Collection 2: Freewheelin / Times Changin / Another Side of Bob Dylan | Bob Dylan

Collection 2: Freewheelin / Times Changin / Another Side of Bob Dylan | Bob Dylan | Three of a Young Poet's Best Records

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Collection 2: Free...

	Collection 2: Freewheelin / Times Changin / Another Side of Bob Dylan Bob Dylan Sony, 2005 average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Many Sides of Bob Dylan

My favorite song on "Freewheelin'" is one Bob Dylan didn't right. But he delivers "Corina, Corina" with such a heartfelt manner that he truly makes it one of his own. And the thumping, haunting base backup just pulls you right into the song, makes you believe every word of the lyrics. He just can't keep from crying in that song and I just can't keep from crying when I hear it. However, as much as I love "Corina, Corina," and "Girl from the North Country" too, I recognize that those are not the songs that made this such the ground breaking record that it is. It's "Blowing in the Wind", "Masters of War", "A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall", "Talkin' WW III Blues" and "Oxford Town", songs that talk of war and racism, songs that moved a generation, they are the heart and soul of this masterpiece.

Everybody knows about and has heard "The Times They are A-Changin," one of Bob Dylan's biggest hits. And everybody knows he had a protest period and that this record came out smack in the middle of it. But what they may not know is that there are a songs about love and loss on this album that will tear your heart out. Bob Dylan then as now was a master of words. Probably the greatest wordsmith of his generation, mine too. And then there is that song that is impossible to define "The Hour that the Ship Comes in." It is just simply to good for words, powerful, I can say that. Very powerful. But my favorite song here is "One too Many Mornings." It gets a tear or two from me every time I hear it.

There are so many sides to "Another Side" that I hardly know where to begin, other than to say that I absolutely loved it. There is a lot to learn here about the times then and how they haven't really changed all that much, but you get that a lot in early Dylan records. Also, traveling salesmen should never, ever take a shower with the farmer's daughter. How could you not like a song where a farmer accuses a salesman of being an "unpatriotic, rotten, doctor, commie rat." Then of course there is the haunting, "To Ramona," the prophetic "Chimes of Freedom" and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "I Don't Believe You," a song about a lad who has been recently dumped, but can't get over the girl even though "She acts like we never have met." I'm not very fond of "All I Really Want to Do." For some reason I keep picturing Sonny and Cher when I hear this song. I loved all the other stuff on the record though. There are many sides of Dylan here, his protest songs, which we won't be seeing very many more of after this record. His humor, which we well see more of later on. His piano playing, which also we'll be seeing more of and his ability to turn out a love song, which we will certainly be seeing more of.

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Three of a Young Poet's Best Records

"Freewheelin'" is Bob Dylan's second album, but it's the one that made him known to the general public at large. He penned most of the songs on the record, including the famous, "Blowing in the Wind," a song that would live on for generations. Also included on this record is the very long and very good, "A Hard Rain Must Fall," which tells the story of a man asking his young son questions. The answers, if you listen to them, will really move you and get you to asking a lot of questions yourself. "Girl From the North Country" is a terrific song where a young and soulful Bob Dylan asks anybody traveling to the North Country if they'd remember him to a girl who lives there. I can't help it, I picture a coal miner's daughter. Even back then, Bob Dylan was a poet who could grab you and make you think with his words.

"The Times They Are a-Changin'" is one young man's rage against how things are going in America back in the '60s and the song still rings true today. We still have war and corrupt politicians and parents who will never understand their sons and daughters. I guess some things never change. "With God on Our Side," is a long song about war that also is relevant today, it just needs a verse about Iraq at the end of it. This is an album that is impossible to listen to without wanting to get up and do something about the state of affairs in the world today.

"Another Side" is one of my favorite Dylan albums. I must confess, I really, really like his early stuff. I love the anger in his voice back then. Yes the stuff that comes later is very good, especially "Blood on the Tracks" which kind of reminds me of "Another Side" in a lot of ways, but this record, the last acoustic record Dylan will do for a very long time, is something very special. "Chimes of Freedom" is my favorite all time Dylan song and like "The Times They Are A-Changing," it still has meaning today. It Ain't Me Babe" is sort of like a love song in reverse and you can't help but love it.

These are three of a young poet's best records and they are three records any and every Dylan fan or wannabe Dylan fan or anybody else in the world, for that matter, should own.

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Three Masterpieces

These three records are masterpieces by anyone's opinion and are perhaps Dylan's best work. He was young and he was so good.

-- The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan --

Freewheelin' is Bob Dylan's second record. While his first was an album of mostly folk song covers with only two originals, this record had only two covers, the rest being originals and some of Bob Dylan's finest work. "Girl From the North Country" is one of my favorite songs, by anybody, and to think it was written by a twenty-one-year-old kid, almost half a century ago, way back in 1963.

"Master's of War" still seems valid today. Re, those masters of war, those seller's of guns, "There is one thing I know, though I'm younger than you, that even Jesus would never forgive what you do." Yet, despite those words that moved so many, all these years later the masters of war are still plying their trade. And, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Blowin' in the Wind," perhaps the best antiwar song ever written. Dylan asks nine questions about war and freedom, the answers to all of them, I'm afraid are, "Blowin' in the Wind."

-- The Times they are a-Changin' --

The opening track, "The Times they are a-Changin'" is a call to arms. It was heeded in the Sixties when the streets were filled with protesters, kids who wanted an end to the war in Vietnam. Dylan has sung this song countless times over the years, talking about the battle that is outside raging, but somehow we've forgotten this message, though we sing the words with Dylan at almost every concert he's given on his never ending tour. Sadly there are almost no protesters today. And it seems if one does raise a voice, bad things could happen to him.

Lord, I have to wonder if God ever was on our side. Bob Dylan doesn't think he was, but there are so many today who are convinced he is, maybe they should listen to this record. At least we've done something about the horrible racism Dylan sings about on "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and the haunting "Ballad of Hollis Brown," but we have a long way to go. I think all those people who are so against those who only want to better themselves by coming to America should be forced to sit down and listen to this record. That's what I think.

-- Another Side of Bob Dylan --

For me "Another Side" is all about "The Chimes of Freedom." Yes there are several other good songs on this record that marks a change for Bob Dylan from his so called "Protest Period" to a darker, deeper, more poetic kind of music. Poetry, Dylan had become a poet and to all of those who think there are hidden meaning in his words I have to say, "No, I don't think so." I think Dylan put it all out there, said what he meant and meant what he said. No hidden meanings, no secrets implied, but who needs 'em. "Chimes of Freedom" says enough, says if for a generation, for generations.

"Tolling for the Rebel, tolling for the rake, tolling for the luckless, the abandoned and the forsaked." What words, what power from this twenty-three-year-old singer who was already tired of leading a movement. Still, try as he might, he was the one the youth of his time looked up to, listened to, wanted to follow, but Dylan wasn't leading. Just imagine what this world might be like today if he had been. Maybe some of those misdemeanor outlaws who wound up in the White House might have been sidelined where they belonged. Ah, well, we'll never know.

Still, this is one fine record. "To Ramona" is one of the best songs ever written, the poetry so divine in this dark song. "It grieves my heart love, to see ya trying to be a part of a world that just don't exist." It's like he's singing about me, way before I was born, because I sure want to be a part of that world that doesn't exist. Ah, I was so much older than, older yesterday even. It's so sad sometimes, because like Dylan says, they "hype you and type you in making you feel that you gotta be just like them." I know I'm not making much sense, but get this record. Don't be like them, just do what you think you should do.

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Dylan's Early Stuff Reminds of Who We Are and Where We Came From

I was a junior back at Lakewood High School when Freewheelin' came out just two weeks after my seventeenth birthday. My dad brought it by the house (my parents were divorced) and really surprised me. I'd liked his first record, but I was still listening to The Kingston Trio, that kind of music. Lord I loved The Kingston Trio from the Hungry I record.

But that all changed when I heard this record, which sadly I didn't play for a couple months. I'd been familiar with "Blowing in the Wind," who wasn't. Peter, Paul and Mary were coming out of every kid's transistor radio with that song. I really liked their In the Wind record, really liked them too, but that changed as well when I finally gave this record a good listen. I knew then Bob Dylan was the real deal. The Trios, both Kingston and Peter, Paul and Mary will always have a place in my heart and they reside on my MacBook, but they don't get played anymore. "Freewheelin'" changed that. Yes, they might have been singing about stuff that mattered, but Bob Dylan had a voice like a claw that reached into your gut and somehow made you care.

Six months after the release of Freewheelin' John Kennedy was shot and everything changed. Listen to "A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall." It's almost like Bob Dylan was trying to warn us.

I was a senior at that same high school in Southern California when The Times They Are A-Changin" came out, I was waiting for it and I wasn't disappointed. From the opening song you knew, just knew the times were a-changin'. You wanted them to be, at least. Only two and a half months earlier JFK had been gunned down in Dallas and for a lot of us the times really sucked. LBJ was in the White House, the war in Vietnam was hotting up, black people were being clubbed to death in the south, oftentimes by the police, the Russians had big bombs pointed our way and we theirs.

So when I put on this record, heard the first song in that gut wrenching voice, I wanted to believe, as did many, but sadly not all. "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" rang oh so true, it was an indictment of us all. The very long "With God on Our Side" -- a song I thought very strong back then, but doesn't seem to hold up, I don't know why -- really got me in the chest, especially since I was already in the Marine Corps, signed up, but not having to go till the day after graduation. Boy what a dumb thing that was I did, but kids are dumb and I was dumber than most. After listening to that real long track, I really wasn't looking forward to boot camp. I really didn't want to go.

I can't say enough how much I love "One too Many Mornings". I play it all the time. In fact I play this whole record a lot, can't help it, it's just so good. If you close your eyes, sit back and really listen to this record, "Hollis Brown", "Hattie Carroll" and "Pawn" will make you cry and "When the Ship Comes In" will make you wonder. But for me the best track is still the title track, because it'll make you hope, it still does me.

I really wanted Another Side of Bob Dylan as soon as it came out, however I was in Uncle Sam's clutches during the month of August in 1964, in the middle of boot camp. It wouldn't be until advanced infantry training at Camp Pendleton a few months later that I'd be able to get my hands on it and give it a listen. I had a month's liberty before going to Pendleton, but frankly, as much as I liked Dylan back then, I had more important things to do.

My first listen disappointed me, because I really liked the earlier records, wanted more of his protest stuff. I was in the military, didn't like it and Vietnam was looming large. But when I got to "Chimes of Freedom" I fell in love, not only with the song, but with the whole record. To me, at the time anyway, it seemed like the whole record led up to and surrounded that song. Now years later I listen to a whole gang of songs on that record. Now I know, if I didn't back then, that every song on "Another Side" is a masterpiece, well all of them except the opener, which is better left to Sonny and Cher. Maybe it's the way he does it, I don't, but I've never been able to get behind "All I Really Want to Do."

However the imagery in the rest of the songs Another Side is truly mind blowing. Can you just picture a "dirty rotten, doctor, commie rat." Not only can I, but I've been using that phrase for almost four decades. Lord has it been that long.

"Ramona" is a song I never tire of. "My Back Pages" could a been a story about me and my dad. "Ballad in Plain D" is so good, so poetic, so hard to describe. I love this record, can't praise it enough.

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Great Box Set!