The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Album Reaction

[@IsisMusic]

I don´t want to be to critical, but it´s always funny when an ignorate discovers Dylan. If you don´t know about blues, country.. americana. You only comes out like an idiot. Sorry

[@walterooski]

No offense taken; I saw your grammar and realized you must not know any better. If you don’t know about grammar, spelling and diction, you only come out looking like an idiot. Sorry. Besides the point, if everybody thought like you nowadays, nobody would discover Bob Dylan anymore. You seem like you grew up believing in his music and then abandoned those beliefs when you got old enough to think you could look down at the generations behind you instead of uplift, encourage, and help educate them. You could’ve pointed me to artists to further research, but you’d rather condescend to me. You certainly grew up to be part of the problems he’s singing about. Either way, thank you for your time, even if you were critical of me.

[@IsisMusic]

@@walterooski too.. ignorant. Thanks for pointing that out, asshole

[@walterooski]

You treat me poorly and I’m an “asshole” for defending myself?

[@walthendrickson8535]

The troll life… I’m just gonna go be an asshole to someone and show them how ignorant I am. 😂 Instead of remaining silent to prevent embarrassment, I’ll just write this post and prove the obvious for everyone. Okay, you have proven that you are a troll, now go away, you’re dismissed.😂🎉

[@Nowheremt]

@IsisMusic, teach, don’t preach. Grow up.

[@bubblesculptor]

It's great to see a new listener of Dylan. Sometimes it's easy to get complacent about the impact of songs we've heard hundreds of times, yet when someone new discovers it fresh it reinvigorates that original inspiration. Keep it up!

[@scottsmith1712]

I haven't listened to this album all the way through in about 40 years, and stage 4 cancer means i probably won't ever again.... glad i listened to it like this. Thanks kid.

[@lopezb]

Wow, all the best for some recovery and some music and some love!

[@NikitasVenizelos-e7g]

Perfect place to start with Dylan. Still my favorite album because I love acoustics, but the next Dylan albums you're gonna listen to will blow you away.

[@KeithMusic23]

And a giant step forward from his debut album.

[@jnagarya519]

Much of "Freewheelin'" was written during the Cuban Missile Crisis -- see "A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall".

[@galvinklatt5273]

The music is timeless, of course, but you shined an already bright diamond. I really enjoyed your reaction! Keep going with Bob…he’ll continually surprise and floor you.

[@heldinahtmlhell]

It's great to listen to Dylan's first ~6 albums (not including his first album, which was almost all covers) and see the evolution. They're all great albums (with the possible exception of Another Side of Bob Dylan, which is still good). Also, as for "understanding" his songs. The type of songwriting he settled on, he later described as like paintings. A series of images, rather than everything knitting together and making sense. Although some are straight stories, and they usually have strong themes. You see this type of songwriting evident in Hard Rain's A Gunna Fall.

[@johno1765]

In Hard Rain, "Where have you been my blue eyed son" is echoing the lyrics of the old English ballad Lord Randall. He wrote this song as the arms race between the U.S. and USSR was escalating and threatening to end the world. He said he wasn't sure he'd have time to write all the songs he wanted to write, so he wrote a song where he felt each line could be a song in itself.

[@MurphDawg311]

Dude I just want to say you’re listening to all the best music on the planet right now. Everything you’ve been jumping into is absolute class

[@SilverEmulsion]

Bob's first album of originals is a great place to start with him. The depth of his catalog is immense, right up through his most recent album. There is more instrumentation after the first few albums, but the poetry still shines. I hope you will continue exploring. I initially came for the Phish videos, so seeing Dylan pop up was a surprise. Love your passion for music.

[@alanbrown8527]

Great to see a first reaction to this incredible album. Can’t over emphasize the mind blowing, game changing effect this album made on the industry at the time. It was the birth of the singer songwriter, the record album as a whole entity rather than a single surrounded by filler. This album was heard blasting out of every college campus around the world. The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Allen Ginsburg all claimed they wore out the grooves on this record by playing it everywhere they travelled. Dylan’s major masterpieces age like fine wine never losing their relevancy. Your timing is good as this period is being covered by the new Dylan biopic starring Timothy Chalamet called “A Complete Unknown” opening Christmas Day.

[@RichardSchaefer-zx9ig]

"Oxford Town" is about James Meredith. First black student allowed to attend Univ. of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. Similar but even more angry is "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" from times they are A Changing. Enjoying your reactions.

[@Lebowski55]

It's not hyperbole to say that Bob Dylan is the greatest lyricist and one of the greatest songwriters in history. The guy is a special talent and his work in the 60's in particular is the work of a true master.

[@oreopithecus]

There is no doubt that Dylan deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature.

[@JB-Deadskins]

One of??? Well, I suppose #1 is one of.

[@bogreen5204]

Loved watching you discover this album. I grew up with it. Hard to separate myself from it but seeing you helped me see it again with fresh eyes. BTW, the "talking blues" style is a folk tradition that goes all the way back, and everyone from the early folk artists and early blues artists like Leadbelly used it, predating but also including the white folkies Woody Guthrie, through Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zant, and all the way to the present day.

[@dyl-annfan6]

This is the tip of the iceberg, so much Dylan to listen to, it would take a life time to delve into his amazing canon of albums, bootlegs, outtakes, live performances. He is a lyrical genius in all genres. I never tire of listening to him and always hear something I've never heard before, keep on listening and sharing. Hard Rain is said to be about the Cuba Crisis and possibly nuclear war threat. Dylan is also a spontaneous performer, not keen to be in the recording studio for too long, he also said the albums are for the "clarity of the lyrics" - I believe the real stuff happens on the live stage

[@peterlburrows]

I totally love your reactions. You so get the unique depth and brilliance of Dylan. I do have a different take on “Don’t think twice.” Rather than a song about acquiescing, I think it’s an awesomely brutal takedown of someone he’s realized is not a very good person. Like he’s saying “don’t worry about it” because he doesn’t think she’d have the emotional capacity to understand the damage she’s done. “You just wasted my precious time,” like it was no big thing.

[@makimaki_97]

"where is conscientious music like this now?" you and me both, thanks for your channel!

[@toomuchmustard3067]

It's with Jesse Welles! Very John Prine/Freewheelin-era Bob-esque

[@reginaldcampos5762]

Its coming back recently.

[@redadamearth]

Seeing a ton of young people discovering Bob Dylan is SO bizarre to me, as being Gen-X, I grew up with everyone knowing every song he wrote by heart, as he was of our parents' generation and then we were all obsessed with him, too. So suddenly seeing people who *barely* know ABOUT him is just - weird. lol But it's awesome to see people starting the journey of his work. Enjoy it, man. He's written at least 600 songs. I would also recommend that you listen to the songwriters who *inspired* him, as the only real way to understand Dylan, IMO. Listen to Woody Guthrie's stuff from the 30's and 40's and a host of others from that era - and then you'll begin to understand that he took THAT folk formula - and incorporated the kind of poetry into it that had been written by the Beat Generation of the 40's and 50's, into that framework, which nobody had done before. Then he turned that into masterful rock and pop in the mid-late 60's, then wrote very personal masterpieces like "Blood on the Tracks" in the 70's, which is basically the greatest "break-up album" ever written. Just go CHRONOLOGICALLY, starting where you are, from album to album and you'll have a blast. There are very few songwriters who can justifiably be called lyrical geniuses and Dylan was one of them. He changed everything - and most of his songs are so timeless that if they were written today, they'd have as much impact. But again - Woody Guthrie in the 30's and 40's, and others, were writing songs JUST like this - that was Dylan's main influence.

[@timcardona9962]

I think it has a lot to do with how irrelevant radio has become. They didn’t grow up with classic rock & oldies stations like we did and there’s this *huge* gap in their musical knowledge. It’s crazy

[@walterooski]

I did grow up with radio. I watched the internet evolve and happened to evolve with it, but I wasn't born with it. I didn't have internet until I was 14 at home. My parents didn't listen to music really; I didn't come from a musical household. Everybody was shocked that I could just play instruments in my family. The only music in my house growing up was the music coming from my bedroom.

[@timcardona9962]

@@walterooski thats awesome Walt - I play for a living but I do come from a musical family so it’s always exciting to hear how others have found their way to music with no help from their immediate surroundings. When I mentioned no radio access I wasn’t necessarily referring to you but those who are younger, like in their 20s. If you were born after 2000 then chances are you’ve heard little to no radio. You obviously have a rich background as I’ve heard you reference plenty of older bands as well as different genres like Bluegrass.

[@christopherjarrett9067]

100% -- This is a good Harold Bloom 'Anxiety of Influence' moment but for music. And specifically a confluence of insane talents during the 20 years prior to the 20 years afterwards.

[@lopezb]

@@timcardona9962 Good point. It's a tragedy, all Bill Clinton's fault for giving into corporate pressure, with the Telecommunications act, then we got Clear Channel and then FOX news and ....

[@reflective-learner]

Bro, I love your joy in discovering Bob! So refreshing! I saw him in November in the U.K. 2024 and he’s 83 and still inspiring and making a beautiful contribution.

[@fishdaddy35]

Yes, there was a phone number you could call and get the time - you made me feel so old!

[@lopezb]

I grew up with this music in the background, played by my older sister who worshipped Dylan. At the time I only appreciated some of his stuff (especially Blonde on Blonde and later Blood on the Tracks). But the trailers for the new movie (which I can't wait to see) made me want to go back to that time period and that music. Now all of it sounds great to me. And finally I can even appreciate Joan Baez' voice too, which I never liked at the time but now love. For me, the reaction videos by people who (to me unbelievably) have never heard this "old" music often re-awakens my appreciation. Your video here is really well done and is great for me to see, thank you. I hear it again through fresh ears, as if for the first time! Also as an amateur songwriter and guitarist I appreciate your perspective on that aspect.

[@timcardona9962]

Great reaction, almost hard to believe it’s a 1st for you! The biggest impact that Dylan had on music is first and foremost his lyrics. The Beatles were one of the first famous artists to talk about the Dylan influence, especially Lennon, and it was a huge part of their shift away from love songs.

[@jaw444]

i've read this story and heard it told by different Beatles, George brought the Freewheelin album home to wherever they were staying, after hearing it, and they were all blown away by the songs, words music vocal guitar harp, and they played it over and over for a week until the record was getting worn out, lol, i can believe it

[@jnagarya519]

Suze Rotolo is on the cover of the LP. This LP says things needing saying? We "Boomers" who are so trashed by younger generations have been saying them all along since the 1960s. It was the "Boomers" who got the US out of Vietnam and ended the draft. There are times I wish the cocky younger generations would experience what it's like to be eligible for the draft during wartime -- it might cause them to pause and think, which they never seem to do.

[@cristabelleblanc309]

Hard Rain makes me cry every time.

[@heldinahtmlhell]

It's great. It has this ability of building on itself the longer it goes, and sucking you into its own little world. Dylan has a few songs like this, Mr Tambourine Man and It's All Over Now, Baby Blue do the same to me.

[@AScottInChina-ug5iy]

Start at the beginning, and go album by album, amazing journey as he changes his entire style over the years!!

[@asmahism]

You have to keep going! I came to you through Gizz but Blonde on Blonde is my favorite album and I think you’ll love it

[@dantallman5345]

This was fun to watch. I knew the hits but had never heard some of the other songs on the album. I hope you go through his musical legacy in order so you can see the development. You are several albums away from his peak. Down the Highway is a lament for Suze Rotolo, the girl on the cover, who had left for Italy.

[@heldinahtmlhell]

There's so much great Dylan hidden in amongst his many albums, and many that didn't even make albums, alternate versions on bootlegs etc.

[@quethpinkle]

Fantastic reaction, love how seriously you took the lyrics. Would be very cool to see you react to the next handful of Dylan albums in order, charting the progression of how the protest-style writing of these early songs is slowly replaced by the more literary and imagistic writing of the 'electric trilogy' (the three albums released in '65-'66 after he "went electric"). Hope you react to Dylan again though no matter what it is! His 1997 album Time Out Of Mind is incredible too, won Album of the Year for a reason and is a masterpiece of swampy Lanois production and lyrics full of impending mortality (ironically though the album is almost 30 years old and Bob is still kicking lol). And yes to Joni Mitchell as well! Anything from Blue to Hejira is brilliant and well worth checking out (especially the latter). Her live album/film Shadows And Light is my favorite, her band is comprised of some of the best jazz/fusion guys around at the time and hearing her catalogue reimagined through them is amazing.

[@jnagarya519]

"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Girl from the North Country," "Walkin' Down the Highway," and "Boots of Spanish Leather" were about Suze Rotolo (she's on the cover of this LP).

[@wemartin1211]

Bob Dylan’s Dream may actually be may favorite song on this album. I always get teary eyed when I hear the line - we thought we could just sit forever in fun and our chances really was million to one”. I always think of my youth and my friends and how we grew up and went our separate ways. I long for those days. The song is really about losing your youth. Losing your freedom. At least the “freedom” of youth. Beautiful song.

[@blackeyedlily]

The “Talkin World War III Blues,” was a style of talking bluesy folk songs that was popular in the Folk Music crowd at the time. More like telling a story in a more talkative style than actually singing. You will find a couple of songs like that on Dylan‘s first few albums. And since you were interested in the civil rights aspect of his music, he was right next to Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC when he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. If you find pictures of that gathering, you will see Dylan sitting on the stage next to MLK.

[@davidbowman6740]

The key to this is that at that point in the 1960s nuclear war felt close enough to touch. Hard rain is nuclear fallout. Bob said that he felt the world might be close to ending so he piled every line he’d got into one song.

[@michaelkeefe8494]

@@davidbowman6740 So right, the boats were at sea... The Soviets turned them around at the last minute. Having to practice hiding under your 2nd grade desk to hide from a nuclear attack is probably why us boomers are so weird.

[@kibblesnbits9146]

Bob has reportedly said that hard rain is NOT about nuclear fallout, but more about ALL the bad in the world.

[@davidbowman6740]

@@kibblesnbits9146 Bob has said a lot of things and it doesn't do to take them at face value! He also said that he wrote it because he thought the world was about to be engulfed by nuclear war. As "hard rain" was the then current term for nuclear fallout, it doesn't take a genius to see the connection. Is it also about other things as well? Of course it is, it's a Dylan song!

[@mattreynolds612]

I've heard everything on this album, but never listened to it as a whole B4. Looking forward to the next 1½ hours. Thx for starting to react to Phish 🙏🎶🎶😏💯🕺💃

[@russellkaplan1818]

22 years old

[@steveullrich7737]

Great reaction, you now know why Dylan is held in so much esteem. You’ve only just begun a journey into his often profound and insightful lyrics. In his early recordings Dylan was mimicking the voice of his hero and inspiration the folk singer Woody Guthrie, adopting Guthrie's distinctive Oklahoma accent and nasal twang. When Dylan first came to New York he sought out Woodie who he knew of from his autobiography "Bound For Glory". Woody was dying from a terminal neurological disease at the time and Bob would play Gutherie's own songs to him.

[@jonmcdevitt]

It's worth listening to the mono versions to avoid the silly separation across the stereo spectrum.

[@lawrencesmith6536]

In 2016 Dylan was awarded the Nobel prize for literature for a lifetime of amazing lyrical genius

[@alexf7377]

Where have the years gone!?

[@kibblesnbits9146]

He also won the Puliter Prize

[@frankvisco8279]

I had the same reaction to “blowing in the wind” when I first heard it as as a first year college student in 1963. It was the beginning of my lifetime journey as a Dylan fan (fanatic😱). I saw him live for the first time at the Santa Monica Civic (?) Auditorium in 1965 or 66. Mind blowing performances.

[@michaelkeefe8494]

Highway 61 Revisited changed the world.

[@IcarusDrowning-gz8se]

I love the mix of songwriting on this album. The transition from A Hard Rain into Don't Think Twice is amazing to me. A Hard Rain is a manifestation of Dylan's fears for the rapidly approaching end of the world and Don't think Twice is a deeply personal song about the end of a romantic relationship but they both sound so honest and heartfelt and authentic. Perhaps if you really squint the songs are about the same thing. His ability to conjure emotion, depth of feeling and existential angst and then scatter in some humour without losing the flow of the album, at least to my mind, is masterful. Bob's early albums have a lot of humour in them, much of it is gallows humour. He mixes in a lot of different styles like his version of an old English Trad tune that he had recently learned while hanging out with the Beatles (Scarborough Fair* became Bob's Girl from the North Country), pure folk and blues and even talkin' blues, which Dylan loved for it traditionally being a humourous form of the blues. There's so much going on on this album but it all being done with just one voice, one guitar and one harmonica keeps it sounding coherent as an album. By the way, Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren are not just "some hot actresses", as your chat described them, they are all non-American hot actresses 🤣 Perhaps Bob is saying that in order to get the country to grow we need something inspirational, aspirational, something to make people dream and give them hope, but we need to be looking for that outside America. We need to look to the rest of the world and pull in the good things we find out there. Or maybe he really was just saying we need hot women to fire up the men and the country will grow in terms of population, you just never can tell with Bob Dylan. He really didn't very often tell people what to think and what to believe. He was very straight-forward and called things as he saw them but I always felt he presented this stuff more with an attitude of, "This is what I think. What do you think?" than as if he was telling people they should agree with him. He encouraged generations to think about the same things and see how they felt about what was going on in the world. He wanted people to think about the things they brushed under the carpet or ignored as they passed it in the street and to have an opinion on it. He never sounded preachy to me. * Simon and Garfunkel recorded a beautiful version of Scarborough Fair that is always worth a listen. Girl from the North Country is definitely a Dylan original but very clearly is based firmly on Scarborough Fair: Are you going to Scarborough Fair (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) Remember me to the one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine. Bob's version begins: If you're traveling in the north country fair, where the winds hit heavy on the borderline, remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine. The Girl from the North country is vastly different from the centuries old Scarborough fair, though. I'm not saying he ripped it off. He made the song's origins well known at the time.

[@zimkat48]

Dylan heard Martin Cathy do Scarborough Fair while hanging round with him in England in 1962.

[@elisericher8919]

Glad to see you liked Oxford Town. It's a great song. It's about James Meredith trying to enroll at Ole Miss in Oxford.

[@garylee3685]

Oxford town is a true story about James Meridith and the U of Missisippi. The girl is Susan Rotolo, his gf at the time. She has a book out. She passed a couple of years ago. Dylan made them not use her real name in A Complete Unknown.

[@blackeyedlily]

Girl from the North Country is drawn from the melody of Scarborough Fair, a traditional English folk song. Give it a listen, and you can see where it inspired Dylan when he wrote this song. it’s absolutely wonderful to see someone enjoying Dylan for the first time. And he was such a very young man when this album came out.

[@TK-fk4po]

It's a fantastic album and propelled him to almost instant stardom because it was SO heart felt, clever, biting, and real. It called out bullshit with extreme vitriol, it cried about losing a lover, it spoke of fear of nuclear war, and it mixed in so overt silliness of it all and in way, is humbling of him. I think it was just so massively different from what anyone else was doing at the time - both lyrically and emotionally. He had some huge songs after this but honestly, this one and one over 10 years later (blood on the tracks) are my favourites in their entirety.

[@garryellis3085]

Hard rains all about nuclear fallout. The bay of pigs was happening at the time. Dylan was putting as much as he could into one song. Because he didn't think he would be around for very long. It was all about dropping the H bomb.

[@snakelite61]

I think if you lived during the 60's, you immediately know what this was about. Young commenters mostly don't get it. The nuclear threat still hangs over us but we collectively pretend it doesn't exist.

[@dobiosdobios3345]

Very nice album and it's so current... incredible 😯 Thank you for sharing

[@dsimon123]

Been listening to Bob's 2nd album since it was introduced to me by a record shop owner in 1974. Have been getting joy from his music ever since. These early songs just flowed out of him.

[@Caperhere]

North Country rearranges Scarborough Fair, which Simon and Garfunkel did as a canticle. Between each line, there’s a description of Nam. I think it was an old traditional song, which required no residuals. You have to keep in mind, he didn’t exist in a vacuum. The folk revival was huge.

[@lopezb]

Wow, I had never made that connection! But Scarborough Fair was actually Simon's song Canticle brilliantly sung as a counterpoint to Scarborough Fair, a traditional song. Here is an incredible You Tube history of it all. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5XPeZp8rcmifNk But the closest to Simon and Garfunkel's is Martin Carty's incredible guitar version at 6:59 there Here is Carthy'd version in full: It is stunning in its melancholy and its beauty. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXTNhneLqM17mrM While you are at it, check out these unsung (in the US) UK fingerpickers: Davey Graham "Angi": kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4nLiJqYoshsr7c Bert Jansh "Blackwaterside": kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHm8dmqbqdibpq8 (These may sound familiar!)

[@Nowheremt]

Great album, great reaction. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@BrandonSezHi]

Bobs voice is amazing! That’s what music is about, being unique, bearing your soul for all to see. It’s not about having the same old boring pitch perfect voice, but that’s me

[@Lebowski55]

I hope you keep doing these 60's Dylan albums. The Times They are A'Changin, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding all masterpieces.

[@musguit]

Excellent review of Freewheelin, Bringing Back Home-- is next please.

[@bakomako7607]

Bringing It All Back Home album by Bob Dylan one side electric, one side acoustic

[@xD-mr3en]

An immense thank you for this reaction. ‘Twas the greatest of pleasure. Don’t listen to fools preaching about somebody’s ignorance. Ya very educated, a rare thing these days. Looking for more of Dylan. You open your heart to him and you are a changed man. That’s how it goes

[@sethboviper]

The holy trinity for me is Dylan, Phish, Tori Amos (dead serious, stunning voice, piano virtuoso, singer songwriter, different set list every time) . All the comments in Phish Rift video about lyrics were funny cause that album has some of their most wordy songs, but words aren’t why we listen to phish , and they don’t hold a candle to Dylan or even Tori. Anyway , for me it’s freewheelin’ and bringing it all back home . I have a soft spot for Nashville Skyline, too. The others are fantastic but those three are a++

[@RichardSchaefer-zx9ig]

Hard Rain has been credited to Dylan imagining the end of the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thinking that any verse could be his last.

[@caroldunlevy8033]

Good luck with all the Dylan yet to hear! Once bitten !

[@IcarusDrowning-gz8se]

A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall - Bob said that each line or couplet summed up a song he had planned to write but felt there was no time left for him to finish them. He expected the world to end very soon. The "hard rain" is the nuclear fallout.

[@jonhultman2338]

This is the album that inspired me to start writing my own songs.

[@ramonarellano4988]

A Hard Rains-are- gonna fall, ...that's an incredible dark warning to humanity written by a 22 year old poet from the lands of never-ever-times.

[@learnsteelguitarinretirement]

I'm 70 and there is not a time in my life that Bob Dylan's music hasn't been part of my life. As children, EVERYONE knew Blowing in the Wind. It was a top 40 hit by Peter Paul and Mary. And it is probably the first song people of my generation learned on guitar. When I was in my teens, I could play every one of these songs. Yes, he was 22. And 19 when he recorded his first album (this album is his second). So go a little easy on us oldtimers who just want to scream: YOU DON"T KNOW BOB DYLAN? You NEVER HEARD BLOWING IN THE WIND! We'll get over it. And there is a fascination watching someone react to something as familiar as air to those of us who were born in the 50's. BTW: Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman.

[@katzpdx]

One of the greatest (if not the greatest) poets of the 20th century.

[@paulcollinsyoga]

Anyone who jumps in with Freewheelin' gets a subscription from me. I've lived with Bob for over 50 years now, and although there has been LOADS of other great music I love, Bob has always been speaking truth in the background. Bob in the 60's was a force of nature. This was released in mid-1963. Within three years, he'd become the voice of a generation and folk hero, gone electric and been called a "judas", and released, in my opinion, the finest trilogy of albums ever recorded (Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61, and Blonde on Blonde). Be careful, man. Bob can be a dangerous rabbit hole to fall into, especially when you start learning about what was going on culturally at that time as well.

[@annprehn]

So glad the movie's out, these people need to see who he was.

[@wemartin1211]

I love that so many people are discovering Dylan now for the first time.

[@CowboyNeil-ov9lp]

Wow, getting into Dylan and Phish simultaneously is just...wow. Dylan is absolutely the greatest American songwriter I've heard and Phish has thousands and thousands of hours of exciting performances. You can, and I have, live just off these artists works for years at a time. Enjoy!

[@tomdellinger3710]

Dude! You can't imagine what it was like to hear Masters of War in the sixties. I was in high school and it was Dylan who opened my eyes to the ways of this life. In those days there was the draft. The Viet Nam war was on the news in your living room every effing night and you knew that as soon as you graduate, those masters would be waiting to take you and throw you into the maelstrom.

[@YoyoDaddyO]

Freewheelin Bob always gets a play on a long road trip

[@Squeekyleaks]

Bob Dylan, a jawdropping national treasure.

[@zenhaelcero8481]

Solid album reaction, thanks for posting! Any chance you'll take a look at his later material at some point? I'm a big Dylan fan, would love to listen to you react and give your thoughts on his later, blues-y stuff like Tempest or Together Through Life.

[@chickmcgee1000]

We’re well into the era of, music brought to you, via software. Most new music sounds like what it is, inorganic.

[@ericcarlson8576]

Great reaction! Been following Bob for 50 years. A lot of disappointment, but much more great music. The poet laureate of my time. I really hope that you’ll react to his albums in order to. Thank you for the reaction, I liked and subscribed.

[@jnagarya519]

"Walkin'' Down the Highway" was one of his off-the-top-of-the-head spontaneities. But his usual secret is that he did a lot of rewriting -- which was a rejection of the "Beat" aesthetic of, "First thought, best thought." Lawrence Ferlinghetti (City Lights Books) published "Beats" but also roundly rejected it. In the film "Don't Look Back" you'll see him doing rewriting, and stopping and thinking during the writing. And his leg is "goin," keeping time. (In the background Joan Baez is singing his "Love is Just a Four-Letter Word". We have no recording of it by him. I think it was his parting "gift" to her.)

[@steveullrich7737]

Yes, there was a phone number you called to get the time and it would say at the beep it's 'x' o'clock or somethink like that. There was also a radio station that broadcast the time. Remember there was no internet or cell phones so if you needed to get the current time and didn't want to wait for the radio station to give you the time you could call to get it.

[@felipecosta9436]

i think you will appreciate even more "BLOOD ON THE TRACKS", theres not a single bad or disposable song on that album. it`s a more personal album, a comeback to the acoustic after rock n roll era, but with rock elements(like drums).....also is probably the best break up album of all times(he had just divorced). Pay especial attention to the lyrics of "tangled up in blue", "simple twist of fate" and "shelter from the storm", although my personal favorite is "if you see her, say hello"

[@DanielSears-sx1gi]

The song about "a train going west" has a tune borrowed from a song about Lord Franklin whose ship disappeared while searching for a northwest passage to the east.

[@jubileuhyebdjke8688]

Don't know if you're plan to react to other bob albuns, but if you do, i'm very excited for you to reach Blood on the Tracks, The Times They Are a-Changing, Another Side of Bob Dylan, the PEAK albuns (sorry if there's any error, english is not my first language)

[@TroubadourAtHeart]

Bob's always integrated a lot of quirky humor into his music.

[@mattjohn4731]

Woody Guthrie was excellent! He had a strong OK accent, sharp social critique, socialist and funny! Bob's hillbilly accent was a nod to him, it was not his "real" voice.

[@walterooski]

Thank you SO MUCH for that context. Honestly, my brain was a little surprised to hear he was from Minnesota singing with a voice like that. This makes tremendously more sense.

[@thejoelrooganexplosion2400]

Subbed for dylan reactions

[@ottothompson7853]

I just discovered your channel and enjoyed your trip through Freewheelin'. I'm sure someone probably mentioned this, but on Christmas Day, a new movie will be released which covers this period of Dylan's rise, from 1961-65, when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. It's called "A Complete Unknown." It stars Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and others. James Mangold directs and it's getting good reviews. You can find a lot of info about the movie on KZbin.

[@fishdaddy35]

The girl on the cover is Suze Rotolo. She wrote a book about their relationship, called “Freewheelin’ Life.”

[@axelbaker8737]

A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall was written around the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis.

[@zappybazinga8124]

Dylan is a massively complex artist and the one thing I’d suggest is a deep dive into his life and the context of the time as each album was written as much of appreciation of Dylan is understanding that. Freewheeling was his second album though his first with majority original material. It is important to know how Dylan at the time was massively integrated into the folk scene and the civil rights movement. He’d moved from Minnesota to New York inserted himself in the folk scene there partly in homage to his hero woody Guthrie who he visited in his hospice. Dylan was an original. He quickly became darling of the folk scene with his protest songs but equally as quickly became disenfranchised with it and the civil rights movement as he slowly realised that old grey left wing men would never do anything. And as a consequence he shifted towards electric music - going electric live at Newport folk festival and being booed . The forthcoming film a complete unknown chronicles this story. Worth a watch

[@TroubadourAtHeart]

Bob has had quite a few singing voices over his 60 years + career. The one he had for this album is definitely one of my favorites. He was still emulating Woody Guthrie a bit at this time.

[@kibblesnbits9146]

The girl is Suze Rotolo. He parents were socially conscious, and so was she. She was the girl he refers to in "dont think twice" "a child i am told," she was 17, i think he was 19 or 20 when they started. He got horribly jealous when she went with her mom to Italy.he also wrote "Boots of Spenidh Leather" and "Tomorrow is a Long Time" about the breakup.

[@markcasserly3992]

Hi sometime could you please react to Bob Dylan's latest album from 2020 called 'Rough and Rowdy Ways', released when he was 79

[@Lexwell_Lavers]

Time Out Of Mind also 1997.

[@fishdaddy35]

Dylan hated the label of “spokesman for a generation,” but he was able to put into words and songs what a lot of us were thinking and feeling.

[@fearlessvinyl]

first, keep up the GREAT work! second, would love to see you react to Syd Barrett's Bob Dylan Blues.

[@michaelholleman3150]

I can't wait until we can watch you listen to Visions of Johanna.

[@Chris-lc8tw]

That was great seeing your reaction to some truly great songs. You should check out the new book, "You Don't Need a Weatherman: Bob Dylan for Beginners" it helps to explain the many sides of Bob Dylan's career

[@DeAndresTellez]

Welcome to the 60's. Nothing will be the same again. I recommend, to start: The Beatles "Revolver", Beach Boys "Pet Sounds", Kinks "Lola vs powerman", Simon & Garfunkle "Bridge over troubled waters", The Doors first, second, third and sixth albums... And several tons more records. If you want information, I volunteer.

[@walterooski]

So I've done the entirety of the Beatles' work, I did that before I started reacting. Rubber Soul is my personal favorite of the catalog. I've also done a good chunk of Beach Boys because I read once that Jimmy Page was inspired by Smiley Smile so I went on that little side-quest. Kinks I only know the song Lola, never dug in. The same with Simon & Garfunkle. I've heard a good chunk of The Doors as well. Thank you so much for your kindness, suggestions and excitement. I'll definitely take the suggestions seriously.

[@Code9]

And you've you've barely even scratched a teenie tiny bit of the surface. Find out about what happened when he put away the acoustic guitar and went electric.

[@peter2010900]

Dear God ~ thank you for Bob Dylan

[@daveoverton5851]

welcome aboard the Dylan For life club!

[@Eric-ff4bf]

Consider that Dylan was about 21 years old when he released this album. Mature way beyond his years. "A Hard Rains a Gonna Fall" is reminiscent of some portions of the poetry of Walt Whitman

[@iamthebuddha]

It's a hard rain is so epic.

[@susandrysdale7987]

To me this is as timeless as humanity. My second favorite is “The Times They are a Changing”. I see these as anthems of the sixties and seventies that apply to all times. Also, Try “Blowing in the wind” by Peter, Paul and Mary. The reason these two songs jump out to me is due to the context of my youth of the Vietnam War and the women’s movement.

[@stuarthastie6374]

The world needs a new young Bob Dylan.

[@gl2700]

Blowin in the wind is one of the first songs I remember.