The Start of Something Great

On this day in 1963, a singer-songwriter released his second album. While his debut was not seen as a critical or commercial success, his second album introduced us to a songwriter and poet whose folk-protest album was and still is genius.

Bob Dylan was just 22-years old when he released The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan on Columbia Records. Start with the iconic photo of Dylan and his then girlfriend Suze Rotolo strolling arm in arm down West 4th Street in New York City. It’s a gorgeous album cover (and currently is framed on a wall in my house). While Suze looks happy walking along the slush covered street, Dylan looks nervous and uncomfortable. It doesn’t fit the title of the album. Some have said that the album title is Dylan’s promise to pull no punches. He’s beyond restraint and will say what he wants through humor and his developing biting political views.

We start with the well-known song “Blowin’ in the Wind” – a protest song that poses questions about peace, war and freedom. In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, John Bauldie wrote that Pete Seeger first identified the melody of "Blowin' in the Wind" as an adaptation of the old African-American spiritual "No More Auction Block/We Shall Overcome".

Then comes my favorite from the album, “Girl from the North Country”. A gorgeous track written following his first trip to England in December 1962. It is debated as to whom this song is a tribute, it is suspected that this song could have been inspired by his then girlfriend, Suze Rotolo. It’s a beautiful, sad song of love. Maybe one of Dylan’s best.

I won’t go song for song through the whole album, but other highlights include “Masters of War”, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. What Dylan did with the album was help bring folk music into the mainstream – where it had been relegated to college campuses and bohemian circles, Dylan changed that with The Freewheelin’.

Like a large chunk of Dylan’s catalogue, it’s required listening for anyone who really wants to understand popular music in the second half of the 20th century. And like a lot of great music, it’s an album of songs that simultaneously feels of the time, yet still timeless and applicable to the world today.