First Listen To Bob Dylan's Debut Album (part 2)

[@slev6592]

Dylan’s vocals remained great imo. On a track like lay lady lay, one more cup of coffee or his live performance of shelter from the storm you can see how good and versatile his voice was. I think his typical raspy voice is an artistic choice.

[@michele-33]

I totally agree, it was an artistic choice in my humble opinion. Smoking and performing did take their toll in later years though. Being a young man he wanted to sound like one of the old blues singer he admired so much. He uses his 'normal' voice on other songs on Self-Portrait and Another Self-Portrait, Desire and other albums. For his Hank Williams imitation listen to 'Wall Flower'. Some people think that's where Jakob took his band name The Wallflowers

[@mattjohn4731]

He started reminding me of Vincent Price when he grew the thin stache. I saw Dylan bout 7 times, and to me the best was the last one, 2012

[@stevewebster973]

No one talks enough about Dylan’s guitar

[@jnagarya519]

Joni Mitchell comes right out and says that Dylan can't play guitar. He could respond that at least he isn't all about only his feelings and psychological state.

[@stevewebster973]

@@jnagarya519 She’s wrong about that.

[@jnagarya519]

@@stevewebster973 She's being egotistical and precious, with all her "alternate tunings". The guitar work on "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" is spectacular.

[@citizenghosttown]

Your analysis of Dylan is terrific. And while it may not be obvious, it makes sense that someone who grew up listening to and admiring Hip-Hop would find Dylan so appealing: First, because Hip-hop is a form of folk music. It's the music of the people. It's what's happening on the street. It's story-telling but it's usually the "unofficial" view of things. Chuck D said that rap music was "Black America's CNN" Well, in the early 1960s, folk music in the U.S. (which Dylan took to another level) was similarly reporting on another, unofficial side of America -- sometimes, topical, often political and occasionally subversive. And the second reason, his singing. So unique in his phrasing and delivery --- his voice is a rhythm instrument. Like hip-hop. Anyway, keep up the good work!

[@jnagarya519]

Music by the musically unlearned, including white folk (Appalachian, country & western as examples) was that which the mainstream "professional" music (located primarily in New York -- "tin pan alley" -- and Los Angeles/Hollowood) establishment disparaged. Rock and roll came out of that mishmash of folk musics.

[@MsAppassionata]

I couldn’t agree more. There are similarities.

[@SyedRewinds]

Brilliant comment, thanks

[@jnagarya519]

But -- as should be obvious -- no autotune with Dylan.

[@DogFish-NZ]

remember this was a kid lol

[@Theimbennn]

Dylan was doing folk in a different way to what was happening at the time in Greenwich village his guitar playing and harmonica are furiously played his vocal was unique and different he’s a chameleon with his voice he can change it depending on the song and performance and that will continue throughout his career, I would almost say Dylan was punk-folk everyone was doing this kind of pretty on the ear commercial folk sound and here is a 20 year old kid from Minnesota playing these songs in the coffee houses with full commitment and bluster it’s no surprise he was making waves in Greenwich village the kid was a breathe of fresh air.

[@jnagarya519]

"Dylan was doing folk in a different way to what was happening at the time in Greenwich village". Not true: the core of the folk scene was about being "authentic" -- imagine New Yorkers working hard to sound like they were from, as example, Appalachia. Dylan's first LP is that effort, plus infused by his obsession with Woody Guthrie. He got his comic/satirical/ absurd sense from Guthrie.

[@valueofnothing2487]

Yeah, I would also say this is an album of covers, and when he started he was copying everyone. But then, he started writing his own songs, and that's when he changed everything and became unique.

[@jamesscanlan6240]

Cool to imagine Bob in a NY coffeehouse, singing these songs and passing the hat afterwards to make ends meet. Sleeping on people's couches, reading voraciously, and eventually starting to write his own stuff. His autobiography describes his early struggles in detail and is, of course, beautifully written.

[@TrekBeatTK]

There’s an album out there, Live at the gaslight or some like that where you can here him playing live from this period.

[@michele-33]

@@TrekBeatTK It's on Utube.

[@michele-33]

I've been waiting for Chronicles II.... wonder if we'll ever see it. It was a cool read but he didn't really give anything away.

[@jnagarya519]

@@TrekBeatTK There's also a recording of a performance at Brandeis University -- which is Boston "area". (Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin met each other at Brandeis.) For those who don't know, Brandeis is named for a liberal Supreme Court Justice.

[@jnagarya519]

The Mississippi DELTA is a HUGE area, from which came at least dozens of musicians, each with their own "style". So "Delta blues" is blues from the Delta.

[@gernblanston5697]

I am always astounded that Dylan was 20 at the time of this record. His approach to folk and blues must have been astounding to the people in the folk scene in Greenwich Village. Unlike so much of the pure and pretty folk being presented by so many at the time, including big acts like The Kingston Trio, Dylan was raw, rough and raunchy. This album also gives such insight into his influences and gives a bit of a road map to the brilliance that was to come when he began writing his own stuff. And, he has never stopped changing and expanding. At 79, he released another epic album of songwriting brilliance and mood setting. Truly a genius songwriter and artist.

[@stevewebster973]

Exactly. He was to folk what Elvis was to white pop. I never thought of that before. Then they domesticated Elvis but Dylan escaped ~

[@stevedahlberg8680]

I've always found it fascinating though that there was some pocket of resentment against him in Greenwich Village because these were some older established people in one of the coolest folk song locations, and some people think that he just kind of walked through that scene as a young budding phenom and borrowed a lot of their stylings and knowledge and made it his own, but doubt ever giving any credit. Paul Seibel was amongst the louder voices of this camp and he never had a whole lot of stuff recorded but he did put out one album which later was critically acclaimed, and it's cold Woodsmoke and oranges. It's an absolutely beautiful folk album. My absolute favorite from it though it's a song called The Ballad of honest Sam. And it still kind of applies to politics and class differences nowadays. But not only is it fantastic, listen to it and then think about it in relation to Bob Dylan, and keep in mind that this guy had been doing this kind of singing Style and content for several years before Bob Dylan came through Greenwich Village. I think it's all fascinating from a musicologist point of view.

[@jnagarya519]

"His approach to folk and blues must have been astounding to the people in the folk scene in Greenwich Village." With some; but mostly not. At the time, with the exception of such as Tom Paxton, the performance of folk was to be "authentic" -- imitations of the originals. So there were New Yorkers imitating, as example, Appalachian singing and playing. Dylan came in for a lot of criticism for "stealing" -- writing new lyrics to standard public domain folk songs. And see the interview with Dave Van Ronk in the "No Direction Home" video. And Van Ronk wasn't the only critic. Some of it was, of course, jealousy: Van Ronk was recording for tiny Folkways (and a bit for Mercury); but "newcomer" Dylan was signed by the most prestigious label: Columbia. In sum there was much controversy around Dylan, and not all of it positive. It is illustrated by the fact that the songwriter circle was "democratic" -- but Dylan towered above all the others. That caused some jealousy and resentment. One instance of a "competition" among the songwriters -- Phil Ochs included -- was the writing of tributes to the assassinated Medgar Evers. Dylan's was "Pawn in Their Game" -- "A bullet from the back of a bush/Took Medgar Evers' blood". The song is centrally a brilliant analysis of systemic racism as the context, and points to the killer as not only a pawn but also a victim of that racism. It would require significant research to identify the tributes written by others.

[@jnagarya519]

@@stevewebster973 Dylan wasn't the only one drawing on Black blues. Woodie Guthrie not only drew from Black blues but was also a travelling buddy with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.

[@lewstone5430]

Van Ronk was always a supporter of Dylan and was honest about being upset with Dylan stealing the chord progressions that he, Van Ronk, created for “House of the Rising Sun”. To be clear, this song was an old standard that Van Ronk changed the chords to, but the lyrics were the same and he planned on recording it himself. However, he chose not to record it after Dylan took the chord progression and recorded it, because he’d be accused of stealing it from Dylan. Even Van Ronk laughed about it saying it was all a “tempest in a teapot”. The Animals later scored a hit using the same chord progression for “House of the Rising Sun”. However there were other artists like Tom Paxton from the Greenwich scene that I think really despised Dylan, imo. You can see this in “No Direction Home”.

[@stevedahlberg8680]

He had another early one in this style that blows me away today. No spoilers. The Ballad of Hollis Brown. He just ramps along and that insistent thrumming D minor with maybe some harp now and then I can't remember, but maybe not. And just verse-by-verse the story gets more dire. It's so real. It's really impactful. And it's totally in this style.

[@jnagarya519]

The one LP that can depress is "The Times They are A-Changin'". That was followed, also in 1964, by "Another Side," which gets more into the personal, though "Black Crow Blues" is a marvelous "toss-off" piano tune. An outtake is "Paths of Victory," which is also terrific, and was one of his last political protest songs of that period.

[@alphajava761]

I think Dylan's vocals are more interesting because he wants to add another level to these songs simple lyrics and music.

[@debrabeck9630]

You’re absolutely right on the styling of Delta blues. B.B. King did it exclusively. He stopped playing his guitar when he sang. He said he couldn’t do both at the same time, but it is easily recognizable as his style. I’m loving this deep dive into Dylan.

[@matthewclark1785]

I love this album, but I really really really hope you do a similar album learning session for his next album, Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan 😊.

[@jnagarya519]

He's going to be astonished by "Freewheelin''". I haven't listened to Dylan's first in decades -- but now I realize it is better than I remembered. But I also have, now, perspective on it.

[@dylanpahman]

The highways are references to American interstate routes. Highway 51: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_51 Highway 61: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_61 Highway 61 runs along the Mississippi River and through Minnesota, where Dylan grew up.

[@stevewebster973]

Can’t r E member if it was Charlie Patton or Son House or someone else who was visiting Woody Guthrie’s final sick bed the same time Dylan was, but he said Dylan was the real thing who was going to get the blues across with his voice & his playing, long before he added his words

[@grunntalll]

So psyched for you to do upcoming albums

[@stevewebster973]

The little comment at the start of Pretty Peggy is him already standing outside the tradition he’s taking for a stepping stone

[@hanifabibi177]

can everyone make pray for my sister she's in hospital make prayers for her to feel much much better soon as possible.

[@shemanic1]

"Fixin' to die rag" is awesome, thanks for the reaction & I look forward to the next load of Dylan.

[@MartinFGayford]

There was a description of his voice on this album, can’t remember where, that it was like a dog with emphysema or something, the way he yelps and the raspy sound he makes. I think at times he’s trying too hard. By the time of the third album, everything about his voice was perfectly measured and controlled; here he was still finding his way. Some great performances though.

[@billnmaree]

You could almost stop here with Dylan and diverge to the huge body of tradition that he was digging into. Which is what he would want of course. At this stage of his 'career' he was apparently a terrific live performer with stories and patter as well as the songs. To me he tries a bit hard to emulate the harsh delta blues vocal style - he's a 20 year old white kid after all. He got the real thing fifty years later.

[@boris53703]

Highway 61 is a reference to the major highway from Grand Portage to Duluth-Superior in far northern Minnesota, Dylan grew up in this area.

[@edprzydatek8398]

I'm glad somebody said that.

[@jnagarya519]

In this LP he sings of highway 51. Yes, he grew up in Duluth, MN.

[@edprzydatek8398]

@@jnagarya519 Actually, in Hibbing.

[@jnagarya519]

@@edprzydatek8398 Yes, thanks for the correction. I had the lyric of a song on "Planet Wave" running through my head -- "in old Duluth".

[@edprzydatek8398]

@@jnagarya519 I hear ya. Didn't mean to nit-pick.

[@ucbookman]

Love your reactions, Syed!! And your show. If you like his style here listen to the Bootleg Series boxset The Witmark Demos. It has some familiar songs and many that didn't make the cut to the albums we all know.

[@Kelters]

Great to find you are keeping on with the chronological Dylan project. Well done! -- You might find it personally of interest to compare with the great Bukka White "original" Fixin' to Die' (Might well have been a trad song going around in reality, however the Bukka White version is epic.)

[@stevewebster973]

This is also a kid let loose in a recording studio

[@timjenkins4065]

Thus, you’ll never understand the legacy of Gord Downie

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Great reaction and thanks for playing these songs. Interesting and relevant commentary too.

[@MartinFGayford]

In No Direction Home he says he chose all the wrong songs for this album - I can see what he means but at the same time it actually works really well as a folk blues album.

[@jnagarya519]

He was more likely avoiding the issue, emotionally, by making that claim. Dodging, in advance, any questions attempting to connect the songs he chose to him personally and emotionally.

[@IsisMusic]

I love this album. It was hated when it was relased. The way he´s singing. Old blues. All the songs he loved... and the of courde Song to Woody. His first own written song

[@shocklobster6266]

Really hope you continue though the albums. This is great

[@JB-zd5kk]

Love it, I’m looking forward to the whole series, keep it up :)

[@IsisMusic]

Just the power in 20 year old Dylans voice, oh man

[@isaacgraham5727]

What I always find striking about this album is Dylan’s vocal tics and affectations. Just how much he was stressing his voice so that he sounds like some rough, weathered old whore or something. The fascinating thing, of course, is that his voice ended up sound like that for real, without straining to make it rough, from the mid-80s onwards.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Jerry Garcia performed Peggy -O many times with the Dead. the town of Fennerio appears in a few Grateful Dead songs like Dire Wolf etc. Simon and Garfunkel recorded a version too as did others. It’s interesting how differently this song can be performed

[@alphajava761]

Hey that's cool info about Fennerio. I just thought it sounded cool and never got curious about it. Pretty Peggy-O got G.E. Smiths band the gig with Dylan also as you know. We got two rebel YT reactors in Syed and Deni huh 👍.

[@jnagarya519]

Check out his version of "Deliah," recorded on one of the two all-acoustic traditional folk songs LPs during the 1990s. Even though extraordinarily emotional he also manages to include some humor in it. It's a love-triangle in which the woman is murdered, and the murderer -- who sings the song -- asks the judge, "Judge, what might be my fine?" to which the judge responds, "Poor boy, you get ninety-nine". And another line about her being six feet under, then, "She ain't gettin' up". So it's a traditional folk song from early in the 20th century, but -- as is normal to folk music -- he "sharpened" the lyrics.

[@MrMohammadim]

I love your way .. interprting masterpieces. Keep on friend .. I am always in touch.

[@jnagarya519]

Sometimes he interprets stuff that needs no interpretation -- called "overthinking".

[@DogFish-NZ]

don't forget , this was a kid.

[@eirikrdberg1161]

Dylan is one of those classic smokers who just smoked and smoked and smoked like Joni Mitchell. Decade after decade. Pot and cigarettes day after week after month after year after decade. By 1980 his voice was really worn. Joni’s changed so dramatically as well.

[@jnagarya519]

Joni also had a stroke.

[@stephenmier7277]

I can’t wait until this mfer gets to Gospel Plow

[@mattjohn4731]

I truly love this album. Although it's mostly covers or traditional. But his guitar and vocals are Hard on this album. Fixin To Die is a mf'er! 😵💀🥀🪦

[@brucewhite5432]

Highway 51 ran through the Delta.

[@carlburnett5986]

You. Have. To. Do. Every. Bob. Dylan. Album. Syed.

[@scunner6828]

You. Are. Very. Demanding. Carl. Lol.

[@TrekBeatTK]

But. There. Are. So. Many. Albums.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

There is a great old video of Bukka White playing Aberdeen Blues. Amazing and essential.

[@michaeldavey9658]

Highway 51 runs north south from Wisconsin to New Orleans.

[@peter9910]

Love this series 👍

[@papercup2517]

The way I hear it, and I could be wrong since I'm not a Dylan expert at all, is that he was still experimenting vocally, imitating the way others he admired sang, trying to find his own voice in amongst it all. At times - actually the times you liked - it sounds to me as if he's forcing his voice, maybe to try and inject some more emotion/ dynamic quality. I don't think you can physically sustain that sort of vocal strain though. He had to find other ways to make his music hit harder. Maybe that's one reason why he started writing more of his own songs, using evocative words/imagery rather than extreme/shouty vocals to provide the impact he desired.

[@jnagarya519]

"The way I hear it, and I could be wrong since I'm not a Dylan expert at all, is that he was still experimenting vocally, imitating the way others he admired sang, trying to find his own voice in amongst it all. At times - actually the times you liked - it sounds to me as if he's forcing his voice, maybe to try and inject some more emotion/ dynamic quality. " Exactly right. His voice is different from his next LP onward. And even then he went through other changes (with "Nashville Skyline" he said his voice was different because he had quit smoking). But with his second, and through his electric period, he continued a particular style of singing. That was when he was described as being an "amphetamine prick". His 1965-66 tour was massive amounts of weed and an extreme amount of speed. See the video from the end of that tour in "No Direction Home" -- in which he's rocking back and forth and worrying that he'll die in a plane crash. He was overamping on the speed.

[@mattjohn4731]

Genius. Might I suggest 'John Sinclair' by John Lennon. He became a great protest singer in my opinion ✌️🕊️🌎

[@IsisMusic]

You just got a heart without listening. Just the idea listening to the whole album :)

[@user-fh6ml8yi6d]

I guess, that Fenneario town means, that this type of situation could be anywhere at that time

[@thejoelrooganexplosion2400]

Pleasure

[@michaelteret4763]

Good start. The rest of this album is great, also check out the outtake “House Carpenter,” it’s chilling.

[@thejoelrooganexplosion2400]

Good stuff man

[@helenespaulding7562]

Pretty Peggy O was another folk standard, covered by many. Has an Appalachian feel to me

[@jnagarya519]

But it's a jumble of lines that don't necessarily cohere -- and he is obviously not taking it seriously.

[@helenespaulding7562]

@@jnagarya519 and that’s also true

[@michaelopm1]

early bobby thrill

[@alecspeer]

Some of the Black blues artists influences on Bob Dylan. Start with Lonnie Johnson's guitar method at 8:36, kzbin.info/www/bejne/boDXd2afmZp-eJI

[@leesmith9299]

you heard a slower version of the guitar on Highway 51 Blues on It's All Right, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). edit: or at least very similar. not sure it's exactly the same.

[@matthewclark1785]

Also, back then asbestos, lead paint and lead in petrol were ever present in people’s lives. (And yes, smoking was a given)

[@IsisMusic]

When Dylan was 20 his soul was 80

[@arrow5599]

man i was waitin for house of the risin sun

[@seajaytea9340]

Simon & Garfunkel sing a version of "Peggy-O" on their first album as well. Their version is MUCH more traditional and not ironic (as I feel the Dylan version is meant to be taken). Looking forward to your journey with Dylan's formidable discography!

[@jnagarya519]

Dylan's performance is probably making fun of those who performed what is a slight lyric earnestly and seriously. He tips off that he isn't taking it seriously with the repeated "rhyme' "-io" and "o" as in "Louisiana-o".

[@hongfang2348]

Hwy 61 is a road that goes south from Memphis through the Mississippi delta. That's blues alley.

[@johnsilva9139]

Yes, that's the most historically significant part of route 61, but it also goes north to Canada through Minnesota near where Dylan grew up, and also continues south through Mississippi to New Orleans, birthplace of jazz. A lot of American music seems to have emanated from Highway 61.

[@jnagarya519]

@@johnsilva9139 Check out Mississippi John Hurt.

[@johnsilva9139]

@@jnagarya519 Yes. Love Mississippi John

[@jnagarya519]

@@johnsilva9139 "You must be stuck on the candy man's stick, um-hmm, um-hum." I wonder if there's a connection between that "Candy Man" and Roy Orbison's song "Candy Man".

[@SantamanitaClauscaria]

You should hear the legendary American psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead covering Peggy-O at one of their live performances. They never put it on an album but they have numerous high quality live recordings. Their version is more of a slow mournful tune, far less upbeat. The Grateful Dead covered a lot of Bob Dylan tunes, they even toured with Dylan in the 1980s, but Peggy-O is one Dylan song that the Grateful Dead made their own. Highly recommended. The Grateful Dead have the biggest diehard cult fanbase in the world, their presence on KZbin is strong, so I guarantee doing a Grateful Dead reaction will get a lot of views. I greatly look forward to your lyrical analysis of one of their originals, as their primary songwriter Robert Hunter wrote some of the most poetic and enigmatic lyrics in the history of rock music.

[@jnagarya519]

If one loves to be bored by tedious, pointlessly prolonged guitar solos, stock up on "Grateful Dead" LPs.

[@SantamanitaClauscaria]

@@jnagarya519 LOL their LPs are all the shorter, more radio-friendly versions of their songs, but you are right about their live albums.

[@jnagarya519]

@@SantamanitaClauscaria Their studio LPs aren't bad -- "Workingman's Dead" had some good stuff on it. But the LIVE LPs -- a three LP set with 4-5 songs total!?

[@SantamanitaClauscaria]

@@jnagarya519 put it this way. there are some people, unlike yourself, who live for long instrumental jams. I used to, but not so much anymore. I think that having both the short versions on record and the longer live versions for people to choose from is a good thing. No one's forcing you to listen to the live stuff.

[@jnagarya519]

@@SantamanitaClauscaria After a while it becomes obvious that the directionless "Grateful Dead" would play unendurably long solos because they lacked sufficient material to avoid "entertaining" stoners who lived to be bored by junk. Excess and indulgence isn't about "freedom"; it is about anti-social self-centeredness. It is the ultimate in lack of discipline.

[@gilevin100]

Better be careful....soon you you'll need your Dylan fix on a daily basis.....of course nothing can be better then that!

[@jnagarya519]

Dylan is songs that fit the throat. There are times only he can quench the thirst.

[@reggy_h]

The guitar playing on the first track is almost the same as "House Carpenter" but perhaps a little faster.

[@jnagarya519]

Note that on "Blood On the Tracks" he has two songs with the same music and different lyrics. And the music may be from some traditional folk song. That kind of "stealing" is actually the history, nature, and process, of folk music: someone learns a song someone wrote, but changes the lyrics. And then someone learns those two and mixes lyrics from both. Another hears those and writes a fresh lyric with elements of the prior versions. That sort of folk music is LIVING tradition.

[@jnagarya519]

"Pretty Peggy-O" isn't exactly serious.

[@michele-33]

There will be other Dylan albums where you'll say...what??..that's not Bob Dylan. He's had many voices over the decades..

[@rogeebundy6002]

You could do a channel just about Bob dylan

[@h3ym0nk3y]

When "Ren, HI REN"?

[@anthonyblakely399]

HHHMMMMMMMmmmmmmm

[@Blue-qr7qe]

Wake up a little Suzie...

[@fightingwords8955]

Explain DELTA without looking it up. 😉

[@jamiedimond9419]

bob was born female. obvy

[@valueofnothing2487]

I am sorry, I just find all this stuff fake and terrible. I mean, he's kind of a prodigy, but still, it just seems fake to me.