The five essential Bob Dylan albums to own on vinyl
To say Bob Dylan is quite influential would be the understatement of the century. After a childhood spent obsessing over 1950s rock ‘n’ roll stars like Elvis Presley and Little Richard, Dylan caught wind of Woody Guthrie and his associated genre: folk. Immersing himself in the word-dense format, the Minnesota-born troubadour ventured east to New York City to join the city’s fertile folk circuit.
After visiting Guthrie, who suffered in hospital with Huntington’s disease through the 1960s, Dylan recorded his debut album, which included his first songwriting attempt, ‘Song to Woody’. From these humble beginnings, the 1960s became Dylan’s most crucial decade, spanning from politically aggravated folk compositions to a later embrace of poetic folk-rock inspired by the avant-garde word forms of the Beat Generation.
For six decades, Dylan has continued to explore his passion for songcraft, flitting gleefully between his four associative genres: blues, country, folk and rock. Impressively, the octagenarian shows few signs of slowing down, having released his 29th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, in 2020 and resuming his Never Ending Tour in 2021 following Covid-19 restrictions.
In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Although it is a rare feat for a songwriter, no musical artist appears more deserving of such an award, considering his poetic oeuvre’s vastness, longevity and endlessly influential nature.
Today, we celebrate Bob Dylan’s unrivalled catalogue by picking out the artist’s five most essential studio albums all fans should own on vinyl.
The only five Bob Dylan albums you need to own:
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
In 1962, Bob Dylan released his eponymous debut album, a discerning platter of derivative folk musings. This promising record proved to be little more than a transitory step, a footnote to the culturally invigorating dynamite that was The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Still clinging faithfully to the coattails of his chosen mentor, Woody Guthrie, Dylan brought his unique vocals to various folk progressions.
Most importantly, the album heard the maturation of Dylan’s poetic knack. While some songs explored the musician’s romantic attachment to Suze Rotolo, as depicted in the cover art, others poked a finger at contemporary sociopolitical affairs. Dylan will have you laughing in ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ but crying in ‘Masters of War’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall’.
Available to purchase here for £24.45.
Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
Bringing It All Back Home kicked off Bob Dylan’s finest trilogy of albums and, hence, can be regarded as one of his most important releases. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan had been followed up by the darker folk musings of The Times They Are a-Changin’ and the uneven Another Side of Bob Dylan, the latter showing signs of creative fatigue. Dylan was ready for a new chapter.
If Another Side of Bob Dylan failed to engage Dylan’s early fans, Bringing It All Back Home would give them a kick up the backside. Side One consists of revolutionary folk rock songs backed by an electric band, while Side Two gives a final farewell to Dylan’s acoustic folk roots. This album and a famous performance at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965 highlighted Dylan’s controversial embrace of the electric guitar. It may have alienated folk purists, but with ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ in its ranks, it ultimately built more bridges than it burned.
Available to purchase here for £18.37.
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
After Bringing It All Back Home and the commotion at Newport, Bob Dylan consolidated his stylistic transition with Highway 61 Revisited in August 1965. The title refers to the highway that stretched from Dylan’s birthplace of Duluth along the Mississippi down to New Orleans. This trail passes the birthplaces of some of Dylan’s early musical heroes of the blues and early rock and roll genres, including Elvis Presley, Muddy Waters and Charlie Patton.
“Highway 61, the main thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I began,” Dylan wrote in his memoir, Chronicles: Volume One. “I always felt like I’d started on it, always had been on it and could go anywhere, even down into the deep Delta country. It was the same road, full of the same contradictions, the same one-horse towns, the same spiritual ancestors … It was my place in the universe, always felt like it was in my blood.”
Enhanced by the electric lead guitar stylings of Mike Bloomfield, Highway 61 Revisited blends the blues with folk across some of Dylan’s most cherished songs, including ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ and ‘From a Buick 6’.
Available to purchase here for £23.68.
Blonde on Blonde (1966)
With his young folkie days behind him, Bob Dylan reached a creative climax in 1966. Following the foundational folk-rock success of Highway 61 Revisited, this remarkable double album reflects an artist teeming with poetic ideas backed by a diverse congregation of supporting musicians, including Al Kooper, Robbie Robertson and Charlie McCoy.
Blonde on Blonde was influenced heavily by Dylan’s recently established friendship with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The album is often considered Dlan’s consummate masterpiece, home to such triumphs as ‘Visions of Johanna’, ‘Just Like A Woman’, ‘Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again’ and ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’.
Available to purchase here for £26.49.
Blood on the Tracks (1975)
Bob Dylan’s most influential and culturally affecting run through the mid-1960s was followed by a dry patch later in the decade and through the early ’70s. Fortunately, this was remedied, first by 1974’s number one album Planet Waves, which was followed up a year later with the mid-career masterpiece Blood on the Tracks.
This acoustic gem arrived as a bolt from the blue in a triumphant return to form, both instrumentally and lyrically. Dylan had been markedly impressed by Paul Brady’s interpretation of the classic song ‘The Lakes of Pontchartrain’. On Dylan’s insistence, Brady met Dylan and introduced him to the wonders of Open D tuning, which sits at the core of every song on the album. Blood on the Tracks is full of career essentials, including ‘Tangled Up in Blue’, ‘Simple Twist of Fate’, ‘If You See Her, Say Hello’ and ‘Shelter from the Storm’.
Available to purchase here for £23.48.
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