First Listen To Bob Dylan's Debut Album (part 1)

On Man of Constant Sorrow, the long harmonica and vocal notes are meant to sound like the train whistle and the guitar mimics the clicks and clacks of the train track. Especially after he mentions the train. That’s the rhythmic style that you were referring to in that hobo train riding type folk song.

You are getting a great lesson on the ''roots'' of Rock n' Roll ... early Blues, folk, Country in raw forms crash together and make it happen ....

The fountain pen line comes from Woody Guthrie, from his song about Pretty Boy Floyd the Outlaw; Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men Some will rob you with a six-gun And some with a fountain pen And as through your life you travel Yes, as through your life you roam You won't never see an outlaw Drive a family from their home

The Freewheeling Dylan is his first album of mostly originals and features his masterpiece “masters of war.” As for Woody Guthrie, he’s an absolute god, his guitar has the phrase “this machine kills fascists” on it and he sung for the IWW and supported all their strikes

This album has a few strong points, but (his second album) Freewheelin' is where he really turned on the juice. Hope you enjoy this journey! edit: The fact that you're digging this album makes me so excited to see you tackle the rest from here. Freight Train Blues will give you a kick lol. Good stuff, bro!

Wow…it’s been literally probably almost 60 years since I listened to this album, which I had in my collection. I remembered it as folk, but I had forgotten how much blues there was on it. It was fun to hear it again

i love that your doing this brother

Man of Constant Sorrow was covered by almost every folk singer in the 60’s. A real standard. Baez did a beautiful cover

It’s crazy that he was just a kid making these songs.

I think you would love Dylan's Poem "Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie". He narrates it so beautifully, and it's just as good as any of his songs. A great homage to his idol. Love the channel :)

Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie is a great spoken poem that doesn’t feature on any of Dylan’s official albums

In a way, good folk music is like old school hip hop - simple rhythmic track and a vocal spitting rhymes over it.

The way he holds the lone soft harmonica note at the start of each instrumental break in "Man of Constant Sorrow"....and holds it....and holds it...building tension...and then the full harmonica and guitar come crashing in and break that tension. Just beautiful! It's a technique Dylan often employs with both his voice and harmonica to build musical tension and expectation in a phrase and then release it. This was some fine playing for a 20 year old kid on his first professional recording session.

A guy called Guthrie! If you really have no context for Woody Guthrie's influence on Dylan's body of work, then search out Dylan's poem 'Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie' and you can thank me later.

Fountain pen line and forks and knives is a reference to the song Pretty Boy Floyd by Woody Guthrie.

Talkin New York introduced us to one of Bob's iconic, sardonic, styles of writing. Juxtaposition of images that magically frames both images clearer then when left alone in a statement. I often wondered if he put deep thought into his lyrics, or if they just popped out of intuitive observations of the world around him. Only Bob knows, and he never told.

I've listened to the next album many times. I own it. But I never purchased the first or even listened to it all. I'm enjoying this. I've been a fan of Dylan's for a long time but you are introducing me to this first album.

I've been following Dylan since more or less the beginning, haven't listened to this album for a long time, thanks for reminding me of it, keep on keeping on with Dylan ...

Another great Reaction Syed!! I don't know if you realize the public service you are doing by letting a new generation know about Dylan. So good that you are going way back to the beginning. He is so raw in this first album. He is trying so hard!! You can hear it in his voice. You can hear the mistakes along the way.... The guitar is out of tune...He over sings... he moves close to and away from the mic... His rhythm is his own... he slows down... speeds up, etc.... Amazing to think that that guy would eventually be probably the most influential musician and writer of the 20th century!!! But you can also start to see signs of his greatness... The way he made those songs he didn't write his own.... you start to see the greatness in his phrasing in the few songs he does write on the album. By the time he gets to his second album, he is not that young "boy" kid anymore.. He writes songs like "Blowing in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall," in his second album at just a little over 20 years old!!!!!! Who can do that even to this day? His third album continues that trajectory to greatness with "The Times They are a Changin," and all those beautiful songs on that album.. I hope you can see why the folkies were so upset when he went electric. They thought he was going to write folk songs forever, but he had different ideas, and he blew the music world apart. He has evolved and changed and morphed so many times over his long career. What a lesson to us all that change and progress are key ingredients in living a more enriching and meaningful life. All my best you!!!

I guess I forgot It In My Time of Dying was on his very first album. I mean Led Zeppelin notoriously killed the hell out of this as a cover, but I grew to love this raw version of it by Bob Dylan. This is just so intense to me. It's just so intense.