Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
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Free Music Notes for John Wesley Harding
Free Music Review: John Wesley Harding, Indeed
Hit: 4 Stars
It seems hard to believe now both as to the performer as well as to what was being attempted that anyone would take umbrage at a performer using an electric guitar to tell a folk story (or any story for that matter). It is not necessary to go into all the details of what or what did not happen with Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to know that one should be glad, glad as hell, that Bob Dylan continued to listen to his own drummer and carry on a career based on electronic music.
Others have, endlessly, gone on about Bob Dylan's role as the voice of his generation (and mine), his lyrics and what they do or do not mean and his place in the rock or folk pantheons, or both. I just want to comment on a couple of songs here. Needless to say this is a theme album centered on the old West that Dylan has written songs about elsewhere as well (think Girl From The North Country, Hollis Brown, etc.). That too is part of the American folk heritage. This rather good thematic conception hits right from the opening John Wesley Harding (a real, if more villainous, character of the Old West than portrayed here), All Along the Watchtower (that was given its definitive cover by Jimi Hendrix) and finishes up with the bittersweet I'll Be Your Baby Tonight. Politically, I Pity The Poor Immigrant takes on added meaning with today's immigrant trials and tribulations. Is this Dylan's best work? No, but it is a worthy effort.
Free Music Review: One Heck of a Record
Hit: 5 Stars
After his motorcycle accident and during his recovery, Bob Dylan, according to what I've read, spent hours and hours recording with the band in New York in that Big Pink house. Many years later, probably because of all of the bootlegs of these sessions, some of those recordings would be officially released as The Basement Tapes but for some reason, Dylan decided not to put that stuff out when it was fresh. Instead he went down to Nashville and in a few short days wrote all new material, hired three Nashville musicians and recorded "John Wesley Harding" and who could have believe that in such a short time, such a masterpiece could be created. This record is truly a testament to Dylan's genius.
I've also read that Dylan has said on many occasions that his songs are what they are, that the words are out there for everybody to hear, that there are no hidden meanings, no secret messages, but I have to say on the second song on this record, "As I Went Out One Morning," that I can't help but picturing the "fairest damsel that ever did walk in chains," as America. It seems to me that Dylan is saying that Tom Paine would be so disappointed at what she has become. Also, this record is peppered with Biblical references, maybe this is a glimpse of Slow Train off in the future, maybe not, but were those references messages or was Dylan just into reading the Bible when he did this record. Actually it doesn't matter, because this is one of the best records to come out of the last century. "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" is just one heck of a story. "Down Along the Cove" is one heck of a love song. "John Wesley Harding" just one heck of a ballad. Every song on this record is great. Can I say it just one more time? "John Wesley Harding" is just one heck of a record.
Ken Douglas, author of Dead Ringer, Desperation Moon & Running Scared.
Free Music Review: An underrrated gem of an album
Hit: 5 Stars
In a time when intellectual pretensions were the order of the day comes John Wesley Harding. With just a bass, drums, guitar and harmonica Bob Dylan returned to basics on this uderrated masterpiece(certainly the most underrated of Dylan's career). The album is steeped in biblical references and western mythology. The album also has a natural flow and should be listened to from beginning to end to fully appreciate it. Well any way you listen to it, one things for certain, this is one of the essential Dylan albums. Free Music Review: The hobo drifter's sad dream
Hit: 5 Stars
With simple melodies (which are not country songs at all) and perfectly clear vocal renderings (the clearest maybe on any Dylan album, especially around that era), the strange stories and solitary images stand out like statues in a desert. Even the black-and-white cover depicts weird characters that seem altogether misplaced and awkward, and somehow haunting.
... two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl...
The two cheerful and melodic love songs to close the album seem almost unreal, almost like wishful thinking, in this context.
Free Music Review: Dylan
Hit: 3 Stars
Had it on vinyl now updating all my Dylan to C.D. Still sounds great after all these years