Review | Songlines

Folk Singer-Humdinger: Just About as Good as it Gets!

Rating: ★★★★★

View album and artist details

Album and Artist Details

Artist/band:

Bob Dylan

Label:

Smith & Co

Apr/May/2013

This collection of 45 tracks recorded by Dylan between 1961 and 62 is not an officially sanctioned release, but neither is it a pirated bootleg. It comes about because the new EU law which extends recording copyright from 50 to 70 years does not take effect until later this year, leaving this material just outside the new legislation – a loophole that has been cleverly exploited by the Dutch-based label, Smith & Co. Eleven famous tracks from Dylan’s now out-of-copyright self-titled 1962 debut LP are augmented by 34 other recordings of similar vintage, mostly recorded live and never officially released (although much of it has long been available on bootlegs such as Great White Wonder and The result is a compelling and near-definitive portrait of a 20-year-old folk-blues singer on the cusp of greatness and with a remarkable poise, timing and feel for his material. It must leave Sony and the Dylan camp wishing they’d thought of it themselves, because it brilliantly captures the young artist at a pivotal moment, making the transition from Woody Guthrie wannabe into the most original singer-songwriter of his age. It’s particularly fascinating to listen to his versions of trad folk and blues songs such as ‘Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos,’ ‘Motherless Children’ and ‘In the Pines’ alongside early versions of his own now classic compositions ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, ‘Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright’ and ‘Ballad of Hollis Brown’ – quite possibly being played for the first time ever in public. Even if Dylan hadn’t gone on to become the voice of a generation, the intensity and self-assurance of the performances here would still have made him one of the finest folk-blues singers of the modern age.

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