Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding

 

For his 8th studio album, Dylan forsook his blues-based, electric rock'n'roll for a return to stripped down acoustic music based on folk songwriting, with only a simple bass and drum - and occasional steel guitar - accompaniment, and sometimes not even that. Although this record hit #2 on the charts and includes the fantastic, original version of "All Along the Watchtower", I had not owned this until recently, as I continue to try to fill out my Dylan collection.

Opening with the title track, this is one of several story telling songs on this record, this one with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica backed by basic bass and drums. This feel continues in the catchy "As I Went Out One Morning", which sounds like a reworking of an old Americana song, but with some comparatively busy bass'n'drums complementing Bob's simple guitar work. "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" is loosely based, musically, on "Joe Hill", but with Dylan's own symbolic lyricism, and, of course, everyone knows the deservedly iconic "...Watchtower", with its terrific melody and memorable lyrics, which inspired Hendrix to cover it for his highest charting single.

Proving that attempting to decipher Dylan's lyrics is a losing proposition is the enigmatic, even for Bob, morality play in the sparse "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest", while "Drifter's Escape" seems to be an exercise in writing a song with a single chord, and "Dear Landlord" is a more nuanced, somewhat bluesy piano ballad. New Orleans' Chicken Snake did a fine version of "I Am A Lonesome Hobo", a classic Dylan mid-tempo number, "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" is a lovely ballad, "The Wicked Messenger" is a forceful number with one of his strongest melodies (is that "borrowed" from somewhere or his own? Either way, very effective), "Down Along the Cove" (Clapton did a strong version of this one) is positively bouncy'n'euphoric after the heaviness of much of the rest of the album and this sunlight continues to shine in the somewhat slower sweetness of the closing classic "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight".

If you're a fan of the man's acoustic work, you probably already have this one, but if you don't, then you should!