The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
| Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 27, 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his self-titled debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, Freewheelin' represented the beginning of Dylan's writing contemporary words to traditional melodies. Eleven of the thirteen songs on the album are Dylan's original compositions. The album opens with "Blowin' in the Wind", which became an anthem of the 1960s, and an international hit for folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary soon after the release of Freewheelin'. The album featured several other songs which came to be regarded as among Dylan's best compositions and classics of the 1960s folk scene: "Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right".-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
2016. Dylan’s second LP was not only his first genuine masterpiece, it was also a landmark in the very way that popular music was created.
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Consequence of Sound
2013. So happy 50th birthday to you, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. While it’s hardly Dylan’s crowning achievement, it’s beyond repute that the LP was a major step forward for the singer-songwriter in his ascension to the “Voice of a Generation.”
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All Music
This is rich, imaginative music, capturing the sound and spirit of America as much as that of Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, or Elvis Presley. Dylan, in many ways, recorded music that equaled this, but he never topped it.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
2015. Not only is The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the record that set Dylan on the path to greatness, it's the greatest modern folk album ever made.
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Pop Matters
2014. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan might not be Dylan's debut, but it does mark the official arrival of one of the 20th century's driving musical and cultural forces.
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Sputnik Music
2016. This is one of the great albums. It captures Dylan in his most perfect moments. The tone of the album ranges from outrage to humour to heartbreak...
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The Guardian
2012. The immediately astonishing impact of the album, by any measure, is the contrast between the image of the unsmiling but fresh-faced lad in his cap and the depth of feeling and range in the singing between love, rage, sorrow and a fixation with death.
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Gaslight
2013. Dylan is a genius, a singing conscience and moral referee, as well as a preacher.
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Analog Planet
2012. This is easily the most transparent "you're in the studio" edition yet. Even though it's just a guitar strumming, a gravel voice singing and a high pitched harmonica squealing, if you know this album you're guaranteed to hear new depth and new details.
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Mofi
2014. Viewed as protest songs, love songs, folk songs, or talking blues songs, the material on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan remains amongst the most astonishing and imaginative ever committed to tape. It deserves – as much as you deserve – a fidelity that makes as closely intimate as possible the music's connection with you.
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itunes Apple Music
Bob Dylan’s first album was mostly old folk and blues songs, but his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, shows a nearly unbelievable transformation.
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The Irish Times
2018. The artistry and focus on Freewheelin’ is so great that it is still the road map by which I navigate my humble musical expeditions today. Oisin Leech of The Lost Brothers
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The Current
2017. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was Bob Dylan’s breakout record. He was still focusing on folk traditions, but unlike his first record, he was writing more of the music.
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Paste Magazine
2012. Bob Dylan’s second album, Freewheelin’, came out in 1963 right at the beginning of his career. Even though he’s gone on to write literally thousands of great songs since then, nothing has ever surpassed the sincerity and passion the 21- year-old musician poured into every track on the record.
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Blog Critics
2008. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan would change the face of folk music and establish Bob Dylan as one of the most creative and inspired talents in the history of American music. The sophistication, the depth, and the inventiveness of the lyrics surpassed just about anything that was being written at the time.
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Vivascene
2013. Dylan was all of 22 years old when he released Freewheelin’. It was a remarkable achievement that calls for continued appreciation.
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Dead Tree Hugger
April 16, 2017. It’s the perfect showcase of Bob Dylan’s songwriting ability, not to mention his guitar playing, and is one of the most essential records of the folk genre, right up there with Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads.
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Don Ignacio's Music Reviews
2015. After the almost throwaway quality of his debut album, he goes right around and turns in this masterpiece chock-full of original folk songs. This album was released in 1963, but in no way does it deserve to stay in that era; this will resonate with the ages forever.
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Countdown Kid
May 15, 2013. With assured and ambitious songwriting and rapidly improving performance skills all over the place, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan still stands as one of the landmarks of Bob’s career.
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Adrian's Album Reviews
May 24,2013. The length of time this album took to write and record shows. The care with which each and every track is performed and recorded shows.
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143 Sunday
October 29, 2016. In conclusion, ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ is one powerful, sentimental and musically simple album. It did not require such complicated musical concepts – although blues arrangements such as 12-bar blues was constructed in ’Down the Highway’, and folk-blues chord arrangements can be heard in numerous songs in the album.
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Entertainment
March 29, 1991. Genius arrives. ”Blowin’ in the Wind” and other gems reveal the kid’s startling gift for songwriting.
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Pandora
2018. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan , the record that firmly established Dylan as an unparalleled songwriter, one of considerable skill, imagination, and vision.
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Thought Co.
March 6, 2017. On "Freewheelin'," Dylan seemed to have catapulted past the Woody Guthrie-lite of his Columbia debut. Via songs like "Blowin' In The Wind" and "Bob Dylan's Blues," he showed himself as the groundbreaking singer-songwriter he has since proven to be.
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Music Tap
10/09/2003. The earliest album in the reissue series is The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, an album of phenomenal importance not only for its creator but also for all of popular music. Yet never has a major talent erupted so calmly. Dylan's debut proved him an above-average folk singer with little impact on the world at large; this, his second album, changed the world and ignited a decade.
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Clem's Music Reviews
2016. Arguably one of the best, if not the best of his entire career. It was certainly the most influential, and still sounds incredible all these years later - even if many of the topics and people that he mentions in the songs have long since come and gone.
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