Confessions of a Fanboy

I might as well change the name of the site to The Dylan Chronicles, or something like that.

It turns out most of the cool stuff Bob Dylan ever did was in the month of May. He was born in May, and he released two of his greatest albums in May.

We’ve already talked about the magnificent Blonde on Blonde turning 41 earlier this month. Turns out my favorite of Dylan’s early folk-period albums was released in May as well. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was released on May 27, 1963. For those of you, like me, who are bad at math that means the album is 44-years old.

“It’s All Right, Don’t Think Twice” is my favorite song from the album. Is it an angry missive to former lover or is it resigned acceptance of a relationship that has come to an end? Is it both? Is it neither? It certainly would seem to detail the parting of ways of two people. The feelings of the singer can be interpreted in a number of ways. It’s a great lyric and a fabulous acoustic melody. It can be easy to forget how great he is at writing songs of a more personal, individual nature with all of the ‘important’ songs in his canon. “It’s All Right, Don’t Think Twice” is one of his marvelous ’small’ songs – songs about a him and her, a you and a me.

The most famous song from Freewheelin’ is “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and it is a modern classic. I’m barely a chapter in to Chronicles, but in that completed chapter, Dylan speaks of his love and reverence for the timeless folk songs. “Blowin’ in the Wind” is but one of his contributions to that category. It is both a poem and a song; deep, rich, and eternal. It has been covered and recorded hundreds of times and would-be minstrels continue to assault coffee drinkers the world over with this one.

“Masters of War” is one of his more famous protest songs and it has proven timeless as well, or at least seen its relevance renewed. Eddie Vedder performed solo acoustic renditions of this song on Pearl Jam’s recent tours.

Some people have made a career of studying Dylan and making grand proclamations about the man and his work. I’m not one of them. I certainly haven’t made a career of it and I haven’t dedicated thousands of hours researching and studying him. One of my favorite Dylan enthusiasts – enthusiast hardly does it justice – is fellow BC writer Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti.

I don’t have any brilliant insights into the work of Dylan nor have I discovered any life-changing ideas in his music that need to be spread like gospel throughout the lands. I just listen to his records because I like them, and Freewheelin’ is one I like a lot.

Filed under: Tags: Bob Dylan, Musical Musings and Random Ramblings