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Album Review
His first 'have-at-it' try; it's got only
two of his own compositions ('Talkin' New York', a funny spoken commentary
on his being received in Big Apple, and 'Song To Woody' which could be
regarded as a kinda 'dedication' of his entire creativity to that ol' man
folker), but you even hardly notice - they sound oh so derivative from the
rest of the folk stuff he's covering on here. In fact, this album is not
very significant musically, but it sure provides a lot of insight into Bob's
roots: after listening to it a few times you begin to understand all those
incessant country and folk cliches of which his early acoustic albums are
chock-full. Songs like 'Highway 51 Blues' were certainly the inspiration for
'Highway 61 Revisited', and I've always thought the melody of 'It's Alright
Ma' was pure Dylan until I've heard its origins on this LP.
But then again, all of this material is
quite listenable. Not essential, but nice. Actually, at that point Bob had
already penned quite a few compositions of his own; however, as a humble
beginner, he had to prove that he was qualified enough for singing his own
material by recording all those covers. I do not think, though, that he took
it as a heavy burden: the songs are all lively and fresh and almost
breathing, and Bob has really great taste, as most of the numbers have
something to them. (The most amazing thing, of course, is that there were
tons of similar or even better stuff left unreleased, as amply
demonstrated by The Bootleg Series). Thus, his rendition of 'House
Of The Rising Sun' is not an ounce worse than The Animals'
version, even if it's played with just an acoustic, without those organs
and all - perhaps the generated feeling is just not as ecstatic and
cathartic as in the Beasts' case, but then again, you will never want to
accuse the Dylan version of being 'pretentious'. Note also that Bob sings
the song with the original lyrics - daring not to change lines like 'it's
been the ruin of many a poor girl/And me, oh God, I'm one'. So in this here
case it ain't metaphoric and gives the listener a clear picture of what 'the
house' really is, which makes the song all the more poignant. As far as I
understand, the legend that the Animals learned the song from Dylan's
version turns out to be, well, just another legend in the endless series of
rock legends, but it's still nice to have both hanging around to do the
comparisons. The funny thing is that Dylan's debut also includes his
rendition of Ric Von Schmidt's 'Baby Let Me Follow You
Down' - a song that was later reworked by Burdon, Price and Co. as 'Baby
Let Me Take You Home' and was something like the band's first single or the
band's first hit single, whatever. Again, though, I far prefer Dylan's
version (though the Animals' is by no means bad); later on, he made
the grotesque move of rearranging it as a rip-roarin' live electric number
in order to piss off his braindead folkish fans. Check it out on Live
1966, it's groovy.
There are also faster songs on here - like
'She's No Good' and 'Freight Train Blues' that make you want
to boogie with a minimum effort, even if essentially they're just
'whizzed-up' generic blues numbers. However, on 'She's No Good' Bob
arrives on the scene with all his might - squirming and squealing out the
lyrics all the while furiously beating the shite out of his acoustic, and,
while the uninitiated may vomit on the spot and go throw on some Engelbert
Humperdinck instead ('anything but THAT rusty engine hum!'), I find it to be
an exuberant, enthusiastic statement of youth, force and good clean fun.
Later on, Bob would become much too serious for these tricks. And
'Freight Train Blues'? In his review, Brian Burks called
his vocal efforts on that one the equivalent of a 'hoarse vocal feedback',
and I couldn't agree more. 'I got the freight train blue-oo-OOOOOOOOOS...'
Personally, I laughed my pants off first time I heard that wheeze, and
apparently, Bob felt inclined to laugh as well - noticed these funny 'whoa-hoo-hoos'
after each verse? Hah!
However, don't get the impression that the record is just a hilarious
throwaway. Nope, the so-much-beloved death theme is reprised many a-time -
in 'Gospel Plow', 'See That My Grave Is Kept Clean', 'In My Time Of Dyin'',
etc., etc.
The funny and gloomy songs are
interspersed in a very, very bizarre way, so that you're really left puzzled
as to what old Bob's real emploi is, but get used to it: this is just
the first of the cute little mystifications that Bob would soon start
throwing at us in bunches. As for the songs themselves, 'In My Time Of
Dyin' is a great deal more effective than that horrendous eleven-minute
hard-rockin' Led Zep version on Physical Graffitti:
Dylan never tries to transform the song into a lengthy self-indulgent dirge
full of crappy vocal and instrumental noises, just sticking to the essence,
and his passionate vocal delivery is one of the best on record. 'Man Of
Constant Sorrow' is supposed to give us the creeps, and 'See That My
Grave Is Kept Clean' ends the record on a gloomy, dreary note - just
like 'She's No Good' started it on an upbeat note, despite the
endless 'wanna lay down and die' refrain.
Still, even if he intended to make this
album really depressing, he failed. The songs are good, but they're not
really Dylan: see, no generic folkish lyrics are gonna depress me any more
than your average death metal song. Except for 'House Of The Risin' Sun',
which is truly scary due to the 'grounded' character of the lyrics and its
being based on a true or, at least, a realistic story, I personally just
don't feel any real darkness here, at least, it's not more dark than
Freewheelin', an' dat 'un shoah ain't dahk wo'th a penny!
~George Starostin |
