Down Along the POLL: Bob Dylan JOHN WESLEY HARDING

This is one of the few Dylan albums (well, at least from the 60s and 70s) that I don't yet have, not sure why I don't though. That said, I do absolutely adore "The Ballad of Frankie Lee".

My shortlist: As I Went Out One Morning, Watchtower, Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, Dear Landlord, The Wicked Messenger, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight. So, uh, half the album.

Totally essential album, fwiw. Not really quiet like any other Dylan record, it's got its own sound and vibe and mythos.

this is my favorite dylan record

voting Dear Landlord but i will listen later and inevitably change my mind

Not really quite like, I mean. Though actually it is quiet in a sort of sinister way.

"Dear Landlord" would be in my Dylan PO5, so that.

oh lord the joe cocker version of dear landlord i just watched on youtube is rough

"Dear Landlord" over "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight". A friend of mine once described this album as the work of an "acoustic power-trio", & I though that was right on: for an album of such superficially mellow grooves the album is totally hard, like, martial. I love the way the bass is mixed; the rhythm guitar is just that, while the bass is the lead sound.

so hard to imagine what people thought when they dropped the needle on this record in '68! i mean, after Blonde On Blonde, this is a wildly different record, in almost every way imaginable.

In its slower moments the grooves aren't so different from the album version of "Visions of Johanna", though. Lyrically & vocally, obviously it's a different bag...

yeah, just that BoB is such a colorful fantasia and this one seems so stark.
totally weird to think that dylan asked robbie robertson and garth hudson to overdub parts on to JWH, but Robertson told him to keep it the way it was. at least that's what robbie claims.

Watchtower.

What a strange record for a young man in his mid 20s to make.

this my fave dylan as well... god it's hard to choose.

was ready to vote "I Threw It All Away" but lol wrong album. I'm not so fond of this record tbh

don't talk crazy shakey.

this is really tuff

country dub!

i think it's got some of dylan's most fascinating writing on it. just how the format of songs like "frankie lee" or "st. augustine" kind of set you up for a resolution that never comes, a really canny use of the folk song. even when he's like here's the moral of this story in "frankie lee" you're like, what? that's the moral? the songs kind of swallow themselves up in that way. it's cool. (don't know if that made any sense lol).

the bass sounds so awesome on this record

i'm kinda stuck between wicked messenger (but i kinda prefer the faces version) and dear landlord

yeah bass is major on this. don't think i can cast a vote tbh

An album I never really took to, though I tried many times. I do see how it was an important in the context of its times. (I think it was the Rolling Stone reviewer--Landau?--who argued that by not mentioning the war, that was in and of itself a major statement on the war.)

yeah that's kinda what i meant about how weird this record must've seemed right when it came out. i'm sure people were expecting some kind of STATEMENT from Dylan, but he handed them a bunch of inscrutable folk riddles.

He arranged a new version of "I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine" in the mid eighties with the Heartbreakers: he got some soul sisters adding harmonies. I would have love to hear it.

i've got that on bootleg. it's pretty good! those songs are cool live, i don't even think dylan knows what they're about.

"Drifter's Escape," "Dear Landlord," and "Down Along the Cove" are all favorites, but "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" has that pedal steel guitar.

after giving the whole thing a listen, kinda gotta go with I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

title track

As I Went Out One Morning pips I'll Be Your Baby Tonight.

i'm sure people were expecting some kind of STATEMENT from Dylan, but he handed them a bunch of inscrutable folk riddles.

True tho there is a fairly consistent sense of ... I don't know if dread is the right word, but something like it. Except for the last two songs, which sort of neatly close out the album on a gentler note. And "I'll Be Your Baby" pretty much directly points the way to Nashville Skyline. But up until then, there's a lot of weirdness, definite bad-dream vibe.

i think i've considered each of these songs a favorite on this record at some point. dear landlord, watchtower, lonesome hobo, baby tonight, drifter's escape, as i went out one morning ...must listen this week and figure it out!

this definitely became my favorite dylan record in the last few years.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Wicked Messenger" The Faces version is cool too.

so is Patti Smith's.

as i went out one morning kills it

finally settled on "frankie lee and judas priest." the last line is one of my favorite dylan lines.

always liked joan baez' version of "st. augustine"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKlmc8HpkI4

This is my favorite Dylan album too - and I've listened to a lot of Dylan. It's hard to pick just one track, but maybe I'd go with "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine".

Very weird album. His first with no city imagery. Great bass sound. He seems like he's singing in character on virtually every song-- he often seemed that way, of course, but not in the same way is this. It's like it's the *same character* on every song. Not in my top 10 Dylan albums but I like it.

You know what album in his catalog this resembles, kind of? Slow Train Coming.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

that's weird.

"I Pity the Poor Immigrant" – 4:12 0

Charlie McCoy on bass and Kenny Buttrey on drums combine to be one of the all-time great rhythm sections ever on this album

btw, the mono version of this has even more bass, sounds soooo good

I have yet to get around to Self Portrait but this is probably my least favorite Dylan album of all the 60s and 70s stuff. not that it's bad, it's more that it's appealfeels more limited. it's such a stark, cold sounding record. lyrically so many of the songs seem to go nowhere, they're even more inscrutable than usual, and the stripped down arrangements don't really appeal to me, even though the playing is undeniably solid. it lacks the colorful lyrics and arrangements of the previous records, nor does it have the slapdash warmth of subsequent ones.

shakes you haven't gotten the another self-portrait bootleg 2CD?? you're missing out!

yeah it is great. only complaint is that they didn't dig up any radical JWH outtakes! probably because they don't exist. but the Band / Isle of Wight versions of some JWH are killer.

I'm totally curious about it but I am poor and make pretty selective music purchasing choices these days (ie who needs my money more, Bob Dylan or E-40)

I adore this record.

I approve of these rankings. Nice write up too.

wondering if the JWH outtakes will show up in some kinda copyright protection deal this month — they are in the hands of collectors, but they've never circulated. would certainly be interesting to hear, say, take 1 of "watchtower."

hadn't thought of that but now I'm excited.

I had been a Dylan holdout for a long time before a friend said you know, I bet you’d like this weird little record. And of course I fell for it completely, and then Time Out of Mind came out and blew my head off.

this is bob's best album ever imo

Well, Alfred, I don't agree at all with your rankings, but I will say this: at least you put the correct album at the bottom.

More good JWH content in this thread: Dylan's John Wesley Harding vs. nothing in particular

I had been a Dylan holdout for a long time before a friend said you know, I bet you’d like this weird little record. And of course I fell for it completely, and then Time Out of Mind came out and blew my head off.

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK),

It bored my head off

?!
What did you think of "Love and Theft"?

top five if not top three Dylan

Love this album. What outtakes, Tyler?

Ok, I've found this explainer by some dude called Tyler Wilcox. Must think he's some sorta Dylan expert.

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1157-beyond-the-bootlegs-bob-dylans-unreleased-holy-grails/

Here's the rundown from Bjorner:

Columbia Studio A
Nashville, Tennessee
17 October 1967
1st John Wesley Harding session, produced by Bob Johnston.
1. Drifter's Escape
2. Drifter's Escape
3. Drifter's Escape
4. Drifter's Escape
5. Drifter's Escape
6. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
7. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
8. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
9. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
10. The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest

Columbia Studio A
Nashville, Tennessee
6 November 1967
2nd John Wesley Harding session, produced by Bob Johnston.

1. All Along The Watchtower
2. All Along The Watchtower
3. All Along The Watchtower
4. All Along The Watchtower
5. All Along The Watchtower
6. John Wesley Harding
7. John Wesley Harding
8. As I Went Out One Morning
9. As I Went Out One Morning
10. As I Went Out One Morning
11. As I Went Out One Morning
12. As I Went Out One Morning
13. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
14. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
15. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
16. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
17. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
18. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
19. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
20. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
21. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
22. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
23. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
24. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
25. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
26. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
27. I Am A Lonesome Hobo

and then there's one more session with the pedal steel player, but I don't think there are outtakes from that? Anyway, not sure if there's going to be anything mindblowing, but I'd still like to hear these!

xps Alfred glad we agree on that late period peak
I don’t want to hear outtakes from JWH - it’s a sealed enigma

No interest in anybody's outtakes.

god kenny buttrey was an *unbelievable* drummer

this is my favorite dylan album no contest

i think it's got some of dylan's most fascinating writing on it. just how the format of songs like "frankie lee" or "st. augustine" kind of set you up for a resolution that never comes, a really canny use of the folk song. even when he's like here's the moral of this story in "frankie lee" you're like, what? that's the moral? the songs kind of swallow themselves up in that way. it's cool. (don't know if that made any sense lol).

― tylerw, Monday, February 7, 2011 2:02 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol earlier today i said that almost every song on this record is "the end! no moral" in song form

https://i.imgur.com/c6WKwQ4.png

the way this album flows fascinates me. it kicks off with some of bob's most genuinely anguished and ominous songs ("as i went out one morning," "st. augustine," and even "watchtower" even tho the lyrics are so overfamiliar it can be hard to hear them with fresh ears) and gradually the mood alters, bit by bit, until you get to the very last song, probably one of his happiest, simplest, and least troubled moments on record. feels like you've just emerged from days and days of total darkness into the sunlight. i love this album.

23. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
24. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
25. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
26. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
27. I Am A Lonesome Hobo

lol

Thought for a second I had clicked on a Whale thread.

J.D. otm

brad otm re: KB

his drumming is so restrained on the title track right up until the end of the second verse when he opens up with this right tasty fill and then does this super groovy pattern throughout the second harmonica solo where he's hitting the snare on the & of 2 = amazing

Yeah the drums/bass on this album are great.
The sound is a bit too dry for my taste though.
Still, I love this album and "I dreamed I Saw St Augustine" in particular.
Amazing song (and the drums breaks on "Arise, Arise" is one of my favourite moments on it).

totally. he adds all these little touches but they really elevate the music so much.

yeah buttrey really is one of the great all-time drummers — and on these classic dylan recordings, he's pretty much just coming up with that stuff off the top of his head.