I've found some of Dylan's songs impressive, a few even enjoyable, but for the most part he's always seemed wildly overrated. Meandering songwriting, abrasive singing, passable guitar work, and an occasionally terrible sense of pacing and showmanship all conspired me to treat checking off each 'essential' Bob Dylan album as an exercise in eating my cultural vegetables.
Things make more sense here though: not yet fat on his own legend, Dylan sings plainly, clearly, spilling out, touching on cultural moments that resonate even 50 years later. Here he is something he never was on his other records: likable. Even when the affair waxes pompuous, it somehow feels earnest, as Dylan is as small as us all, railing against power and injustice.
When the music is this simple, the way it is sung and the persona that sings it is all that matters, and that works here. A heart beats behind this record, still felt at ground level. Dylan as a seedling, more effective at inspiring empathy and hope and fear from below than he ever would towering from above. Still don't like Bob Dylan though. So 3.5/5
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