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Dylan's outstanding second album is a tremendous jump from its predecessor. Whereas the debut established him as a peerless interpreter of folk and country-blues classics, and a singer like none before, this followup features some of the most pungent original songs of the '60s. "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "I Shall Be Free": if this sounds like the lineup for a greatest-hits collection, you've got the idea. Nat Hentoff's liner notes are charmingly dated, but Dylan's idiosyncratic singing, unexpected lyrics, and inimitable guitar and harmonica playing are as immediate and relevant as whatever you heard on the radio today. (As great as this is, there's much more: a handful of top-rank outtakes from Freewheelin' appear on the Bootleg Series box set.) --Jimmy Guterman
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 A Voice Like a Claw that Reaches into Your Gut |
| Review Date: March 22, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Ken Douglas, Landlocked in Reno |
I was a junior back at Lakewood High School when this record 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. |
As Important Now as it was Over Forty Years Ago
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| Review Date: February 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Jana Greer, Los Angeles, CA |
| This is Bob Dylan's second album, recorded way back in the early Sixties, when he was barely twenty years old. It includes "Blowin' in the Wind" which I'm told took America by storm when Peter, Paul and Mary sang it. Then it became sort of the anthem of those protesting the Vietnam war. What a burden all this must have put on a young man's shoulders. Fortunately Bob Dylan was up to the task and didn't crack under the pressure of it all. Now, it's over four decades later and Dylan is still pumping out songs, though they don't have the rage you can find in "Hard Rain," one of the best songs Dylan has ever done. The images just pour at you from every line. This is a must own album and if you look at the situation we find ourselves in today, you'll see that not only has this record stood the test of time, but that it's as important now as it was over forty years ago. |
A Young Poet Who Grabs You With His Words
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| Review Date: January 25, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Diane Mcgough, Lake Oswego, OR |
| This 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 Breakout Album
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| Review Date: December 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Lawrence J. Epstein, New York |
Dylan's second album, the one that first made him famous, is filled with great songs, from the deceptively simple "Blowin' in the Wind" to his first experiment at using poetry in his lyrics, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." There are some throwaway songs. Dylan's songwriting brilliance is made clear, but he hasn't yet figured out how to make the album stand as a unit, a characteristic he would have in the albums that followed this one.
Freewheelin' has the first of his protest songs, the kind of music that would make him famous and from which he would rebel. Overall, this is an essential album for Dylan fans precisely because it illustrated how quickly he was developing and showed that even at a very early age he was already the best songwriter around.
--Lawrence J. Epstein, author of Political Folk Music in America from Its Origins to Bob Dylan
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Freewheeling Bob Dylan is a must
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| Review Date: October 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Robert Works, houston, TX |
If you are a true Bob Dylan fan, Freewheeling Bob Dylan is a must. I already have it on a record but it is well-worn and I just can't lose these songs. I already have the 3 CD compilation set 'Biography' which has the most well know songs from this CD on it. Unfortunately, it doesn't include 'The Talking World War 3 Blues' and 'I Shall Be Free'. These are some of his great comic songs with wonderful, imaginative lyrics that paint hilarious pictures in your mind. I also have many of his other albums which I love too but 'Freewheeling' will always be my favorite. Also HOW I got the original 'Freewheeling' record I'll never forget. In high school I traded another kid a 'Jan and Dean' album of surfer boy songs for it. ha!! We both left the transaction thinking we got the best of the other one. So to my high school friend Donald, wherever you are: SUCKER!! ha, ha.
If you are really a Bob Dylan fan, trust me, Don't miss adding 'The Freewheeling Bob Dylan' to your collection. |
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