in January 1961, he says – in Talkin' New York, one of two Dylan originals on his first LP – that it was the "coldest winter in 17 years". He also describes taking a "rockin', reelin', rollin' ride" on the subway to Greenwich Village (mispronouncing it "Green-witch", like a tourist, an error I encountered a lot growing up in Greenwich, London). There are four great resources for getting a handle on Dylan's early years in New York, in the run-up to recording his first record: Martin Scorsese's film No Direction Home (and the companion soundtrack and scrapbook), the first two chapters of Dylan's Chronicles memoir, the Coen Brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis and Volumes 1-3 of Dylan's Bootleg series.
Inside Llewyn Davis is notable for capturing the spirit of Greenwich Village in the 60s and for having Dylan's presence permeate, even though he doesn't feature as a character. This article explores how many of the landmarks are still around today. In Dylan's Chronicles, he says he came to New York City (which he describes as the "modern Gomorrah") to see the folk singers he'd heard on record, like Dave Van Ronk and Sonny Terry, but "most of all to find Woody Guthrie". He goes on to describe Café Wha? in Greenwich Village as a "subterranean cavern" where he began playing regularly. He says that the Gaslight, where Van Ronk played, was the folk club with the most "prestige" and "mystique". The Folklore Center was another key venue for Dylan in Greenwich Village – that's where he met Van Ronk and got one of his first big breaks, a chance to play a few songs in Van Ronk's set at the Gaslight.
As for the music scene generally at that time, Dylan says: "Things were pretty sleepy on the Americana music scene in the late 50s and early 60s ... What I was playing at the time were hard-lipped folk songs with fire and brimstone servings", unlike anything on commercial radio. Dylan says his repertoire in those days set him apart from other folk troubadours in Greenwich Village, his "template being hardcore folk songs backed by incessantly loud strumming". There were better singers and musicians, but he felt he could connect with the "inner substance" of a song. He described the Gaslight as being full of "literary types with black beards", "eclectic girls, non-homemaker types" and "grim-faced intellectuals". It wasn't all serious though; comedians like Richard Pryor also performed there.
One of my favourite sections of Dylan's Chronicles is when Dylan talks about songwriting, especially one of his early influences, Joe Hill, who was a forerunner to Woody Guthrie. Dylan wanted to write a song about Joe Hill, but couldn't; instead, he says, "the first song I'd end up writing of any substantial importance was written for Woody Guthrie". This appears as Song to Woody on his first LP, which also includes the line: "Here’s to Cisco an’ Sonny an’ Leadbelly too", referencing Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry and Leadbelly. Along with Woody, all three of them were part of the New York folk and blues scene that started in the mid-40s, and the reverent tone of Song to Woody is Dylan paying his dues to his musical forefathers.
So, of the two Dylan originals on the album, one is specifically dedicated to Woody and the other (Talkin' New York) owes its talking blues style and irreverent humour to him. As the Shelton review, which is published on the back sleeve of my CBS 32001 vinyl copy, said at the time: "Mr. Dylan is both comedian and tragedian. Like a vaudeville actor on the rural circuit, he offers a variety of droll musical monologues: 'Talking Bear Mountain' lampoons the overcrowding of an excursion boat, 'Talkin' New York' satirises his troubles in gaining recognition and 'Talking Havah Nageilah' burlesques the folk-music craze and the singer himself". The Columbia blurb on the back of the record described him as the "most unusual talent in American folk music", "a musical Chaplin tramp" (Dylan did use Chaplinesque gestures in his live performances for comic effect) who also had a "curious preoccupation with songs about death".
This is evident in many of the song titles on the album, which are also a reflection of what was in Dylan's Greenwich Village repertoire in late 1961, including blues numbers Gospel Plow, Fixin’ to Die, Baby Let Me Follow You Down, In My Time of Dyin’, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean and Highway 51. The Bob Dylan LP offers a quick description of each one, with opener You're No Good (a Jesse Fuller cover) said to have a "vaudeville flair and exaggeration ... used to heighten the mock anger of the lyrics", while In My Time of Dyin' is a rework of Blind Willie Johnson’s Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed. On the back cover, it says Dylan "does not recall where he first heard it", which reminds me of Led Zeppelin, who did their own unique version of In My Time of Dyin' on 1975 release, Physical Graffiti.
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean comes from Blind Lemon Jefferson, and was on the Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music (a hugely influential record on Dylan), while Pretty Peggy-O is a reworking of a Scottish ballad and House of the Risin' Sun is a traditional New Orleans lament. Dylan's version of the song, later made famous by the Animals, was inspired by Dave Von Ronk. Man of Constant Sorrow, a Kentucky folk song "of considerable popularity and age", would also have its moment of fame in 2000, when it appeared in Coen Brother's film O Brother, Where Art Thou? and won a Grammy. This article is good for more interesting facts about Dylan's first LP.
Fixin’ to Die, a Bukka White song, is similar in tone and content to In My Time of Dyin', while Dylan's uptempo version of "old spiritual" song Gospel Plow is as diesel-charged as Highway 51. In fact, if I had one criticism of the album, it's that the pacing of some of the songs is too fast, as though Dylan was a young man in a hurry for fame and recognition, and we'll see on subsequent records how he learned to slow down and become more contemplative.
Album rating: B+
– At university, he reads Woody Guthrie's semi-autobiography Bound For Glory and then listens to Guthrie's record Dust Bowl Ballads, both of which are huge influences
– Just before Christmas in 1960, Dylan drops out of university and heads to New York, where he will later meet Guthrie and start to sing and look like him
– He hangs out in Washington Square with other folkies and creatives, plays the Greenwich Village clubs and and gets a break opening for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City in April 1961 (Robert Shelton gave a glowing review of Dylan's warm-up performance at that same venue later in the year)
– In September 1961, he was recording in the studio for Columbia with folk singer Carolyn Hester, and his harmonica style (which uniquely emphasised rhythm over melody) impressed legendary producer John Hammond, who read the Shelton review and decided to offer Dylan a record contract
– Columbia was not really a folk label, but the success of the likes of Joan Baez meant the company wanted to branch out. Shortly after the deal, Dylan signed with promoter & impresario Albert Grossman, and his first gig as headliner was in November 1961
– Under Hammond's supervision, the Bob Dylan LP, featuring Dylan wearing his then trademark corduroy cap on the cover, only took a few days to record in late November 1961. Four months later, in March 1962, the record was released but was a commercial flop (and Dylan came to be known as "Hammond's folly")
When Dylan arrived in New York in January 1961, he says – in Talkin' New York, one of two Dylan originals on his first LP – that it was the "coldest winter in 17 years". He also describes taking a "rockin', reelin', rollin' ride" on the subway to Greenwich Village (mispronouncing it "Green-witch", like a tourist, an error I encountered a lot growing up in Greenwich, London). There are four great resources for getting a handle on Dylan's early years in New York, in the run-up to recording his first record: Martin Scorsese's film No Direction Home (and the companion soundtrack and scrapbook), the first two chapters of Dylan's Chronicles memoir, the Coen Brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis and Volumes 1-3 of Dylan's Bootleg series.
Inside Llewyn Davis is notable for capturing the spirit of Greenwich Village in the 60s and for having Dylan's presence permeate, even though he doesn't feature as a character. This article explores how many of the landmarks are still around today. In Dylan's Chronicles, he says he came to New York City (which he describes as the "modern Gomorrah") to see the folk singers he'd heard on record, like Dave Van Ronk and Sonny Terry, but "most of all to find Woody Guthrie". He goes on to describe Café Wha? in Greenwich Village as a "subterranean cavern" where he began playing regularly. He says that the Gaslight, where Van Ronk played, was the folk club with the most "prestige" and "mystique". The Folklore Center was another key venue for Dylan in Greenwich Village – that's where he met Van Ronk and got one of his first big breaks, a chance to play a few songs in Van Ronk's set at the Gaslight.
As for the music scene generally at that time, Dylan says: "Things were pretty sleepy on the Americana music scene in the late 50s and early 60s ... What I was playing at the time were hard-lipped folk songs with fire and brimstone servings", unlike anything on commercial radio. Dylan says his repertoire in those days set him apart from other folk troubadours in Greenwich Village, his "template being hardcore folk songs backed by incessantly loud strumming". There were better singers and musicians, but he felt he could connect with the "inner substance" of a song. He described the Gaslight as being full of "literary types with black beards", "eclectic girls, non-homemaker types" and "grim-faced intellectuals". It wasn't all serious though; comedians like Richard Pryor also performed there.
One of my favourite sections of Dylan's Chronicles is when Dylan talks about songwriting, especially one of his early influences, Joe Hill, who was a forerunner to Woody Guthrie. Dylan wanted to write a song about Joe Hill, but couldn't; instead, he says, "the first song I'd end up writing of any substantial importance was written for Woody Guthrie". This appears as Song to Woody on his first LP, which also includes the line: "Here’s to Cisco an’ Sonny an’ Leadbelly too", referencing Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry and Leadbelly. Along with Woody, all three of them were part of the New York folk and blues scene that started in the mid-40s, and the reverent tone of Song to Woody is Dylan paying his dues to his musical forefathers.
So, of the two Dylan originals on the album, one is specifically dedicated to Woody and the other (Talkin' New York) owes its talking blues style and irreverent humour to him. As the Shelton review, which is published on the back sleeve of my CBS 32001 vinyl copy, said at the time: "Mr. Dylan is both comedian and tragedian. Like a vaudeville actor on the rural circuit, he offers a variety of droll musical monologues: 'Talking Bear Mountain' lampoons the overcrowding of an excursion boat, 'Talkin' New York' satirises his troubles in gaining recognition and 'Talking Havah Nageilah' burlesques the folk-music craze and the singer himself". The Columbia blurb on the back of the record described him as the "most unusual talent in American folk music", "a musical Chaplin tramp" (Dylan did use Chaplinesque gestures in his live performances for comic effect) who also had a "curious preoccupation with songs about death".
This is evident in many of the song titles on the album, which are also a reflection of what was in Dylan's Greenwich Village repertoire in late 1961, including blues numbers Gospel Plow, Fixin’ to Die, Baby Let Me Follow You Down, In My Time of Dyin’, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean and Highway 51. The Bob Dylan LP offers a quick description of each one, with opener You're No Good (a Jesse Fuller cover) said to have a "vaudeville flair and exaggeration ... used to heighten the mock anger of the lyrics", while In My Time of Dyin' is a rework of Blind Willie Johnson’s Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed. On the back cover, it says Dylan "does not recall where he first heard it", which reminds me of Led Zeppelin, who did their own unique version of In My Time of Dyin' on 1975 release, Physical Graffiti.
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean comes from Blind Lemon Jefferson, and was on the Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music (a hugely influential record on Dylan), while Pretty Peggy-O is a reworking of a Scottish ballad and House of the Risin' Sun is a traditional New Orleans lament. Dylan's version of the song, later made famous by the Animals, was inspired by Dave Von Ronk. Man of Constant Sorrow, a Kentucky folk song "of considerable popularity and age", would also have its moment of fame in 2000, when it appeared in Coen Brother's film O Brother, Where Art Thou? and won a Grammy. This article is good for more interesting facts about Dylan's first LP.
Fixin’ to Die, a Bukka White song, is similar in tone and content to In My Time of Dyin', while Dylan's uptempo version of "old spiritual" song Gospel Plow is as diesel-charged as Highway 51. In fact, if I had one criticism of the album, it's that the pacing of some of the songs is too fast, as though Dylan was a young man in a hurry for fame and recognition, and we'll see on subsequent records how he learned to slow down and become more contemplative.
Album rating: B+
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