Track Listing

1. John Wesley Harding
2. As I Went Out One Morning
3. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
4. All Along The Watchtower
5. The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest
6. Drifter's Escape
7. Dear Landlord
8. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
9. I Pity The Poor Immigrant Albu
10. The Wicked Messenger
11. Down Along The Cove
12. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4521 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bob Dylan's remarkable first album after his debilitating 1966 motorcycle accident isn't as urgent as the ambitious folk and rock songs he wrote earlier in the decade. Even considering the rocking "All Along the Watchtower" (covered famously by Jimi Hendrix), the album's overall feeling is soft and laid-back, all gently strummed guitars, perfectly timed harmonicas, and some of Dylan's best pure singing to date. The 1968 release sounds as if the songwriter and his three sidemen set up a few tape recorders in a bedroom and began playing as soon as they woke up in the morning. They open with the title track (a folk fable), move into the piano-driven "Dear Landlord", and close with the sweet love song "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight". --Steve Knopper

Customer Reviews

All Across The Telegraph
Of all Bob Dylan albums, "John Wesley Harding" was the most eagerly awaited. It was his first record put out following his enforced temporary retirement brought about by the motorcycle accident which had occurred in July 1966 and it`s story is fascinating. His previous album, the historic double, "Blonde On Blonde" was a highly produced collection on which he was accompanied by a large electric ensemble of mostly top Nashville studio musicians perfecting what Dylan himself had dubbed his `wild mercury sound'. The songs were lyrically intricate affairs, often lengthy performances (five, seven minutes ; "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" clocking in at just under eleven!). The question was : what would his new work sound like ? The answer was, nothing like "Blonde On Blonde".

Just prior to his accident, Dylan had completed a physically and mentally exhausting world tour which had been full of controversy (acoustic versus electric battle, the infamous "Judas!" cry). He was at a peak of commercial and creative success, but his personal state is well-documented to have been less than perfect. "John Wesley Harding" turned out to be the sound of a man who had seemed to have saved himself from the brink of some kind of oblivion. A man who had regained some degree of control.

Dylan had not actually been inactive during the hiatus. Much `home' recording had been done with the musicians who would become The Band, and this work, the legendary "Basement Tapes" can now been seen as the obvious link between "Blonde On Blonde" and this new album. "The Basement Tapes" would not however be officially released until 1975. "John Wesley Harding" was the result of three studio sessions in Nashville with regular producer Bob Johnston and engineer Charlie Bragg. Along with Dylan (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica and piano) were two musicians from the "Blonde On Blonde" band : multi-instrumentalist Charles McCoy on electric bass and Kenny Buttrey on drums. They were joined on the last date by Pete Drake on pedal steel guitar, giving a distinctly country feel to the blues "Down Along The Cove" and, especially, the final track "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight".

This was very much an `album', rather than a collection of songs like "The Basement Tapes" or even a great record like "Bringing It All Back Home" was. The songs here seem to have common threads and feelings running through them. Not to be uncomplimentary, or to devalue the songs in anyway (some are amongst his finest) but they seem interconnected so that, in simple terms, it's tempting (although perhaps too facile) to think a writing genius such as Dylan could have produced them all in a mad concentration of creativity over a couple of days or so. "The Basement Tapes" songs, however could well have been written over a period of around one hundred years ! (and that is also meant as a complement!)

All this may be supposition. What we do know from Dylan himself is that he did something here he says he had never done before or since. The words for the majority of them were written first and kept until he `could find melodies for them'. Indeed, several have a strong traditional sounding tunes and one is certainly `borrowed' ("I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine"). None of this detracts from the fine quality of the material on offer. Dylan's explanation of the mode of their creation and the fact that no other versions of these songs turn up during "The Basement Tapes" sessions add to the uniqueness and special wholeness of this album and make us think that the man himself had similar high regard for this particular body of work.

Much has been made of the religious content of the lyrics, and with the mention of `saints', `messengers' and `judgement' that is clear, and Bob's mother Betty Zimmerman has said that around this time her son started reading The Bible more at this time. There are some dark corners and falling shadows in some of the texts, but most of all the feeling is of joy. Here is a man who has found some degree of peace, some quiet answers to some of his questions and put to rest at least some of his demons.

The songs are mostly deceptively simple with repeating cycles of three or four chords (or less, "Drifter's Escape" and "The Wicked Messenger" each have only two each !) "All Along The Watchtower" and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" are the best known and an ongoing survey tells us that they both feature in the top ten of most covered Dylan songs, at number seven and nine respectively. ("Blowin' In The Wind" is still at the top, by a considerable margin.)

Dylan restricts his guitar playing to mainly relatively simple strumming throughout and his frequent use of the capo up to the fifth fret gives a high ringing sound. He is effectively supported by Buttrey's solid percussion, McCoy's melodic riffing and, on the last two tracks, by Drake's innovative (in rock) pedal steel. Bob has said in interview that rarely have his best performances been captured on record, but on "John Wesley Harding" his singing and harmonica playing are both excellent. There's control and strength. Pace and passion. A certain cool clear knowingness.

"John Wesley Harding" is a significant record. With it, Dylan returned to us and there was a refocusing of awareness on what may be called 'roots' music. Much of what became the New Country or Americana movement can trace itself back to this collection.

All Bob Dylan's albums are worthy of interest.
Most of them are very good.
Many are great.
This is one of the best.

The Wicked Messenger Tells It Like It is,
"You see, that album was all I could come up with musically. It's the best I could have done at the time. I didn't intentionally come out with some kind of mellow sound. I would have liked a good sound, more musical, more steel guitar, more piano. More music. At that time so many people were into electronics, and I didn't know anything about that. I didn't even know anybody who knew it. I didn't sit down and plan that sound." Bob Dylan 1968.

The December 1967 release of "John Wesley Harding" was up to that point, the biggest change of musical direction that Bob Dylan had undertaken. Coming eighteen months after it's predecessor "Blonde on Blonde," this stripped down minimalist album surprised many, but it also indicated that Dylan would always be a leader and not a follower. The gap in Dylan's recording career was attributed at the time to a motor-cycle accident, but is now regarded as the grasping of an opportunity to re-evaluate his life style. During that period, the world had turned psychedelic, was in the midst of the so-called summer of love, acid trips and freak-outs were everywhere and Woodstock was just around the corner. The Beatles had released "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and The Rolling Stones had responded with "Their Satanic Majesties Request." On the American west coast, "Surrealistic Pillow" was launching Jefferson Airplane and their fans into the stratosphere, while other acid bands The Doors and The Grateful Dead were following suit. Into this came the album that Robert Shelton described as "...Dylan whispering in a climate of shout and scream," with its stories of cowboys, outlaws and drifters that is perhaps Dylan's most underrated classic. Perhaps significantly, he was critical of the Beatles album, saying that he found it "...very indulgent" and "...didn't think that all that production was necessary" At the same time, he knew what sound he was looking for, "I heard the sound that Gordon Lightfoot was getting with Charlie McCoy and Kenny Buttrey, I'd used (them) both before, and figured if he could get that sound, I could," but admitted, "We got a different sound...," and what a different sound it was. Although Dylan would release one more album in the sixties (the lightweight "Nashville Skyline" eighteen months later) he had in effect left that decade behind.

Bob's Quiet Biblical Influenced Classic
It has taken me a number of years to fully appreciate 'John Wesley Harding' but i've finally come to the conclusion it's arguably Bob's finest album.
The album does not seem particuarly revolutionary particuarly when compared with its more extravagant prececessors 'Bring It All Back Home', 'Highway 61 Revisited' and 'Blonde On Blonde' but it was nonetheless a very brave release. Bob decided to swim against the tide somewhat as it must be remembered its release coincided with the excesses of the psychedelic era with 'Sergeant Pepper' leading the way in 1967.
'John Wesley Harding's relatively 'quiet' release and its folk/country contents being rather modestly recorded with minimum instumentation and Bob's rather muted vocal delivery has managed to forever cast it in the shadows of Bob's more celebrated work. However, the album's strong biblical and moral references delivered in a series of parables has perhaps made 'John Wesley Harding' Bob's most mysterious and impenetrable work to date. Within these songs he raises a series of questions but delivers no firm answers - it's up to the listeners to draw their own conclusions.
The album's title refers to the outlaw John Wesley Hardin although the details within the song's lyrics are inaccurate.

All 'John Wesley Harding's songs sink in over time although patience is a virtue. The strength of the songs are the questions they raise and the ambiguity within the use of the language Bob chooses. This is the reason the album is one of Bob's most enduring.

The final couple of songs 'Down Along The Cove' and 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight' are a little more simplistic in tone pointing the way to Bob's follow up 'Nashville Skyline'.