Bob Dylan (Original Recording Remastered)

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Bob Dylan

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A younger than seems possible Bob Dylan stares at us from the cover of his very first album. The year was 1962. Inside the CD booklet, the pictures reveal a slightly awkward looking Dylan who doesn't quite exude the confidence that inexorably burgeoned approximately a year later (compare these photos with the photos included in the remasters of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'"). And who can blame him for possibly feeling a little out of place? The great John Hammond had just discovered him playing in clubs such as the Gaslight in Greenwich Village (Hammond also discovered such indispensable names as Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and others). Suddenly (he left Minnesota for New York around 1959) Dylan finds himself in a Columbia records recording studio. Not only that, he's recording two of his own compositions.

Though the young Dylan might look a little awkward here, he by no means sounds awkward. The now 42 year old pictures belie the extreme confidence and "wise beyond his years" mood that pervades his first album. Dylan was only 20 at the time. Nonetheless, the songs about death and sorrow carry a mood of experience and feeling that most 20 year olds probably can't imagine. Dylan grunts and strains in "In My Time of Dying" (a traditional blues number sometimes attributed to Blind Willie Johnson and sometimes credited as just 'traditional') and "Fixin' To Die" (by "Bukka" White - another blues singer that lived the blues) as though the issue has direct immediacy for him. And the great closer "See that my Grave Is Kept Clean" (by the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson - another man who lived the blues) carries a similar impact. At times, Dylan's voice takes on a harsher growl here than on any of his subsequent albums (listen to the songs above as well as "Highway 51 Blues", "Gospel Plow", and "House of the Risin' Sun" for more examples). Songs such as "Talkin' New York" - the album's funniest song with original lyrics by Dylan - and "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" point to the Dylan that emerges on 1963's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". Dylan began to evolve even on his first album.

The Dylan original, "Song To Woody", shows Dylan's great promise as a songwriter, but it does pale a little in comparison to his output of 1963. In fact, very little on this album, great as it is, points to the Dylan that we know over 40 years later as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Had Dylan ceased recording after this album he would've remained an interesting, and probably obscure, footnote in folk music history. Had he stopped recording after "Freewheelin'" he would probably still be remembered as somewhat of a legend. In fact, the transition from this album to its successor is startling and shows an evolution and progression probably unmatched in popular music history. In his "Chronicles, Vol. 1" Dylan even expressed some surprise at what happened. At the time he said the only thing of any significance he had written was "Song To Woody". That soon changed.

Dylan's first album is a great listen. The long overdue remastering sounds incredible. It has also likely exposed many people to great blues and folk classics. It probably also fueled the young Dylan with the confidence and assurance to go on to write timeless songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind", "Masters of War", and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". This album exposes Dylan's roots, and provides a fascinating document of where he came from and, subsequently, what he became.

Dylan is great, Sony is not . . . DO NOT BUY THIS CD if you intend to play it on your computer. It's one more example of global corporate hurbis gone amok. I love Dylan, love this album (his first). But Sony's Columbia Records division decided in their "blind wisdom" to illegally embed code in some of their digital recordings so that they could not be duplicated.

I bought this CD to upload into iTunes to play on my iPod, but Sony's illegal code prevented my computer (PowerBook 12" laptop) from even recognizing the disc. These days, I listen to music almost exclusively via iTunes or my iPod. So this CD is useless to me.

Amazon's customer service has been good. They replaced my first copy of this CD (in case it was just a lemon) within a couple of days, but the replacement CD fared no better.

I understand that Sony (under pressure, and sensitivity to bad PR) have stopped embedding the hidden code. But they have not recalled all their corrupted CDs. Amazon should work with Sony/Columbia to identify which CDs have the illegal code, and remove them from sale-or, at the very least, in the product description identify which CDs have the Sony code.