Ranking all Bob Dylan albums of the 1960s
In the early 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged as the voice of a generation, breaking social barriers and rallying the public’s goodwill against the powers that be. In his early rungs of success, Dylan modelled his sound on that of Woody Guthrie’s politically driven lyrical knack and the sound of traditional folk structures. This recipe did young Dylan very well, but he wasn’t to dwell on this chapter for long. After all, he had grown up a rock ‘n’ roll fanatic.
Having released seminal acoustic folk albums like The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are a-Changin’, Dylan decided to turn the helm in the mid-1960s. Dylan’s poignant anti-war anthems like ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ and ‘Masters of War’ caught the imagination of a burgeoning counterculture, but nothing could prepare the folk purists for Dylan’s mid-decade transition.
In March 1965, Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home, the album that best articulated this transition. The first side of the record heard Dylan backed by an electric band, while side two returned to the familiar acoustic sound. What fears this album stoked in Dylan’s folk-devout fans were compounded and confirmed four months later at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25th, the day Dylan “went electric”.
This seismic shift naturally ruffled a few feathers, but by most modern outlooks, marked a vital moment in Dylan’s career and the beginning of his most artistically accomplished phase. Dylan stuck with his more textured folk-rock sound for two more critically revered albums but admirably stayed aloft from his laurels through the remainder of the decade and beyond. While his career has churned forth with peaks and troughs, Dylan has never failed to keep fans on their feet with new ideas, both musically and lyrically.
Today, we’re celebrating Bob Dylan’s most important decade of music by ranking his nine studio albums of the 1960s.
Bob Dylan’s albums from the 1960s ranked:
9. Bob Dylan
Coming in at ninth – I baulk at using the word “last” and more so “worst” – is Dylan’s eponymous debut album of 1962. For a debut, it’s not half bad; the only real criticism would be that, as a developing artist of 20, Dylan leaned on the crutch of traditional folk compositions and covers through much of the album.
The raw, energetic delivery of the acoustic tracks introduced the wider world to Dylan’s unique vocal style and harmonica voicings for the first time. Despite consisting mainly of remodelled covers, Dylan displayed the green shoots of his songwriting talents in his beautiful homage, ‘Song to Woody’ and the vividly biographic ‘Talkin’ New York’.
8. Another Side of Bob Dylan
When Dylan entered the studio to lay down his fourth album, he already had the might of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are a-Changin’ behind him. Another Side of Bob Dylan was by no means a discreditable follow-up, but it lacked the artistic zeal and political urgency of its predecessors.
Highlights on the album include ‘Chimes of Freedom’, ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, ‘Spanish Harlem Incident’, and ‘Ballad in Plain D’, a plaintive account of Dylan’s crumbling relationship with Suze Rotolo. The album is an enjoyable listen, but it was apparent Dylan’s time as a folkie was coming to an end. Electric guitars were on the horizon, and Dylan’s eyes were already there.
7. Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline arrived in 1969 as a digression from his mid-1960s flirtation with rock music. Following the footsteps made in John Wesley Harding, Dylan fully immersed himself in country music for this release and adopted a soft, unprecedented croon to fit. The album perhaps came as a shock to those who had become accustomed to Dylan’s prior vocal style, but after reaching number one in the UK and three in the US, its popularity couldn’t be denied.
Most memorably, Nashville Skyline was home to ‘Girl from the North Country’, a song originally recorded for 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan but now repackaged in beautiful harmony with Johny Cash. Elsewhere, Dylan tugged the heartstrings with ‘I Threw It All Away’ and romanced without mercy in ‘Lay Lady Lay’.
6. John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding is, I feel, often underrated amongst Dylan’s expansive discography. Once one overcomes the squealing harmonica that characterises the album, it reveals itself to be a trove of unbound compositional and lyrical delight. Its most prized offering is, of course, ‘All Along the Watchtower’, which Jimi Hendrix treated to a heavier electric cover in 1968.
Crucially, John Wesley Harding followed Blonde on Blonde as a throwback of sorts and a bridge between his early folk and subsequent, more textured styles. The songs are lyrically robust, and as an album, it holds a DNA of its own that can endear itself to the listener over time.
5. The Times They Are a-Changin’
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan would always be a difficult record to follow up, but Dylan barely hesitated when re-entering the studio to muster up this darker folk odyssey. Compared with its predecessor, The Times They Are a-Changin’ consists mainly of morose, sparsely composed balladry, this time lacking the punctuation of dry-humoured tracks like ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’.
The album is most well-known for its generation-defining anthem ‘The Times They Are a-Changin”, its only single. However, it’s home to a solid platter of delectably dour classics. ‘Ballad of Hollis Brown’ stands prominent as Dylan’s tear-jerking portrayal of rural poverty, while ‘One Too Many Mornings’ and ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ add a more personal edge.
4. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
It feels odd placing this faultless folk masterpiece in fourth place, but Dylan’s subsequent Beat-inspired lyrical maturation does, indeed, force this one down a notch or two. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan arrived in May 1963 as Dylan’s second studio album, updating his discography with more prevalent political messages, whether poignant or humorous.
With the exception of a couple of traditional folk structures, the album is also void of covers, showing a young artist comfortable with his lyrical abilities. ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘Oxford Town’ give the album its vital political rhetoric, while ‘Girl from the North Country’ and ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’ add a more romantic, lovelorn dimension.
3. Bringing It All Back Home
Bringing it All Back Home, as I detailed earlier, marked a pivotal transition in Dylan’s early career. With all-time classics such as ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’, it’s not short of popular acclaim. Hunter S. Thompson, Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen are among the many famous names to have singled this one out for praise.
This album is also home to two tracks, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’, which, thanks to their dense wording, have had Dylan praised as the OG rap artist. “You might look at [them] and say they’re two totally different acts, but all you have to do with Eminem is put a guitar behind his words, and it’s a very similar thing,” Ed Sheeran told Watch Mojo in 2011. “Folk music tells stories, and hip hop tells stories; there’s just a beat that separates it.”
2. Highway 61 Revisited
What Dylan toe-dipped in Bringing It All Back Home, he fully submerged in Highway 61 Revisited. The album is a more consistent and balanced work of folk-rock magic that benefits profoundly from Mike Bloomfield’s virtuosic guitar phrasings. Most notably, the album was famed for ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, the first of four singles taken from the album and undoubtedly one of Dylan’s most popular creations.
Elsewhere, the album draws balance from the jaunty energy of the title track, the poignant symbolism of ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ and the many layers and abstractions that its epic swan song ‘Desolation Row’ holds. Highway 61 Revisited could stake a strong claim as Dylan’s greatest LP.
1. Blonde on Blonde
On some days, Blonde on Blonde reveals itself unequivocally superior to all other Bob Dylan albums. This is usually the case just after listening to the double LP release all the way through. On other days, the two above albums nibble at Blonde on Blonde’s ankles as serious competitors. Alas, pooling all days into an average, I’m comfortable placing this undeniable powerhouse of pioneering art at the top of the pile.
The lyrical muscles that hit a glass ceiling in prior folk-rock masterpieces, such as ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, broke it in Blonde on Blonde. This wasn’t achieved, per se, in unlocking a greater level of perfection but in sheer balance and volume.
Blonde on Blonde squeezes the whole world into 72 minutes. There’s love and hate, the latter showing itself most memorably in ‘Fourth Time Around’, Dylan’s jab at John Lennon. There’s country, blues, folk, vice, virtue, pleasure, pain, light, dark, and quite possibly Dylan’s greatest, most mysterious lyrical accomplishment: ‘Visions of Johanna’.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.