Maybe this was a mistake. Perhaps albums should be listened to rather than studied. Study leads to questions, debate, and doubt; whereas before you just had a record you enjoyed. This was always going to be a eulogy to a great album. One of the best.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a great album. I just have some issues to be resolved now. But let's start with the eulogy first:
However fond I am of Dylan's first LP, his second - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan - has to be considered a huge leap forward in terms of song writing, performance and production. Eleven of the thirteen songs are credited to Dylan alone and, lyrically, it is a masterpiece. Written at a time when the cold war was turning decided chilly, Dylan takes on the prospect of the world getting blown sky-high with anger (Masters of War), idealism (Blowing' in the Wind) and humour (Talking World War III Blues). Growing racial tensions at home are also referenced in the powerful Oxford Town. And that hasn't even mentioned A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall which lyrically is one of the most poetic songs on this or any other album. By anyone.
It is also remarkable that The Freewheelin' has held up so well over last 40 years and more. Songs about war will always have relevance but the idealism of the early sixties can age poorly. Maybe these songs stand up just because they are so well written and sung. Lyrically, Blowin' in the Wind is that close to being trite but is saved by the gentle delivery and the beautiful melody (I can't stand Joan Baez's version as it comes across as oh so sanctimonious, which shows how much of a knife-edge the song walks).
His voice here is great and the inclusion of other musicians on the recording is handled so skillfully and subtly by producer Tom Wilson that you can easily forget they are there. The essence of the quality of the album from beginning to end, though, is in the songwriting; Girl from the North Country and Don't Think Twice, It's Alright in particular are simply beautiful.
The main criticism of the album I have heard from discerning Bobcats is that it fizzles out with the two weakest songs on the album: Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance and I Shall Be Free. I think that is particularly unfair on Honey, which might not completely fit with the rest of the LP style-wise but is a damn good romp and we do like a romp. The complaints about I Shall Be Free anchoring the record are probably more justified. It is an odd choice for a finish; on the surface a fairly lightweight affair with some funny lines and even the odd bit of bawdy humour. But it's a good song, lighthearted yes, but that doesn't mean inane - there are enough personal and political references there to make it worthwhile. Maybe not 'last song on the album' worthwhile but still pretty good.
All in all, this is top notch. Widely considered one of his best and certainly the best all-acoustic LP. And a great cover too.
So what's the problem? Well, it's the tunes. Not that they are not good - quite the opposite, they are great. It's just that he didn't write most of them. They are nearly all traditional melodies that he has arranged and added his exceptional words to. Blowin' in the Wind is from the old spiritual No More Auction Block; Girl From the North County is Scarborough Fair; Masters of War is Nottamun Town; I Shall be Free is Leadbelly's We Shall be Free; and on and on.
I don't for one moment buy into the Dylan as plagiarist nonsense that was recent spouted by Joni Mitchell and others (an eloquent discussion of such claims is here). What he is doing on Freewheelin' is just part of the folk tradition of taking old tunes with no owner and giving them a modern working - as each of those melodies have received time and time again before Dylan got his hands on them. It's a legitimate process and Dylan has never been shy to admit the genesis of each of these songs. And anyway, the entire history of rock and roll is punctuated by the process of take and adapt, take and adapt from Bill Haley to Oasis.
What bothers me is whether this makes a difference as to the extent that this can be considered a great Bob Dylan album and not just another step in his songwriting education. Take Don't Think Twice. I've always considered that my favourite Dylan song of all. Looking into the song in more depth though and it appears that the melody is adapted from Paul Clayton's Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone), a couple of lines from that song make it into the Dylan recording (just thank God he didn't take the title) and the guitar on the recording was probably played by Bruce Longhorne rather than Dylan himself. Does any of that matter?
If this was just another album then this would be neither here nor there. But this is one of the best. Tracks such as Don't Think Twice, A Hard Rain's and Girl from the North Country are absolute Dylan classics. Does it matter that the melodies from two of those are not Dylan originals? Is it just because it is Dylan that this is even an issue - it doesn't bother me that the Beach Boys' Surfing USA is identical to Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen, Flaming Lips' Fight Test is Cat Steven's Father to Son or George Harrison's My Sweet Lord turned out to bear a striking similarity to The Chiffons' He's So Fine. So why has this been nagging at me all week? It's must be just because of the esteem I have always held this album in and Dylan's place as the songwriter supreme.
Ultimately, sod it. This is a great album both musically and, especially, lyrically. It is Dylan come of age as a songwriter. I will admit to still having the smallest doubt in the back of my mind to how much it is Dylan's alone but I'll try and sweep that away so I can totally enjoy it in the way I use to.
Out of five?
Five.
Favourite track?
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
Next up?
The Times They Are A-Changing
What is the actual beef with Traditional Arrangement-Gate? Is it that he ripped the songs off in the first place or that he didn't credit anyone with the original arrangements? I think it amounts to jealousy on the part of people who couldn't take an old tune and rewrite the lyrics with such amazing success, so as to breath new life into half or long-forgotten songs. I also think that you have imagined this(however slight)distaste for the album as a counter-weight to your obvious delight at it. Stop it, you nearly had me believing it for a second.
ReplyDeleteAs for how well the album has lasted considering it's themes, I think it is down in part to how well crafted they are, as you say, but also because in none of the songs does he name a specific war (World War III excepted). He is rallying against all warfare and the way it is put upon normal people by leaders and rulers who "turn and run farther when the fast bullets fly". Dylan, of course, does it in his own way in the 5th verse of 'Masters Of War' where instead of bemoaning the past and the lives already lost through war he, cleverly, looks at it from the point of view of future generations(sort of) by accusing the aforementioned Masters of "threatening my baby, unborn and unnamed": "You’ve thrown the worst fear, That can ever be hurled, Fear to bring children, Into the world". Bloody clever clogs.
And as for the album "fizzling out" I can't help but feel it was Dylan's way of leaving the listener in a slightly lighter mood after the pretty heavy themes that run throughout the LP. Similar to the way George Harrison asked George Martin to tag some laughter on the end of Within You, Without You to somehow alleviate his self-consciousness at the preachy nature of the song. I'm not suggesting for a minute that Bob ever felt self-conscious about these songs, or anything for that matter, but maybe he did it using another of his consciousnesses, namely sub.
I'm thinking we're gonna have to reach a whole other decade before I give any of the albums less than 5 out of 5. Up yours, Joni.