John Wesley Harding

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Performer: Bob Dylan
Distributor: Burnside Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano); Pete Drake (steel guitar); Charles McCoy (bass); Kenny Buttrey (drums). Includes liner notes by Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan's eighth album followed a lengthy hibernation due to a motorcycle accident in which the singer re-evaluated his art. He emerged with a set of stark simplicity and heartfelt intensity, melding folk, rock, and country with a mesmerizing power that set off a huge back-to-basics movement in rock that lasted well into the next decade. A biblical purity encompasses the collection as Dylan paints graphic portraits of the disenfranchised--hobo, immigrant, drifter, messenger--articulating the uncertainty of the times. The best-known song here is the apocalyptic "All Along the Watchtower," which would soon be electrically redefined by Jimi Hendrix. The mood lifts on the final track "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," a beautifully tender love song, suggesting that this is where salvation lies. John Wesley Harding repays repeated play with ever-unfolding metaphor and interpretation, including four hidden Beatles on the cover.

Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.106) - Ranked #15 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records". Rolling Stone (3/30/00, p.68) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...one of Dylan's most cryptic and thematically complex albums....its songs are rife with religious imagery, both explicit and implied....a masterful move - the original Dylan unplugged." Q (Magazine) (p.111) - "[T]his spare collection of outlaw allegories and Biblical allusions is in stark contrast to the louder aesthetics prevailing elsewhere at the time..."

Bob Dylan began as a Woody Guthrie acolyte, imitating the dust-bowl balladeer as faithfully as a baby boomer from Hibbing, Minnesota, could. It wasn't long before he found his own voice, spearheading the early-1960s folk revival as well as the singer-songwriter movement, and introducing poetry into pop music. Through countless changes in sound, image, and even religion, he retained his unique artistic vision even when his popularity occasionally waned. By the 21st century, he was enjoying an upsurge of critical and popular interest based on a series of powerful late-career albums that crystallized his aesthetics and unique world view.

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