The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, released May 27, 1963, was folk musician Bob Dylan's second LP. It featured a photograph of Dylan with his current girlfriend Suze Rotolo on the front cover of the album. It established him as a songwriter of premier importance. Where his debut, Bob Dylan, had featured only two Dylan originals, Freewheelin' contained only two covers, the traditional tune "Corrina, Corrina," and "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance." The album as a whole is known as one of the most important recordings of the 20th century for its social impact and lyrical virtuosity.

Dylan was one of few popular artists at the time to record his own compositions, and his songwriting vision sparked America's imagination for the first time on this record. "Blowin' in the Wind," arguably Dylan's most famous song (which had been introduced to the world by folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary on their own album, In the Wind earlier that year), leads off the album. The song is essentially nine questions about freedom, war, life and death, the answers to which are "Blowin' In The Wind". It stands as possibly the most important song of the American civil rights movement, and its impact is even more evident when one realizes that American popular music had rarely before been used as a platform for social issues.

The rest of the record is filled with love songs ("Girl From the North Country"), protest songs ("Masters of War", "Oxford Town," which refers to civil rights violence in Oxford, Mississippi), rumanations about the general state of the world ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," which foreshadowed Dylan's apocalyptic visions of later albums), and lighthearted talking blues ("I Shall be Free," which is humorous and seems absurd, but also contains satiric jabs at civil injustice: a can of black paint falls on the narrator's head, and he has to wash it off "in back of the tub").

Dylan would go on to become one the most important musicians of the 20th century, and arguably America's most treasured musician.

Track listing

1. "Blowin' in the Wind"
2. "Girl From The North Country"
3. "Masters Of War"
4. "Down The Highway"
5. "Bob Dylan's Blues"
6. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"
7. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
8. "Bob Dylan's Dream"
9. "Oxford Town"
10. "Talking World War III Blues"
11. "Corrina, Corrina"
12. "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance"
13. "I Shall Be Free"