Customer Reviews
FIVE STARS - By: Bob, 23 Apr 2008 
There's no doubt about it - this is a 5 star album. Many people seem to see this as a footnotein Dylan's discography, I beg to differ.
To me, even now after listening to this album for over forty years, it seems phenomenal that an unknown young man of twenty years should walk into a recording studio & produce this. It seems like he chose the right songs & matched them to a raw unselfconscious energy that,in a sense, Dylan could never achieve again.
And that Song To Woody is still one of my favourite Dylan songs, truly heartfeltin its sentiment & performance, succinct yet directin it's meaning.
Listening to Dylan has introduced me into so many ideas musicians poets philosophers & perhaps best of all was the inspiration to go search the work of Woody Guthrie.
I only have one complaint & that's the awful stereo mix, I have the CD but I'd rather listen to my old vinylin mono. Just for the record (no pun intended) the same applies to Freewheelin.
Easily Dylan's best album. - By: Charles de Coster, 04 Jan 2008 Never has the raw energy of Dylan's first effort been surpassedin contemporary music. The very fact that the instrumentation - acoustic guitar, harmonica, nothing else - is so sparse, makes this a masterpiece.
The best words for the overall atmosphere are 'sombre', 'haunting', adjectives that would be totally out of place for 99% of today's
clownish pop & rock productions.
confident debut - By: Neil, 05 Oct 2007 
This is an interesting documentin a terrific career. Really, I don't think there's any doubt that Bob Dylan is a genius, a terrific musician & a performer of intense emotional focus. I guess I prefer Neil Young's music generally, but I don't think of Young as a genius; more a very hard working artist.
So as I say, this, Dylan's debut album is a very interesting document. It's interesting to try to imagine the time that this was recorded -in the context of what was to come from Dylan over the years - none of it existed yet.
The arrangements are very simple, just one voice, one blues harp, one guitar. And all three are exceptional. Vocally, Dylan is more emotive here than I've heard him on any record since. Here he is proving that he can sing like the great blues singers, without directly apeing any of them. He snarls & growls & mumbles... it's all very well considered. Dylan's harp breaks on "You're No Good" & "Gospel Plow" are as good as any I've heard elsewhere, & his guitar playing shines as he backs himself expertly.
Now, I know this record is supposed to be folk, but I think it's much more rootedin the blues. There's very littlein the way of a traditional folk song besides Dylan's own composition, "Talkin' New York".
Other reviewers have addressed the Woody Guthrie comparisons, saying that the only track that sounds like Guthrie is "Song to Woody". I don't even agree to that extent. I don't think ANY of the record sounds like Woody, with the possible exception of "Talkin' New York" - Guthrie did several Talkin' style tunes, but especially not "Song to Woody". That's nothing like Guthrie. Really, if anyone ever tries to tell you that early Dylan is largely ripping off Woody Guthrie, tell them they're full of crap & question whether they've actually heard any Guthrie. I'll bet they haven't. Dylan has essentially studied traditional American music - folk, the blues, country - & mastered it. He'll prove that time & again throughout his career.
So anyway, more specifically about this record: sure I prefer "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", "Another Side of Bob Dylan" & "The Times They Are A Changin'", but if you like those you're probably already well on your way to being a big Dylan fan. And if you're a big Dylan fan... what are you waiting for? You may as well get this one too.
Overlooked but indispensible. - By: Mr. A. D. Procter, 24 Apr 2007 It sold terribly...it was mostly covers...even Bob said it was not the album he wanted to make...
Certainly the last remark can be taken with a pinch of salt, for within a few months Bob was a serious star & the darling of the folk world with his self-penned anthems such as Blowin' In The Wind & A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall. As ever, he moved on so darned fast. It might not have been the album he wanted to make, but it was the one that he was able to make at the time.
This album burns with youthful exuberance, an absolute joy of music & and a voice that cries, 'I'm here! Now listen to this!'. The lack of Dylan songs should not detract from the experience, for his idiosyncratic reading of the songs almost negates the 'trad.arr.' status. Tellingly, the only song that sounds like Woody Guthrie is his own Song To Woody. Make no mistakes, this album is Bob Dylan writ large.
Clearly, the songs that first stand out are the ones that we instantly regognise: In My Time Of Dyin', great enough for Led Zeppelin to remake on Physical Graffiti; House of the Rising Sun, that influenced the Animals to make that unforgettable classic; Baby Let Me Follow You Down, a song that Bob was so enamoured with that he toured with itin 1966 & reprised it on the great film, The Last Waltz.
The album also contains the unforgettable 'Man Of Constant Sorrow' (a big feature as a result of the film Oh Brother Where Art Thou? for the uninitiated!), the truly dazzling Highway 51 Blues (this actually sounds like Zepp for heaven's sake! A joy to hear!) & the stupendous See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, a song that I first heard when Bob was seriously ill 10 years ago. It belies his tender (21!) age & is, like most of his future works, purely timeless.
Its not the best place to begin if you're wanting to start hearing the genius of Bob Dylan, but if you love him & want to listen to him reaching towards the next plane, its all here.
well... - By: Mr. S. C. Reynolds, 18 Nov 2006 
...ok, lets not get carried away. far from being one of t best dylan albums (blonde on blond, blood on the tracks, highway 61, bringing it all back home, nashville skyline, desire, another side, slow train, are just miles ahead of this), this is a ok debut with a couple of amazing performances, namelyin my time of dyin' & house of the rising sun. also song to woody shows potential for his next album. buy t above albums first, & if you like them, think about this. downloadin my time of dyin' though.
