Baby, let me follow you down (Bob Dylan) (LP 2424 -2434)

Bob Dylan  Bob Dylan (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1962) *****  

Bob Dylan  The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1963) *****  

Bob Dylan  The Times They Are A-Changin' (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1964) *****  

Bob Dylan  Another Side Of Bob Dylan (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1964) ***** 

Bob Dylan   The Bootleg Series Vol 6 - Bob Dylan Live 1964 (2CD, Columbia Records, 2010) *****  

Bob Dylan  Bringing It All Back Home (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1965) ***** 

Bob Dylan  Highway 61 Revisited (CD, CBS Records, 1965) *****  

Bob Dylan  Blonde On Blonde (Vinyl and CD, CBS Records, 1966) **** 

Bob Dylan  Bootleg Series Vol 4 - Bob Dylan Live 1966 (2CD, Columbia Records, 1998) *****  

Bob Dylan  Bootleg Series Vol 11 - Bob Dylan and The Band - The Basement Tapes Raw (2CD, Columbia Records, 2014) ***  

Bob Dylan  John Wesley Harding (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1967) *****  

Genre: folk, pop/rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, Real Groovy Records, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Song To Woody (Bob Dylan)

Gear costume: Motorpsycho Nightmare (Another Side Of Bob Dylan); I Don't Believe You (Live 1964); Ballad Of A Thin Man (Highway 61 Revisited)

Active compensatory factors: I've divided my Dylan collection up into decades for this run through. Kind of. The eighties onwards will form one post.

By far the biggest cache comes from his sixties period I see - which tells you a story about my Dylan collection and the fact that I don't count Dylan among my obsessions. Buying Self-Portrait cured me of any such thoughts (I no longer own it!)

I don't even own everything he put out in the sixties, but it's close.

It was borrowing a number of his album from the Auckland Central Library while I was an undergraduate at Auckland University that started the ball rolling and woke me up to his genius.

Another Side of Bob Dylan, Freewheelin', The Times They Are A-Changin', and Blood On The Tracks (which we'll get to in the seventies post) formed my initial education.

From there I backtracked to buy these and his other sixties albums, starting with the debut.

I love that cover image to Bob Dylan. He's got that twice shy, vaguely knowing but faraway look in his eyes right from the off. That helps when you're singing songs like Man Of Constant Sorrow, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, My Time Of Dyin' and Gospel Plow. Songs that it takes some experience to carry off with conviction. Dylan recorded it in 1961, when he was only 19 years old! Remarkable.

Most of the album is made up of covers of folk songs but two originals shine for me - Song To Woody and Talkin' New York.

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, his second, is remarkable for being mostly original songs (only Corrina Corrina is by someone else), and for those original songs being brilliant. Blowin' In The Wind, Masters Of War, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Girl From The North Country, Don't Think Twice It's Alright... ridiculous right!

Two quotes from its liner notes bear repeating: 'He's so God-damned real it's unbelievable' (Harry Jackson) and 'Dylan can't stop searching and looking and reflecting upon what he sees and hears' (Nat Hentoff). Absolutely right.

Third album, The Times They Are A-Changin' continued the parade of riches - apart from the title song: With God On Our Side; One Too Many Mornings; North Country Blues; Only A Pawn In Their Game; When The Ship Comes In and The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll are on this album.

Not a lot of humour though (unlike Freewheelin'), this one is a solid wall to wall protest song album. A lot of it is chilling to the bone. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll for instance is a remarkable work of economy and judgement without being too preachy.

The humour and smile was back from the first track onwards on his fourth album in two years - Another Side Of Bob Dylan. Yes - four classic 5 star albums in two years. Has anyone else ever done that, other than The Beatles and Dylan?

The other side is clearly the light-hearted, casually brilliant side. Again, it's guitar, harmonica, vocals. Simple and devastating!

The Bootleg series will make an appearance throughout these posts when we get to the relevant year. Volume 6 was the 1964 concert and its good humour is a carry over from Another Side Of Bob Dylan.

Again, it's just Bob with his guitar and his harmonica rack doing devastatingly clear versions of songs he's just released, or ones that were yet to be recorded. Another 5 star must have!

Among many great moments is his muffing the intro to I Don't Believe You. He has to ask the audience for help and they do! And then he's off as if nothing happened. Love it!

Another highlight is Joan Baez appearing to duet on some songs at the end of the concert.

Those new songs from the live set would appear on his next studio album - Bringing It All Back Home. Unusually, Side 1 was Bob with a band (not The Band), and Side 2 was acoustic.

It's yet another 5 star classic album - his run would extend to 6 in a row by the end of 1965. Great songs continued to flow, seemingly without too much effort: Love Minus Zero/No Limit; Maggie's Farm, Mr Tambourine Man; It's Alright Ma; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. 

Not done with all that, for his next trick he produced a song that many believe is the best of all time - Like A Rolling Stone. The lead off song to another magnum opus - Highway 61 Revisited.

The rest of the album lives up to the lead off song. There's Ballad Of A Thin Man, Queen Jane Approximately, It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry, Desolation Row, plus the title track. Another extraordinary set of songs.

In hindsight, each of the sixties albums make progressive leaps forward. Blonde On Blonde is a double album, so has a few songs that I'm not all that keen on, but it still has three sides of brilliance.

The 1966 live set is of historical value. It seems quaint now that anyone should get upset at the band/electric side of Dylan in 1966. I do prefer the acoustic first disc but there is no denying the power and force that hits hard on the second disc.

The basement tapes saga seems overblown to me. I've never understood the fascination with these rehearsal tapes and I defy anyone to listen to the complete tapes on Spotify without skipping. Again, there is the historical value but I don't listen to this CD these days (my copy is the Raw condensed version not the one pictured btw).

Much, much better is the proper album of 1967 - John Wesley Harding. This is brilliant in feel and execution. Darker elements are proposed without compromise. It's almost like he needed to get those basement tape songs and hijinks out of the way before getting down to business.

Where do they all belong? The seventies will follow after a brief return to the jazz CDs.