Bob Dylan is my favorite songwriter of all time.
The amount of talent he possessed and his relentless work ethic are unparalleled. Those things all combine on the newest old release Bob Dylan, ‘The Witmark Demos 1962-1964’. The whole album is streaming on NPR currently. I’d recommend you take a listen.
From NPR’s Bob Boilen:
After listening to the nearly 50 songs on The Witmark Demos 1962-1964, it slayed me to think that Bob Dylan wrote and recorded these songs before he was even 24…Most of the recordings on The Witmark Demos 1962-1964 were made for the M. Witmark & Sons publishing company…Witmark had a small 6×8-foot studio, and it’s there that these songs were recorded and then transcribed into sheet music. So what you get is a fairly relaxed and young Bob Dylan playing his newest songs at the time. You hear flubs, forgotten verses, inspired playing and brilliant songs. Many of these tunes you already know, even if you’re just a casual Dylan fan…And you get to hear Dylan grow from a Woody Guthrie-inspired folksinger to a songwriter and vocalist with a voice that becomes his own. Remember that Dylan’s first album only contained a few of his own tunes. At this time, he was coming into his own as a songwriter, and it’s fascinating to hear that evolution here… (Via NPR)
Take Control of Your Music
Voyno
2 Comments
Great video! I feel his pain. “Do you suffer from headaches, groovy foreheads and curly hair? take Zoomdon!”
And Green Eggs and Ham, I love it!
Thanks for the NPR link! I love seeing how artists develop and this should be interesting. It’s funny, the first Bob Dylan album is one of my favorites (I think he was 19 at the time?). It like acoustic punk music; frenetic, high energy and I don’t know if he ever sang with such intensity again. Plus all those songs about death give it great gravity. Anyway, I enjoy what you’re doing here!