The Bob Dylan of today is a very different thing to the Bob Dylan who started out as a young aspiring folkie in the early sixties. This is of course, when he was still using an acoustic guitar exclusively - no electric guitar or any other of this electrified, amplified witchcraft, as many folk puritans will tell you to this very day. And with the very early Bob Dylan albums, it's quickly evident to hear that he's still in that very formative phase - his proficiency with the guitar hasn't quite fully developed - but his songwriting knack was just as mature and formed as it is today. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is easily my favorite of the early Dylan albums, the best of the pre-electric era records. Some of his best known songs are found here - songs that helped to put on the map, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" "Girl From the North Country" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" are songs that even people who have a basic familiarity with Bob Dylan should know about, and if they don't know about them then they don't know jack. I particularly love the wide variation in tempo between tracks here - "Blowin' In The Wind" is taking its time, whereas "Bob Dylan's Blues" and "I Shall be Free" like to move through time with a rushed, yet tempered sense of pace. If I were to recommend a Bob Dylan to listen to, I would first, of course, have to specify a particular decade, or era. But if I were asked to recommend something from the early Dylan catalog, I would most certainly recommend this gem. Again, this album is the best of the early Dylan. But on the whole, it is also one of his all-time best. A great album all around. A
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