Containing many of his most striking early compositions--and sounding today far less dated than The Times They Are A-Changin', his next largely "protest" album--the guitar/voice/harmonica sound and vision of Freewheelin' remains by turns hilarious ("Talking World War III Blues"), sweet ("Corrina, Corrina"), bitter ("Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"), enraged ("Masters of War"), questing ("Blowin' in the Wind"), and all of these things at once ("I Shall Be Free"). More than any other album, Freewheelin' established Dylan as the "voice of a generation," though even that expansive title was destined to be constricting in the face of the art he would soon create. --David Cantwell

This album contains some of Dylan's best songs, and alot of people seem to think that it's his best acoustic album. I have to say I disagree there, my favourite being 'another side', but this album has some great songs: there are protest songs such as 'a hard rain's a-gonna fall' (my favourite!) in which Dylan tells us about the hardships, poverty and injustice of the world with lyrics that paint almost horrific images in your mind, and 'oxford town', a short, very folky tune about racism in America, particularly in the south, and there are songs about lost friendships and love such as 'Bob Dylan's dream', 'corrina, corrina' and 'don't think twice, it's alright', plus bluesy comedies like 'Bob Dylan's blues' and 'I shall be free'. Yes, this album has a great scope, and if you want to buy only one acoustic album by Dylan by this or 'another side', or, best of all, both! They hardly cost anything on amazon!

I'm not one of Bob Dylan's biggest fans, though I agree with the view that he has no equal as a wordsmith. Indeed, his book 'Chronicles' suggests that he could have been one of the world's premier writers or novelists had he chosen books instead of guitars. When people elevate later albums such as 'Blood On The Tracks' to 'greatest album' status, though, I chuckle. Dylan's reputation is built on the albums he made during the 1960s, starting with 'Freewheelin''. In 1962/63, the average pop album consisted of half an hour of cover songs. From a member of the same generation, a student of folk music, came over three quarters of an hour of original material, bar two songs. Dylan did admit to nicking the odd tune, but that's not an unusual practice.

Dylan was following a folk-protest movement at the time of 'Freewheelin'' and his lyrics were relatively direct. Elusiveness and surrealism were qualities he developed two or three years later, yet 'A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall' demonstrates his fulsome imagination. 'Blowin' In The Wind', the prettiest tune, served to spread his name, assisted by a hit cover by Peter, Paul and Mary. Aside of this, there's a lot to get your teeth into. The relationship songs, 'Girl From The North Country' and 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right' are also accessible, the latter featuring Dylan's rarely heard deeper, sweeter vocal style.

Most of the songs though are political and predominantly anti-war. He tries different approaches to them. 'Masters Of War' is grim, 'Talking World War III Blues' conversational. 'Oxford Town', despite its light delivery, briefly relates another injustice.

Apart from the standard 'Corrina, Corrina', 'Freewheelin'' features Dylan alone, playing guitar and harmonica. Although he's made many recordings in band format, he is usually at his most powerful when the music is stripped bare. In its own right, 'Freewheelin'' remains a great album and in its original context is infinitely more important than anything he did after 'John Wesley Harding'.

One of the single most important albums of the rock canon, THE FREEWHEELIN' BOB DYLAN, along PLEASE PLEASE ME, introduced the 1960s with a bang. Sure, the decade had been underway since 1960, but with this release we finally get the Dylan that will change the face of popular music. Although the album before this one can be entertaining in spots, no one could guess the genius of this sophomore effort by listening to the first Bob Dylan disc. And what genius it is.

Dylan, in the course of 13 songs, covers much of the human emotional genome, from joy to sadness to longing to righteous anger to broken hearts to comedy. The album is as accomplished and stunning as any of his later works, and stands as one of the best albums ever recorded. The sound is sparse, but very effective for the material covered. It also has a lesson producers nowadays could learn from: you don't need tons of instruments to produce effective music. This is just Dylan, a guitar, and a harmonica with the exception of "Corrina, Corrina," and he makes it work. Boy does he ever.

This album produced many of his most important compositions and signature songs, including the song that broke him into the mainstream, "Blowin' in the Wind". Compositions like the aforementioned song, "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," "Masters of War," and "Girl of the North Country," quickly established Dylan as the premier songwriter for the social conscious of the early 1960s, a role Dylan would quickly move away from (just listen to the mid 1960s trilogy of BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, and BLONDE ON BLONDE to see how far he left this stuff behind). However, Dylan would never cease to be the premier songwriter of rock and roll, and he is still regarded as the poet laureate of rock and roll.

What makes this album's durability all the more remarkable is that it was recorded in the height of the folk-protest revival, which had numerous songs that do not have long shelf lives. The central problem with protest albums is they have a tendency to become dated and awkward as years go by, but not here. These songs sound just as glorious as when they were first released. Where THE FREEWHEELIN' BOB DYLAN does sound dated, this effect actually enhances the album, especially on the last cut of the album where he is talking to President Kennedy who was alive at the time. That alone gives the cut an endearing quality.

Dylan wisely stayed away from dated political concerns, and instead addressed the problems America was having in the 1960s from a much more universal perspective. Instead of singing about nuclear rain (which "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall was never about to begin with), Dylan invokes an oncoming apocalypse. With "Blowin' in the Wind," he confesses he simply doesn't know the answers to the problems, a very strange thing for an early 1960s folk song to do. Other folkies would have said the answer was social reform, or peace and love, or something along those lines. "Masters of War" stays relevant even today, because Dylan addresses universal concerns, not topical ones.

It is useful to contrast this album with its followup, THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGIN'. THE TIMES is a much more defined album, with Dylan clearly in the "protest mode". While most of the cuts off that record are certainly worthy additions to the Dylan catalogue (considering the stuff that was being recorded at the time by Dylan, did we really need "With God On Our Side,") when taken as an entire album THE TIMES wears its listeners out emotionally. TIMES can get rather monotous as times as well. TIMES has dated much more badly than FREEWHEELIN', though to be fair to that record, it still stands up much better than the other folk records coming out of the Greenwich Village scene by today's standards, especially with the title track.

That is one album that desperately needed some light-hearted moments like "Eternal Circle" or something to break up the monotony. Sadly, two of the best compositions ("Percy's Song" and "Lay Down Your Weary Tune," both available on BIOGRAPH) were left off.

TIMES is a dark, brooding, traditional "protest album", and though evidenced by Dylan's numerous outtakes from that period that he was writing songs far beyond simple protest music, it is obvious Dylan constricted himself to very narrow subject matter and themes. TIMES comes off as a very humourless, serious affair. Dylan does not make that mistake here.

While I digressed to discuss this album's followup, contrasting TIMES with FREEWHEELIN' is useful in that it helps show what makes FREEWHEELIN' so successful. TIMES is a straight laced, no nonsense protest album, though with better track selection (like most of Dylan's work), it could have been a much different, and in TIMES' case, better, album. Listening to TIMES is emotionally draining, and while certainly has some great songs, overall the album does not stand up as well, though there are individual songs that match anything on FREEWHEELIN'. TIMES is much more limited in its emotional range, whereas FREEWHEELIN' is a much broader record, and a better one at that.

While THE FREEWHEELIN' BOB DYLAN certainly qualifies as a protest album, due to Dylan's deft skill he crafted the album to be much more universal than strictly topical, and he has been rewarded with creating a rather timeless piece of music. While he did go radically reinvent himself several times over, Dylan never sounded better here, and while he may have come up with music as good as the songs on this album he never made one that surpassed it.

Excellent acoustic guitar tracks, if you play guitar then these songs are ace to learn
loads of thought provoking imagary and poetic vocals that hand in hand with the melodies and not to mention the spot on, flowing harp (harmonica)the you'll here thoughout the breaks in most tracks
theres tracks like 'don't think twice' with some legend fingerpicking, vocals and harp

this album was recoded in 62 and still doesnt sound old, it sounds more on the ball than some stuff thats about these days - - - i personnally prefer the early dylan and the later dylan (60's-early70's90's00') out of the acoustic stuff this is one of my personnel best(they're all pretty good)my other favourite albums are:
bringing it all back home, blonde on blonde,another side of bob dylan,the times they are a'changin'


some proper classic tunes on here

Very few songwriters have so many books written about them, but for me Dylan is about the performance and how he approached his songs at a moment time. It's magnificent how theDylan songs can project so many different feelings in a demo, studio or a live environment... this record has a collection of songs with pure guitar, harmonica and vocals... real raw folk and the one that made him famous.
These songs take you back to the 60's, but the lyrics as relevant as they could ever be... take a closer listen to the popular `Blowin in the wind' and the fabulous and melodic `Hard Rain's A-Gonna fall'.
Sit on that couch, get a coffee and prepare yourself for a great hour of music that REALLY changed the world...

Let the Music Play!