Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan (1962)

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter who emerged out of the early 60s folk revival to become an informal chronicler and reluctant figurehead of social unrest. He famously made the move from folk music to electric rock in the mid-60s, and has remained a major figure in music for five decades.

Bob Dylan was born in Minnestoa, and in the early 60s he moved to New York City, where he became emersed in the Greenwich Village folk scene. In these early formative years he learned much from older New York folk singers such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Dave Van Ronk. He was signed to Columbia by John Hammond in 1961, and his debut album came out in early '62. He was only twenty years old at the time.
It's often considered little more than an interesting prologue to his career, which didn't really take off properly until his second album. Almost all the songs on Bob Dylan are folk standards and traditionals, perfomed solo by Dylan on guitar and harmonica. There are only two originals. At this early stage in his career his influences were clear, the most important of them being Woody Guthrie. It wouldn't be until the next album that he used these influences to forge his own unique identity, built on his incredible songwriting. On this first record he sounded much like any of his folk-singer contemporaries, and it recieved little notice.
But things were about to start happening for young Mr Dylan...

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