Artist – Album: Bob Dylan – The Times They Are
A-Changin’
Released: 13th
January 1964
Sounds Like: The times they have a-changed
Bob Dylan’s third effort is now almost 50 years old and the
world into which it was introduced was quite different from the one which we
now inhabit. Having just perused 1964’s Wikipedia page (hey, history isn’t my
strong point!) a number of important names stood out: Martin Luther King Jr,
Che Guevara and Lyndon B Johnson, who between them represent racial struggles,
communism and the war on Vietnam and poverty*. Later that year Dr Robert Moog
would invent his first synthesizer and The Kinks’ first self-titled album would
be released, kick starting the evolution of rock and roll in to pure rock. But back in January 1964 the acoustic-y folk sound, alongside Spector-ish girl
groups and mop top era Beatles, were where it’s at.
With all that in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that this
collection of protest songs sounds of its time. With just Dylan’s idiosyncratic
drawl and guitar it can sound bare, and some of the political allegories,
although historically interesting, mean less today. The title track, ‘One Too Many Mornings’, ‘With God on Our
Side’ and ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’
are timeless stories; thankfully, ‘The
Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ and ‘The
Ballad of Hollis Brown’ are (mostly) not.
That being said, even if it does belong to a different time,
it’s still brilliant, like repeats of Keith Floyd’s cookery programmes. Dylan’s
playing is masterful, and his poetry, though more direct than that to come on
the following year’s Highway 61 Revisited and notably more sombre than his
first two albums, is still staggeringly well constructed; the sound of a genius
becoming comfortable with his talents.
*1964 was
also the year Nicolas Cage and my Dad were born but I’m unsure how to shoehorn
them in. Oh look, I just did!
Albumaday... rating: 8/10
1. The
Times They Are a-Changin’ – 3:15
2. Ballad
of Hollis Brown – 5:06
3. With
God on Our Side – 7:08
4. One
Too Many Mornings – 2:41
5. North
Country Blues – 4:35
6. Only
a Pawn in Their Game – 3:33
7. Boots
of Spanish Leather – 4:40
8. When
The Ship Comes In – 3:18
9. The
Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll – 5:48
10. Restless
Farewell – 5:32
Listen to ‘With God on
Our Side’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnRdsSC3YwM
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