Bob Dylan (album) - Definition and Overview

Bob Dylan is the eponymous debut from folk and rock legend Bob Dylan. It was released on March 19, 1962 on Columbia Records, when Dylan was just 20 years old. It was produced by John Hammond, who signed Dylan to the label.

Featuring only two original songs, the album certainly did not foreshadow the unprecedented influence Dylan would soon exert on popular songwriting. (It was with his following album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, that Dylan would begin to establish his credentials as a great songwriter, and only on the protest album The Times They Are A-Changin' would he fully cement that reputation.)

Dylan's main musical influence at the time of the release of Bob Dylan was folk icon Woody Guthrie, and indeed on several of the songs Dylan is apparently imitating Guthrie's Okie drawl.

The album did not sell well and was known as "Hammond's Folly" in record company circles.

Track listing

1. "You're No Good" (Jesse Fuller) - 1:36
2. "Talkin' New York" (Dylan) - 3:17
3. "In My Time of Dyin'" (Traditional/arr. Dylan) - 2:37
4. "Man of Constant Sorrow" (Traditional/arr. Dylan) - 3:05
5. "Fixin' to Die" (Bukka White) - 2:18
6. "Pretty Peggy-O" (Traditional/arr. Dylan) - 3:21
7. "Highway 51" (Jones) - 2:49
8. "Gospel Plow" (Traditional/arr. Dylan) - 1:43
9. "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" (von Schmidt) - 2:33
10. "House of the Rising Sun" (Traditional/arr. Dylan, Ronk) - 5:16
11. "Freight Train Blues" (Acuff) - 2:16
12. "Song to Woody" (Dylan) - 2:40
13. "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (Blind Lemon Jefferson) - 2:40