Search - Bob Dylan :: John Wesley Harding (Reis)

Bob Dylan at his Best

Diane Mcgough | Lake Oswego, OR | 01/25/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recorded with a set of Nashville musicians, this is one of Bob Dylan's best albums. The music is superb and the lyrics draw you right in. These are songs with a story, with a purpose. and there is even a love song thrown it, "Down Along the Cove" and to my way of thinking its one of the best love songs ever written. Coming out after his long hiatus after "Blonde on Blonde" (supposedly because of his motorcycle accident) the way it did, his fans were probably starving for music and they snatched this one right up (or so I'm told). Still, it must have been a little bit of a shocker to his fans, you know, the direction his music was taking. A few years later they would be shocked even more, because Dylan is not your basic static musician, he's ever growing, ever changing and this incantation of the never the same Bob Dylan is truly one of the best."

"There Are Many Here Among Us Who Feel That Life Is But A Jo

Shell-Zee | Long Island, NY | 12/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In December of 1967 Bob Dylan released his long awaited follow up to the legendary Blonde On Blonde album. For more than a year Dylan was holed up in West Saugerties, New York with a band of Canadians and a drummer/singer/mandolin player from Arkansas. They called themselves The Hawks, (later re-named The Band). Bob was recouping from a motorcycle accident and writing songs that suited the juke-joint feeling they provided as a back-up unit. But what Bob really wanted to do was to head down to Nashville and record with the great session players Charlie McCoy, Ken Buttrey and Pete Drake. The songs he had written were naratives of characters from the old West, Frankie Lee, Tom Payne and John Wesley Harding. There were also figures like Judas and St. Augustine, names familiar to the New Testament. And there were anonymous characters Landlords, Hobos, Immigrants, Gamblers and Drifters, all faceless and nondescript, but worthy of great fear, unfathomable pity and deep respect.



The audience was slow to react to this quiter, gentler Bob Dylan. Teens and young adults who were weaned on the likes of Highway 61, Subterranean Homesick Blues and Like A Rolling Stone felt betrayed. Like the "folkies" at Newport who wanted more of Blowin' In The Wind and The Times They Are A Changin'. They couldn't recognize him and didn't want their hero to change. Just who was this stranger surrounded by weird looking figures on the album cover? And what exactly was Bob saying about "plow-men digging my earth" and "Immigrants who wished that they had stayed home"? What was this "Watchtower" inhabited by princes, thieves, bare-foot servants and Jokers? And who was this "fairest damsel that ever did walk in chains"?



The following year Bob released Nashville Skyline, a more mainstream country album. Fans and critics alike were unanimous in their approval. Lay Lady Lay became a top forty hit. Why even country icon Johnny Cash engaged in a heart felt duet with Bob on "Girl From The North Country". The Byrds too had gone country with Sweetheart of the Rodeo and a new genre called "country rock" was born. So John Wesley Harding was largely forgotten and reduced to a footnote. It's the record Bob released between two landmark albums, Blonde On Blonde and Nashville Skyline. John Wesley Harding never gained traction with hard-core Dylan fans and never got it's due. But I strongly believe it contains some of Bob's greatest songwriting. Yes, "John Wesley Harding was a friend to the poor"....And anyone who cares to listen and give him a fair shot. Don't pity him or fear him. Don't send him "Down Along The Cove" with that "Wicked Messenger". Just listen and take the time to hear his story. Remember "There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke"..."But let us not talk falsely now. The hour is getting late".



"

Discovering Bob Dylan

Lindazo | Florida | 04/22/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a 74 year old woman who loves all kinds of music, I am both proud and ashamed to admit that all those years when I laughingly wondered why the off-key, scratchy-voiced Dylan was such an icon -- those years were wasted times I might have enjoyed listening to him. This album is a delight and taking a new "tour" of his work has been an adventure. Don't look for him to explain anything and don't look for greater meanings. Just enjoy the genius a la Picasso!"