Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

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.

Dylan's first album had gone by mostly unnoticed, reportedly selling only 2500 copies in the US. At that point he appeared to be just another Greenwich Village folk-singer, in the shadow of his idols and mentors (Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, etc).
However with his second album, things changed in a big way. It was with this album that he revealed himself as a songwriter of extraordinary talent. Whilst Bob Dylan had almost entirely consisted of covers and traditional songs, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was almost all original songs, with just two covers. And his song were good - seriously good. Dylan had come from a genre where most singers' repetoires were based on songs from the past, and now here he was, barely twenty-three years old, coming out with all these new songs which would quickly come to define his era of folk music. These included instant classic protest songs ("Blowin' In The Wind", "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Masters Of War") and poetic love songs ("Girl From The North Country", "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"), along with other numbers that featured clever, surreal humor. His songwriting prowess was startling considering his young age, and he quickly rose to international fame based on the strength of this album. His lyrics dealt with subjects important to the 60s generation - among them war, nuclear disarmament and civil rights. He was soon being labelled as "Spokesman of a Generation" and the new leading voice of American folk music.
The album reached #22 in the US charts, and managed to get to #1 in the UK. It earned him a legion of devoted followers. Also of equal importance was the growing roster of other artists who were now beginning to record his songs and have hits with them. Folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary took "Blowin' In The Wind" to #2 in the charts within three weeks of the album's release. His songs also transcended the folk genre, and were covered by artists as diverse as Johnny Cash and Sam Cooke.

Bob Dylan (1962) <|> The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964)
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