Home      Discussion      Topics      Dictionary      Almanac
Signup       Login
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Discussion
Ask a question about 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'
Start a new discussion about 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum
 
Encyclopedia
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...

's second studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an original collection of new tracks by a recording artist.It usually does not contain live recordings and/or remixes, and if it does, those tracks do not make up majority of the album and are often "bonus tracks"...

, released in May 1963 by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of notable singers,...

.

Dylan's debut album, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (album)
Bob Dylan is the eponymous debut album from the American artist of the same name. It was released on March 19, 1962 on Columbia Records, when Dylan was 20 years old. It features two original compositions, the rest being old folk standards, and was produced by Columbia's legendary talent scout...

, had featured just two original songs. Freewheelin' contained just two covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition of a previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

, the traditional tune "Corrina, Corrina", and "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
"Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" is a song recorded by Henry Thomas in 1927. The song was covered by Bob Dylan on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan....

" — which Dylan re-wrote extensively. All the other songs were Dylan originals and the Freewheelin album showcased for the first time Dylan's song-writing talent. The album kicked off with "Blowin' in the Wind
Blowin' in the Wind
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom...

", which would become one of Dylan's most celebrated songs. In July 1963, the song became an international hit for folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary.

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan reached number 22 in the US (eventually going platinum), and later became a number 1 hit in the UK in 1965. It was one of 50 recordings chosen in 2002 by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head...

 to be added to the National Recording Registry
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States". The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording...

.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 97 on
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...

 magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time is the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone magazine published in November 2003.Related news articles: The list was based on the votes of 273 rock musicians, critics and industry figures, each of whom submitted a weighted list of 50 albums...

.

Side one

  1. "Blowin' in the Wind
    Blowin' in the Wind
    "Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom...

    " – 2:48
  2. "Girl from the North Country
    Girl from the North Country
    "Girl from the North Country" is a song written by Bob Dylan. It was first released in 1963 as the second track on Dylan's second studio album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Dylan re-recorded the song as a duet with Johnny Cash in 1969. That recording became the first track on Nashville Skyline,...

    " – 3:22
  3. "Masters of War
    Masters of War
    "Masters of War" is a song by Bob Dylan, written in 1963 and released on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. It is an adaptation, with new words by Dylan, of "Nottamun Town"....

    " – 4:34
  4. "Down the Highway" – 3:27
  5. "Bob Dylan's Blues
    Bob Dylan's Blues
    "Bob Dylan's Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan. It was released in 1963 on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.-Recording sessions:"Bob Dylan's Blues" was recorded during the July 9 recording session for the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan...

    " – 2:23
  6. "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
    A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
    "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The lyric structure is based on the question and answer form of the traditional ballad "Lord...

    " – 6:55

Side two

  1. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
    Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
    "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, and released on the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.Dylan once introduced "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as "a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better.....

    " – 3:40
  2. "Bob Dylan's Dream
    Bob Dylan's Dream
    "Bob Dylan's Dream" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Its nostalgic lyrics betray a sentimentality which would seem to hearken back to Woody Guthrie, a hero of Dylan's....

    " – 5:03
  3. "Oxford Town
    Oxford Town
    "Oxford Town" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan....

    " – 1:50
  4. "Talkin' World War III Blues" – 6:28
  5. "Corrina, Corrina" (Traditional) – 2:44
  6. "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
    Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
    "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" is a song recorded by Henry Thomas in 1927. The song was covered by Bob Dylan on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan....

    " (Dylan, Henry Thomas
    Henry Thomas (blues musician)
    Henry Thomas was an American pre-World War II country blues singer, songster and musician. He was often billed as "Ragtime Texas."...

    ) – 2:01
  7. "I Shall Be Free" – 4:49

Recording sessions


Both critics and the public took little notice of Dylan's eponymous debut album, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (album)
Bob Dylan is the eponymous debut album from the American artist of the same name. It was released on March 19, 1962 on Columbia Records, when Dylan was 20 years old. It features two original compositions, the rest being old folk standards, and was produced by Columbia's legendary talent scout...

, which sold only 5,000 copies in its first year, just enough to break even. Within Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of notable singers,...

 some referred to the singer as 'Hammond's Folly' and suggested dropping his contract. Hammond defended Dylan vigorously, and Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash , born J. R. Cash, was an American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, who had a strong commercial track record at Columbia, was also a staunch supporter of Dylan. The relatively small company Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The label's name was initially New Jazz, but changed to Prestige Records the next year. Its catalog contains a significant number of jazz classics, including renowned works by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk and many...

 had expressed interest in Dylan, perceiving potential in his songwriting talent. Hammond was committed to making Dylan's second album a success.

Recording in New York


With Hammond producing, Dylan began work on his second album at Columbia's Studio A in New York on April 24 1962. The working title at the time was Bob Dylan's Blues, and as late as July, it would remain the working title.
Dylan performed renditions of two traditional folk songs, "Going To New Orleans" and "Corrina, Corrina", as well as a cover of the Hank Williams classic "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle". However, much of the session was dedicated to Dylan's own compositions, and four of them were recorded: "Sally Gal", "The Death of Emmett Till
The Death of Emmett Till
The Death of Emmett Till is a song written by Bob Dylan about the murder of African American Emmett Till that occurred on August 28, 1955. While the song has never been officially released, bootlegs of several performances of the song circulate among Dylan collectors.One bootlegged performance,...

", "Rambling, Gambling Willie", and "Talkin' John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is a political advocacy group that supports what it considers traditionally conservative causes such as the private ownership of property, the rule of law and U.S. sovereignty but opposes globalism. The society is paleoconservative on the American political spectrum. Founded...

  Blues". Dylan's performances of "John Birch" and "Rambling, Gambling Willie" were deemed satisfactory, and master takes of both songs were selected and set aside for the final album.

Dylan returned to Studio A the following day, recording the master take for "Let Me Die In My Footsteps
Let Me Die In My Footsteps
"Let Me Die In My Footsteps" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. It was originally recorded for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but was dropped and later released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 1961-1991....

", which was also set aside for the final album.
Dylan then recorded several more originals ("Rocks and Gravel", "Talking Hava Negiliah
Hava Nagila
"Hava Nagila" is a Hebrew folk song, the title meaning "let us rejoice". It is a song of celebration, especially popular amongst Jewish and Roma communities, and is a staple of band performers at Jewish festivals....

 Blues", "Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues", and two more takes of "Sally Gal"), as well as several covers, including the traditional "Wichita (Going to Louisiana)", Big Joe Williams
Big Joe Williams
Big Joe Williams was an American delta blues musician and songwriter.-Career:...

's "Baby Please Don't Go", and Robert Johnson's "Milk Cow's Calf's Blues". Because Dylan's song-writing talent developed so rapidly, nothing from the April sessions appeared on Freewheelin. In 1991, "Let Me Die in My Footsteps," "Talking Hava Negiliah Blues," and "Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" were eventually released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan. Released in 1991 to satisfy enormous demand for Dylan's much-bootlegged unissued material, it contains rarities and unreleased works from the sessions for 1962's eponymous debut Bob Dylan to 1989's Oh Mercy.The Bootleg...

.

The recording sessions at Studio A would not resume until July 9, when Dylan recorded several new compositions. The most notable was "Blowin' in the Wind", a song he had already performed live but had yet to record in the studio. Dylan also recorded "Bob Dylan's Blues", "Down the Highway", and "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" and master takes for these four songs were selected for the album.

Dylan also recorded "Baby, I'm In The Mood For You", an original composition, which did not make the final cut for the album; it would eventually be released in 1985 on the boxed-set retrospective Biograph
Biograph (album)
Biograph is a 53-track compilation spanning the career of Bob Dylan, from his 1962 debut album to the 1981 LP Shot of Love. It was released in 1985 by Columbia Records, one of the earliest and most successful examples of the CD Box Set. It reached #33 in the US and went platinum.The recordings...

. Two more outtakes, an original blues number called "Quit Your Low Down Ways" and Texan singer Hally Wood
Hally Wood
Hally Wood was a classically trained musician/singer who became vitally interested in folkmusic; as musicologist transcribed a number of Lomax field recordings, transcribed/researched a book of Leadbelly songs , Woody Guthrie songs, The New Lost City Ramblers SongbookHally Wood (September 29 1922...

's composition, "Worried Blues", were released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan. Released in 1991 to satisfy enormous demand for Dylan's much-bootlegged unissued material, it contains rarities and unreleased works from the sessions for 1962's eponymous debut Bob Dylan to 1989's Oh Mercy.The Bootleg...

.

By this time, a manager, Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...

, was taking an interest in Dylan's business affairs; Grossman was involved in music publishing and he persuaded Dylan to take publishing rights of his songs away from Duchess Music, whom he had signed a contract with, and assign the publishing to Witmark Music, a division of Warner's music publishing operation. Dylan signed a contract with Witmark on July 13 1962.

After settling his publishing contract, Dylan returned to Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...

 at the beginning of August. He stayed in Minneapolis where he met old friends, including Tony Glover, who recorded another informal 'session' with Dylan. On this home recording, Dylan talked about Suze Rotolo
Suze Rotolo
Susan Elizabeth Rotolo , nicknamed Suze Rotolo , is an American artist, perhaps best known as the woman walking with Bob Dylan on the cover of his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The pair dated on-and-off during the early 1960s...

, and Dylan's expectation that she would return from Italy, where she was studying art, in September. He then performed an embryonic version of his new song, "Tomorrow is a Long Time
Tomorrow Is a Long Time
"Tomorrow Is a Long Time", is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. It is taken from the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II compilation first released in 1971. It was subsequently also added to the rare triple LP compilation, Masterpieces. It is an exclusive live recording made during his...

". Shortly before September 1, Dylan heard from Suze Rotolo; she told him that she had postponed her return from Italy indefinitely, which put a strain on their relationship.

Dylan returned to New York in the fall and performed a number of live shows where he debuted some new compositions. On September 22, Dylan appeared for the first time at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, part of an all-star hootenanny. This show was his first public performance of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The lyric structure is based on the question and answer form of the traditional ballad "Lord...

", a complex and powerful song built upon the question and answer refrain pattern of the traditional British ballad "Lord Randall
Lord Randall
"Lord Randall" is an Anglo-Scottish border ballad, a traditional ballad consisting of dialogue. The different versions follow the same general lines, the primary character is poisoned, usually by his sweetheart; this is revealed through a conversation where he reports on the events and the poisoner...

", published by Francis Child. One month later, on October 22, President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 appeared on national television to announce the discovery of Soviet missiles on the island of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...

, initiating the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. In Russia, former Eastern Bloc, and communist countries , it is termed the "Caribbean Crisis" , while in Cuba it is called the "October Crisis"...

. In the sleeve notes on the Freewheelin album, Nat Hentoff
Nat Hentoff
Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff is an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media and writes regularly on jazz and country music for The Wall Street Journal....

 would quote Dylan as saying that he wrote "A Hard Rain" in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis: "Every line in it is actually the start of a whole new song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn't have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one." In fact, Dylan had written the song more than a month before the crisis broke.

Albert Grossman became Dylan's manager in August 1962, and he quickly clashed with John Hammond. Since Dylan was under twenty-one when he signed his contract with CBS, Grossman argued that the contract was invalid and had to be re-negotiated. Instead, Hammond invited Dylan to his office and persuaded him to sign a 'reaffirment' - agreeing to abide by the original contract. Tension between Grossman and Hammond eventually led to Hammond's being replaced as Bob Dylan's producer.

Dylan resumed work on his second album at Columbia's Studio A on October 26, where he recorded three songs. Several takes of Dylan's "Mixed-Up Confusion
Mixed-Up Confusion
Mixed-Up Confusion is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan.It was recorded on November 14th 1962 and was destined to be his first single and included on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan...

" and Arthur Crudup
Arthur Crudup
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup was a delta blues singer and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs later covered by Elvis Presley , such as "That's All Right " , "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine."-Career:Born in Forest,...

's "That's All Right Mama" were deemed unusable, but a master take of "Corrina, Corrina" was selected for the final album. An 'alternate take' of "Corrina, Corrina" from the same session would also be selected for a single issued later in the year.

On November 1, Dylan held another session at Studio A where he performed three songs. Once again, "Mixed-Up Confusion" and "That's All Right Mama" were recorded, and once again, the results were deemed unusable. However, the third song, "Rocks And Gravel," was deemed satisfactory, and a master take was selected for the final album.

On November 14, Dylan held another session at Studio A, spending most of the session recording "Mixed-Up Confusion". Dylan performed the song with several studio musicians hired by producer John Hammond; George Barnes (guitar), Bruce Langhorne
Bruce Langhorne
Bruce Langhorne is an American folk musician. He was active in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, primarily as a session guitarist for folk-rock albums and performances....

 (guitar), Dick Wellstood
Dick Wellstood
Dick Wellstood was an American jazz pianist. He was, along with Ralph Sutton, one of the few stride pianists to arise in the 1940s during the rise of bebop....

 (piano), Gene Ramey
Gene Ramey
Gene Ramey was an American jazz double bassist.Ramey was born in Austin, Texas, and played trumpet in college, but switched to sousaphone when playing with George Corley's Royal Aces, The Moonlight Serenaders, and Terrence Holder. In 1932 he moved to Kansas City and took up the bass, studying with...

 (bass), and Herb Lovelle (drums). Although this track never appeared on a Dylan album, it was released as a single on December 14 1962, and then swiftly withdrawn. What is striking is the rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 sound of the backing band. Cameron Crowe
Cameron Crowe
Cameron Bruce Crowe is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes....

 described it as "a fascinating look at a folk artist with his mind wandering towards Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....

 and Sun Records
Sun Records
Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27 1952. Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Buddy McNeil,...

".

After completion of "Mixed-Up Confusion", most of the musicians were dismissed, but guitarist Langhorne stayed behind, accompanying Dylan on three more originals ("Ballad of Hollis Brown", "Kingsport Town", and "Whatcha Gonna Do"), but these performances were ultimately rejected; "Kingsport Town" was later released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan. Released in 1991 to satisfy enormous demand for Dylan's much-bootlegged unissued material, it contains rarities and unreleased works from the sessions for 1962's eponymous debut Bob Dylan to 1989's Oh Mercy.The Bootleg...

.

Dylan held another session at Studio A three weeks later on December 6. Five songs, all original compositions, were recorded, three of which were eventually included on
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Oxford Town", and "I Shall Be Free". All three master takes were recorded on the first take, with "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "Oxford Town" recorded in a single take. Dylan also made another attempt at "Whatcha Gonna Do" and recorded a new song, "Hero Blues", but both songs were ultimately rejected and left unreleased.

Traveling to England


Twelve days later, Dylan visited England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 for the first time to appear in a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...

 drama, The Madhouse on Castle Street
The Madhouse on Castle Street
The Madhouse on Castle Street was a British television play, broadcast by BBC Television on the evening of January 13 1963, as part of the Sunday-Night Play anthology strand...

, in which he performed "Blowin' in the Wind" and two other songs. While in London
London
[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...

, Dylan immersed himself in the local folk scene, making contact with Troubadour Club
Troubadour Club
Established in 1954, The Troubadour at 263-267 Old Brompton Road in Earls Court is one of the last remaining 1950s coffee houses in London, with a club room in the cellar famous as one of the primary venues of the British folk revival in the late 1950s and 1960s...

 organizer Anthea Joseph and folksingers Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of...

 and Bob Davenport. "I ran into some people in England who really knew those [traditional English] songs," Dylan recalled in 1984. "Martin Carthy, another guy named [Bob] Davenport. Martin Carthy's incredible. I learned a lot of stuff from Martin."

Carthy introduced Dylan to two English songs that would prove very important for the Freewheelin album. Carthy taught Dylan his arrangement of "Scarborough Fair
Scarborough Fair
"Scarborough Fair" was a traditional English fair, and is a traditional English ballad.-The fair:During the late Middle Ages the seaside town of Scarborough was an important venue for tradesmen from all over England. It was host to a huge 45-day trading event, starting August 15, which was...

" which Dylan would use as the basis of his own "Girl from the North Country
Girl from the North Country
"Girl from the North Country" is a song written by Bob Dylan. It was first released in 1963 as the second track on Dylan's second studio album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Dylan re-recorded the song as a duet with Johnny Cash in 1969. That recording became the first track on Nashville Skyline,...

". And a 19th century ballad commemorating the death of Sir John Franklin in 1847,"Lord Franklin
Lady Franklin's Lament
"Lady Franklin's Lament" is a traditional ballad commemorating the loss of Sir John Franklin's British Arctic Expedition of 1845...

" gave Dylan the melody for his composition "Bob Dylan's Dream
Bob Dylan's Dream
"Bob Dylan's Dream" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Its nostalgic lyrics betray a sentimentality which would seem to hearken back to Woody Guthrie, a hero of Dylan's....

".

From England, Dylan traveled to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...

 where he joined Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...

 who was on tour with his client Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, , known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...

. Dylan also hoped to make contact with his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo
Suze Rotolo
Susan Elizabeth Rotolo , nicknamed Suze Rotolo , is an American artist, perhaps best known as the woman walking with Bob Dylan on the cover of his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The pair dated on-and-off during the early 1960s...

, unaware that she had already returned to America. While in Italy, Dylan finished "Girl from the North Country" as well as an early draft of another song, "Boots of Spanish Leather". Dylan then returned to England where Carthy was given a surprise: "When he came back from Italy, he'd written "Girl From the North Country"; he came down to the Troubadour
Troubadour Club
Established in 1954, The Troubadour at 263-267 Old Brompton Road in Earls Court is one of the last remaining 1950s coffee houses in London, with a club room in the cellar famous as one of the primary venues of the British folk revival in the late 1950s and 1960s...

 and said, 'Hey, here's "Scarborough Fair"' and he started playing this thing."

Returning to New York


When Dylan returned to New York in mid-January, he recorded his new composition, "Masters of War" for Broadside magazine. In the meantime, he got back together with Suze Rotolo, whom he convinced to move back in to his 4th Street apartment.

Returning from Europe with a batch of new songs, Dylan was determined to record his new material and re-evaluate the tracks he had already recorded for his second album. The recording of the new material paralleled a dramatic move outside the studio: Albert Grossman's determination to have John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was a record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music....

 replaced as Dylan's producer at CBS.
According to Dylan's biographer, Howard Sounes, "The two men could not have been more different. Hammond was a WASP
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, commonly abbreviated to the acronym WASP, is a sociological and cultural ethnonym that originated in the United States and Canada ....

, so relaxed during recording sessions that he sat with feet up, reading The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications...

. Grossman was a Jewish businessman with a shady past, hustling to become a millionaire." The two men had already clashed badly over Hammond's persuading Dylan to 'reaffirm' his CBS contract. Grossman was determined to control every element of Dylan's career, but he also had a profound belief in Dylan. Film maker D. A. Pennebaker
D. A. Pennebaker
Donn Alan "D. A." Pennebaker is an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema/Cinéma vérité. Performing arts and politics are his primary subjects....

 commented, "I think Albert was one of the few people that saw Dylan's worth very early on, and played it absolutely without equivocation or any kind of compromise."

As a result, Columbia paired Dylan with a new producer, a young, African-American named Tom Wilson. At the time, Wilson was more experienced with jazz recording, and he was initially reluctant to work with Dylan.

Wilson recalled: "I didn't even particularly like folk music. I'd been recording Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra Sun Ra Sun Ra (birth name: Herman Poole Blount, legal name Le Sony'r Ra; (b. May 22, 1914 - May 30, 1993) was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions...

 and Coltrane
Coltrane
Coltrane may refer to:* John Coltrane , jazz saxophonist* Coltrane , a 1957 album by John Coltrane from Prestige* Coltrane , a 1962 album by John Coltrane from Impluse!...

...I thought folk music was for the dumb guys. [Dylan] played like the dumb guys, but then these words came out. I was flabbergasted."

At the April 24th session, Dylan cut five of his newest compositions: "Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "Talkin' World War III Blues", "Bob Dylan's Dream", and "Walls of Red Wing". "Walls of Red Wing" was ultimately rejected (it was later released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan. Released in 1991 to satisfy enormous demand for Dylan's much-bootlegged unissued material, it contains rarities and unreleased works from the sessions for 1962's eponymous debut Bob Dylan to 1989's Oh Mercy.The Bootleg...

), but the other four were included in the revised album sequence.

The final drama of recording Freewheelin occurred when Dylan appeared on the The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show was a popular American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from June 20, 1948 to June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan.-History:...

 on May 12 1963. Dylan had chosen to perform "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" but was informed by the 'head of program practices' at CBS Television that this song was potentially libellous to the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is a political advocacy group that supports what it considers traditionally conservative causes such as the private ownership of property, the rule of law and U.S. sovereignty but opposes globalism. The society is paleoconservative on the American political spectrum. Founded...

. Rather than comply with TV censorship, Dylan refused to appear. According to biographer Clinton Heylin. "There remains a common belief that [Dylan] was forced by Columbia to pull "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" from the album after he walked out on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show was a popular American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from June 20, 1948 to June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan.-History:...

" However, the 'revised' version of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was released on May 27 1963; this would have given Columbia Records only two weeks to recut the album, reprint the record sleeves, and press and package enough copies of the new version to fill orders. Heylin argues that CBS had probably forced Dylan to withdraw "John Birch" from the album some weeks earlier. Dylan responded to this by recording new material on April 24, and replacing four songs ("John Birch", "Let Me Die in My Footsteps", "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie", "Rocks and Gravel") with his more recent compositions.

The songs


"Blowin' In The Wind" is one of Dylan's most famous compositions. In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan. Released in 1991 to satisfy enormous demand for Dylan's much-bootlegged unissued material, it contains rarities and unreleased works from the sessions for 1962's eponymous debut Bob Dylan to 1989's Oh Mercy.The Bootleg...

, John Bauldie writes that it was Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...

 who first identified the melody of "Blowin' In The Wind" as Dylan's adaptation of the old Negro spiritual "No More Auction Block". According to Alan Lomax's "
The Folk Songs of North America", the song originated in Canada and was sung by former slaves who fled there after Britain abolished slavery in 1833. In 1978, Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: '"Blowin' In The Wind" has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called "No More Auction Block" — that's a spiritual and "Blowin' In The Wind" follows the same feeling.' Dylan's performance of "No More Auction Block" was recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in October 1962, and appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan. Released in 1991 to satisfy enormous demand for Dylan's much-bootlegged unissued material, it contains rarities and unreleased works from the sessions for 1962's eponymous debut Bob Dylan to 1989's Oh Mercy.The Bootleg...



Dylan wrote the song early in 1962. It was published for the first time in May 1962, in the sixth issue of Broadside
Broadside
A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous fire in naval warfare.-Age of Sail:...

, the magazine founded by Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...

 and devoted to topical songs.

"Blowin' in the Wind" made a huge impact on the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....

 movement of the 1960s, and the song has been described as its 'anthem'. In Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe,...

's documentary on Dylan,
No Direction Home
No Direction Home
No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th century American popular music and culture. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it concentrates on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his...

, Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...

 expressed her astonishment on first hearing the song, and said she could not understand how a young white man could write something which captured the frustration and aspirations of black people so powerfully.

Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel "Sam" Cook was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music....

 was also deeply impressed by the song and began to perform it in his live act. A version was captured on Cooke's 1964 album
Live At the Copacabana. His more profound response was to write the thoughtful and dignified "A Change Is Gonna Come
A Change Is Gonna Come
A Change Is Gonna Come may refer to:* A Change Is Gonna Come , by Leela James* "A Change Is Gonna Come" , by Sam Cooke* "A Change Is Gonna Come" , title of an episode in the West Wing television series, in which a cover of the song was performed by James Taylor...

" which he recorded on January 24 1964.

"Blowin' In The Wind" became world famous when it was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary was a musical group from the United States who were one of the most successful folk-singing groups of the 1960s...

 who were also managed by Albert Grossman. The single sold a phenomenal three hundred thousand copies in the first week of release. On July 13 1963, it reached number two on the Billboard
Billboard
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 chart with sales exceeding one million copies. Peter Yarrow says that when he told Dylan he would make more than $5,000 from the publishing rights, Dylan was speechless.

Critic Andy Gill wrote: '"Blowin' In The Wind" marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like "The Ballad of Donald White" and "The Death of Emmett Till" had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. "Blowin' In The Wind" was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas "The Ballad of Donald White" would become competely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as "Blowin' In The Wind" could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude."

NPR's Tim Riley
Tim Riley
Tim Riley is a Northwest media personality in Portland, Oregon. He currently serves as newsman for The Rick Emerson Show on Rock 101, KUFO. Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, Riley got involved with a local radio station and began a career that took him to California after attending Boston University...

 describes "Girl from the North Country" as "an absence-makes-the-heart-grow-confused song, but it's suffused with a rueful itch, as though Dylan is singing about someone he may never see again." Six years later, Dylan would return to this song on Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's ninth studio album, released by Columbia Records in April 1969.The album marked a dramatic departure for Dylan, previously known for his groundbreaking, poetic folk music and rock'n'roll...

, recording it in a duet with country music legend Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash , born J. R. Cash, was an American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

.

A scathing, anti-war song, "Masters of War" is based on Jean Ritchie
Jean Ritchie
Jean Ritchie is an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player.- Out of Kentucky :Abigail and Balis Ritchie of Viper, Perry County, Kentucky had 14 children, and Jean was the youngest...

's arrangement of "Nottamun Town
Nottamun Town
Nottamun Town is an English folk song which possibly dates from the late medieval period. It is popular in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States.-Lyrics:Most version of the song run along these lines:...

", an English riddle song. Written in late 1962 while Dylan was in England, a number of eyewitnesses (including Martin Carthy and Anthea Joseph) recall Dylan's performing the song in folk clubs at the time. Ritchie would later assert her claim on the song's arrangement; according to one Dylan biography, the suit was settled when Ritchie received $5,000 from Dylan's lawyers.

Dylan was only 21 years old when he wrote one of his most complex songs, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", often referred to as "Hard Rain". Dylan is said to have premiered "Hard Rain" at the Gaslight Cafe, where Village performer Peter Blankfield was in attendance. "He put out these pieces of loose-leaf paper ripped out of a spiral notebook. And he starts singing ['Hard Rain']...He finished singing it, and no one could say anything. The length of it, the episodic sense of it. Every line kept building and bursting".

Dylan performed "Hard Rain" days later at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 on September 22 1962, as part of a concert organized by Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...

. Seeger was so impressed by "Hard Rain", he covered it himself in his own set.

Many critics interpreted the lyric 'hard rain' as a reference to nuclear fallout
Nuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion, aptly named because it "falls out" of the atmosphere into which it is spread during the explosion. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust created when a nuclear weapon explodes. This radioactive dust, consisting of hot...

, but Dylan resisted the specificity of this interpretation. In a radio interview with Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...

 in 1963, Dylan said,
"No, it's not atomic rain, it's just a hard rain. It isn't the fallout rain. I mean some sort of end that's just gotta happen... In the last verse, when I say, 'the pellets of poison are flooding the waters', that means all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers."


Dylan once introduced "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as "a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better...as if you were talking to yourself." Written around the same time Suze Rotolo postponed her stay in Italy, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is actually based on a melody taught to Dylan by folksinger Paul Clayton. Riley described the song as "the last word in a long, embittered argument, a paper-thin consolation sung with spite."

"Bob Dylan's Dream" was based on the melody of the traditional "Lady Franklin's Lament
Lady Franklin's Lament
"Lady Franklin's Lament" is a traditional ballad commemorating the loss of Sir John Franklin's British Arctic Expedition of 1845...

", in which the title character dreams of finding her husband, Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, alive and well. (Sir John Franklin had vanished on an Arctic expedition in 1845; a stone cairn
Cairn
A cairn is a manmade pile of stones, often in a conical form. They are usually found in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops or near waterways.-Purpose:...

 on King William Island
King William Island
King William Island is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and forms part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the 61st largest island in the world and Canada's 15th largest island...

 detailing his demise was found in another expedition in 1859.)

"Oxford Town" is Dylan's sardonic account of events at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1848, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford and three branch campuses located in Booneville, Tupelo, and Southaven...

 in September 1962. U.S. Air Force veteran James Meredith
James Meredith
James H. Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure. He was the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi, an event that was a flash point in the American civil rights movement....

 was the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1848, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford and three branch campuses located in Booneville, Tupelo, and Southaven...

, located a mile from Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city and the county seat of Lafayette County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1835, it was named after the British university city of Oxford in hopes of having the state university located there, which it did successfully attract....

 and south of Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....

. When Meredith first tried to attend classes at the school, a number of Mississippians pledged to keep the university segregated, including Mississippi's own governor Ross Barnett
Ross Barnett
Ross Robert Barnett was the Democratic governor of the U.S. state of Mississippi from 1960 to 1964.Born in Standing Pine in Leake County, Barnett was the youngest of ten children of a Confederate veteran...

. Ultimately, the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1848, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford and three branch campuses located in Booneville, Tupelo, and Southaven...

 had to be integrated with the help of U.S. federal troops. Dylan responded rapidly: his song was published in the November 1962 issue of Broadside.

"Talkin' World War III Blues" was a spontaneous composition created in the studio during Dylan's final session for
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

"Corrina, Corrina" was recorded by The Mississippi Sheiks, and by their leader Bo Carter
Bo Carter
Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon was a popular early blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts, and on a few of their recordings...

 in 1928. The song was covered by artists as diverse as Bob Willis
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis, born Robert George Willis, known as Bob Willis is a former cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England. He adopted his second middle name "Dylan" by deed poll in honour of his idol Bob Dylan...

, Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri...

, and Doc Watson
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...

. Dylan's version is notable for the fact that it's the only track on
Freewheelin recorded with accompanying musicians. And also, as Todd Harvey points out, Dylan borrows phrases from several Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues musician, among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced generations of musicians...

 songs: "Stones In My Passway", "32-20 Blues", and "Hellhound On My Trail".

"Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance" is based on "Honey, Won't You Allow Me One More Chance?", a song dating back to the 1890s that was popularized by Henry Thomas in his 1928 recording. "However, Thomas's original provided no more than a song title and a notion", writes Heylin, "which Dylan turned into a personal plea to an absent lover to allow him 'one more chance to get along with you.' It is a vocal tour de force and...showed a Dylan prepared to make light of his own blues by using the form itself."

"I Shall Be Free" is a rewrite of Leadbelly
Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an American folk musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the 12-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....

's "We Shall Be Free", which was performed by Leadbelly
Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an American folk musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the 12-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....

, Sonny Terry
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry was a blind blues musician...

, Cisco Houston
Cisco Houston
Gilbert Vandine 'Cisco' Houston was an American folk singer who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of recording together....

, and Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...

. According to musicologist Todd Harvey, Dylan's version draws its melody from the Guthrie recording but omits its signature chorus ("We'll soon be free/When the Lord will call us home"). Most of Dylan's version describes the singer's uneasy relationship with women, and also some striking references to contemporary culture: a phone call from JFK, a satire on TV advertising, and some prodigious drinking. Placed at the end of the Freewheelin LP, the song provides some welcome levity.

Outtakes


Sheet music for "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" first appeared in the debut issue of
Broadside
Broadside Magazine
Broadside Magazine was a small mimeographed publication founded in 1962 by Agnes "Sis" Cunningham and her husband, Gordon Friesen. Hugely influential in the folk-revival, it was often controversial. Issues of what is folk music, what is folk rock, and who is folk were roundly discussed and debated...

magazine in late February 1962. Conceived by Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...

 and Agnes 'Sis' Cunningham
Sis Cunningham
Agnes Cunningham was an American musician, best known for her involvement as a performer and publicist of folk music and protest songs...

,
Broadside was a magazine dedicated to publishing contemporary folk songs
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, of course, since traditional folk music has thousands of years of history, and performers like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general...

. Dylan was introduced to Cunningham through Seeger, and during his first meeting with Cunningham, Dylan played her the song. A wry but humorous satire that also worked as a scathing portrayal of right-wing paranoia, it would be the first of many contributions to
Broadside magazine.

"The best of Dylan's early protest songs," according to Clinton Heylin, "'Let Me Die in My Footsteps' placed a topical preoccupation - the threat of nuclear war - inside a universal theme - 'learning to live, 'stead of learning to die.'"

"I was going through some town...and they were making this bomb shelter right outside of town, one of these sort of Coliseum-type things and there were construction workers and everything," Dylan recalled to Nat Hentoff
Nat Hentoff
Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff is an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media and writes regularly on jazz and country music for The Wall Street Journal....

 in 1963. "I was there for about an hour, just looking at them build, and I just wrote the song in my head back then, but I carried it with me for two years until I finally wrote it down. As I watched them building, it struck me sort of funny that they would concentrate so much on digging a hole underground when there were so many other things they should do in life. If nothing else, they could look at the sky, and walk around and live a little bit, instead of doing this immoral thing."
"Let Me Die in My Footsteps" was also selected for the original sequence of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but was eventually replaced with "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall".

It's unclear whether "Mixed Up Confusion" was ever a serious contender for
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but it was issued by Columbia as a single-only release during the Christmas shopping season. Dylan had been an avid fan of rock & roll ever since his childhood, and "Mixed Up Confusion" was his first record to recall the early rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 recordings of his youth. It was also his first Columbia release to group him with a studio band.

Though it wasn't recorded for the album, "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" was written and demo'd in between album sessions. If it wasn't inspired by personal events unfolding at the time, it's arguably a reflection of them as it's sung from the point-of-view of a narrator who refuses to lie down in his bed 'once again' until his 'own true love' is back and waiting. Widely considered one of Dylan's finest love songs, Dylan eventually released "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" in 1971 on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II , also known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits, was the second compilation album released by Bob Dylan. With Dylan not expected to release any new material for an extended period of time, CBS Records president Clive Davis proposed issuing a double LP compilation of...

, which included a live performance taken from his Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City, New York. It seats 1,500 people.- History :...

 concert on April 12 1963. Heylin describes the Town Hall performance as "an achingly lovely rendition of his most tender song."

Earlier in 1971, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer and songwriter born and raised in London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English lineage....

 would release his own cover of "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" on
Every Picture Tells a Story
Every Picture Tells a Story
Every Picture Tells a Story is the third album by Rod Stewart, released in the middle of 1971. It became Stewart's most critically acclaimed album, and became the standard by which all of his subsequent albums were judged.-History:...

, one of Stewart's more popular albums. Ironically, Dylan recorded the song in 1970 during the New Morning
New Morning
New Morning is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 11th studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1970.Coming only four months after the controversial Self Portrait, the more concise and immediate New Morning won a much warmer reception from fans and critics...

 sessions, with a backing band and singers, and an unlikely uptempo blues arrangement. This version has turned up in bootlegs. In 1966, Elvis Presley recorded the song for the soundtrack of the film Spinout: Bob Dylan said this was his favorite cover version of any of his songs.

Due to Dylan recording material over several months in preparation for his next album, there was a very large surplus of songs that simply didn’t make the cut. Several original songs and cover tunes were recorded. Some he would revisit later, and some of the others would be released officially on The Bootleg Series. A majority of the tracks remain officially unreleased, though they are circulating. A live version of "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" retitled, "Talkin' John Birch 'Paranoid' Blues" was released on The Bootleg Series, but the studio version has not been released.

These are the known outtakes to the album:
  • "Baby, Please Don't Go" (Later released as part of the "Exclusive Outtakes From No Direction Home", a three song online sampler EP, which contained outtakes from the soundtrack of the Martin Scorsese Dylan biopic, No Direction Home.)
  • "Ballad of Hollis Brown" (unreleased): Dylan re-recorded this for his next album, The Times They Are a-Changin’.
  • "The Death of Emmett Till
    The Death of Emmett Till
    The Death of Emmett Till is a song written by Bob Dylan about the murder of African American Emmett Till that occurred on August 28, 1955. While the song has never been officially released, bootlegs of several performances of the song circulate among Dylan collectors.One bootlegged performance,...

    " (unreleased)
  • "Going to New Orleans" (unreleased)
  • "Hero Blues" (unreleased)
  • "(I Heard that) Lonesome Whistle" (Hank Williams, Jimmie Davies) (unreleased)
  • "Kingsport Town" (released on The Bootleg Series 1-3)
  • "Let Me Die in My Footsteps": truncated version without the last verse released The Bootleg Series 1-3. The full version is circulating.
  • "Milkcow's Calf Blues" (unreleased)
  • "Mixed Up Confusion" (released on Biograph)
  • "Quit Your Lowdown Ways" (released on The Bootleg Series 1-3)
  • "Sally Gal" (released on No Direction Home: The Bootleg Series Vol. 7)
  • "Rambling, Gambling Willie" (released on The Bootleg Series 1-3)
  • "Rocks and Gravel" [aka "Solid Road"] (unreleased)
  • "Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" (released on The Bootleg Series 1-3)
  • "Talking Hava Negiliah Blues" (released on The Bootleg Series 1-3)
  • "Talkin' John Birch 'Paranoid' Blues" (live version released on "The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall
    The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall
    The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall is a complete recording of Bob Dylan's October 31, 1964 "Halloween" show at New York's Philharmonic Hall. It was released in 2004....

    ")
  • "That's Alright Mama" (unreleased)
  • "The Walls of Redwing" (released on The Bootleg Series 1-3)
  • "Watcha Gonna Do" (unreleased)
  • "Wichita" (unreleased)
  • "Worried Blues" (released on The Bootleg Series 1-3)


A few copies of the original pressing of the LP — with the subsequently deleted tracks, "Let Me Die In My Footsteps", "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie", "Rock and Gravel" and "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" — have turned up over the years, despite Columbia's supposed destruction of all copies during the pre-release phase. CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...

 did manufacture records with these four songs, but not the corresponding covers. All known copies that have been found are contained in the standard cover.

In April, 1992, the first known stereo copy (with the label listing the four songs) was found at a Greenwich Village thrift store in New York City. The record was used and it was auctioned via Goldmine magazine
Goldmine (magazine)
Goldmine, established in 1974, is an American magazine that focuses on the collectors' market for records, tapes, CDs, and music-related memorabilia. Each issue features news articles, interviews, discographies, histories, current reviews on recording stars of the past and present. Discographies...

 and fetched $12,345.67. It would probably have fetched more if it had been in mint condition. The story was told in an article in Goldmine's "Price Guide to Collectible Record Albums", 4th edition by Neal Umphred.

Aftermath


Dylan promoted his upcoming album with a number of radio appearances and concert performances. Dylan performed with Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...

 at the Monterey Folk Festival, where she joined him in a rendition of Dylan's "With God on Our Side" (which would not be recorded until his next album). The performance was seen as a ringing endorsement from Baez, but was also the beginning of a romantic relationship.

Later, in July, Dylan appeared at the second Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959.-History:The Newport Folk Festival was founded in 1959 by Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger and George Wein, founder of the already-well-established Newport Jazz...

. By then, Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary was a musical group from the United States who were one of the most successful folk-singing groups of the 1960s...

 had a hit with their own rendition of "Blowin' in the Wind", and that weekend, it had reached #2 on Billboards pop charts. Baez was also at Newport, and she performed with Dylan twice, once on his set, once on hers.

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan had been available since late May, but despite the controversy surrounding Dylan's cancelled Sullivan appearance, the album itself did not attract many reviews from the mainstream press. It sold modestly upon its release, but with Dylan's appearance at Newport, Baez's endorsement, and popular covers of his own songs from both Baez, Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, , known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...

 and Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary was a musical group from the United States who were one of the most successful folk-singing groups of the 1960s...

, sales began to rise as word of mouth spread. Dylan's friend Bob Fass recalls that after Newport, Dylan told him that "suddenly I just can't walk around without a disguise. I used to walk around and go wherever I wanted. But now it's gotten very weird. People follow me into the men's room just so they can say that they saw me pee."

By September, the album finally entered Billboards album charts. The highest position it reached was number 22. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan would be remembered as the album that first brought Dylan's talent to a wide audience.

In March 2000, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison is a critically acclaimed singer and songwriter with a reputation for being at once stubborn, idiosyncratic, and sublime...

 told the Irish rock magazine Hot Press about the impact that
Freewheelin
made on him: "I think I heard it in a record shop in Smith Street. And I just thought it was incredible that this guy's not singing about 'moon in June' and he's getting away with it. That's what I thought at the time. The subject matter wasn't pop songs, ya know, and I thought this kind of opens the whole thing up...Dylan put it into the mainstream that this could be done."

The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...

 were also impressed. George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison MBE was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian mysticism, and helped broaden the horizons of the other Beatles, as well as...

 remembered, "We just played it, just wore it out. The content of the song lyrics and just the attitude — it was incredibly original and wonderful."

Cover art


The album cover features a photograph of Dylan with his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo
Suze Rotolo
Susan Elizabeth Rotolo , nicknamed Suze Rotolo , is an American artist, perhaps best known as the woman walking with Bob Dylan on the cover of his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The pair dated on-and-off during the early 1960s...

. The photo was taken by CBS
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of notable singers,...

 staff photographer Don Hunstein at the corner of Jones Street and West 4th Street in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village , often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th...

, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...

—just a few yards away from the apartment where the couple lived at the time. The circumstances behind the shoot are described by Rotolo in A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.

In popular culture

  • In the film Vanilla Sky
    Vanilla Sky
    Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller movie which has been variously characterized by published film critics as "an odd mixture of science fiction, romance, and reality warp", "part Beautiful People fantasy, part New Age investigation of the Great Beyond", a "love story, a struggle...

    , the protagonist, David, walks with Sofia down a street purposely in the manner of the album cover and even with identical cars.
  • Mudhoney
    Mudhoney
    Mudhoney is an American grunge band. Formed in Seattle, Washington in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Matt Lukin and drummer Dan Peters...

    's Mark Arm
    Mark Arm
    Mark Arm is the vocalist for the grunge band Mudhoney. He is also credited with coining the term "grunge" to describe his style of rock music...

     has released a solo single named under a similar title, The Freewheelin' Mark Arm.
  • In an easter egg
    Easter egg (media)
    A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, web page or video game. The term was coined – according to Warren Robinett – by Atari after they were pointed to the secret message left by Robinett...

     in a Homestar Runner
    Homestar Runner
    Homestar Runner is a Flash animated Internet cartoon. It mixes surreal humor with references to 1970s, '80s, and '90s pop culture, notably video games, classic television, and popular music...

     cartoon, Eh! Steve appears on this very CD cover as "The Freewheelin' Eh! Steve".

Personnel

  • Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...

     - Guitar, Harmonica, Keyboards, Vocals
  • Bruce Langhorne
    Bruce Langhorne
    Bruce Langhorne is an American folk musician. He was active in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, primarily as a session guitarist for folk-rock albums and performances....

     - Guitar
  • Howard Collins - Guitar
  • Leonard Gaskin
    Leonard Gaskin
    Leonard Gaskin was an American jazz bassist born in New York City.Gaskin played on the early bebop scene at Minton's and Monroe's in New York in the early 1940s...

     - Bass guitar
  • George Barnes
    George Barnes (musician)
    George Barnes was a world-renowned swing jazz guitarist, who claimed he played the first electric guitar in 1931, preceding Charlie Christian by six years. George Barnes made the first recording of an electric guitar in 1938 in sessions with Big Bill Broonzy.-Biography:George Barnes was born in...

     - Bass guitar
  • Gene Ramey
    Gene Ramey
    Gene Ramey was an American jazz double bassist.Ramey was born in Austin, Texas, and played trumpet in college, but switched to sousaphone when playing with George Corley's Royal Aces, The Moonlight Serenaders, and Terrence Holder. In 1932 he moved to Kansas City and took up the bass, studying with...

     - Double bass
  • Herb Lovelle - Drums
  • Dick Wellstood
    Dick Wellstood
    Dick Wellstood was an American jazz pianist. He was, along with Ralph Sutton, one of the few stride pianists to arise in the 1940s during the rise of bebop....

     - Piano
  • John H. Hammond
    John H. Hammond
    John Henry Hammond II was a record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music....

    , Jr. - Producer
  • Tom Wilson - Producer
  • Nat Hentoff
    Nat Hentoff
    Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff is an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media and writes regularly on jazz and country music for The Wall Street Journal....

      - Liner Notes
  • Don Hunstein - Album cover photographer