Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'

 This one surprised me - although I've had the title song on numerous records, along with a couple of the other tunes, I never owned this record, oddly enough. But, I guess after a while, it's hard to keep up with all of the albums that this man has put out. But this one should be owned!

Opening with the iconic title track, one of Bob's most political, even if it is a bit vague, as his songs normally are. In fact, this album alone would guarantee his role as a political/civil rights spokesman, even if he wasn't ready for the title. "Ballad of Hollis Brown" is a bleak, flat-picked, acoustic ballad telling the tale of a desperate farmer who kills his family and himself, "With God on Our Side" talks of the hypocrisy of those who use religion to defend their atrocities, "One Too Many Mornings" has bits reminiscent of the title track, which is interesting as they are only a couple of cuts apart, and "North Country Blues" is another acoustic folk ballad telling of a mining town that is devastated and the sorrow it brings to the townfolks.

He celebrates Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist who was murdered, in "Only a Pawn in Their Game", and then lovers torn apart by their ramblings in "Boots of Spanish Leather" while in "When The Ship Comes In" is an upbeat acoustic number inspired by a hotel clerk denying Dylan entry due to his unwashed appearance, and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is a powerful number about a black slave murdered by her white owner, who, naturally, was not punished for the deed, and the album concludes, appropriately, with "Restless Farewell", somewhat based on an old Scottish folk tune.

This third LP was once again simply Bob and his guitar'n'harmonica and it showed just how strong this simple folk medium could be, and was instrumental in making Dylan the "spokeman for his generation". One of his great ones!