Liner Notes

Bob Dylan was just shy of his twenty-first birthday in the spring of 1962 when he strode into the Columbia Records studios in New York City to begin recording his second album. His first, released a month earlier to lukewarm reviews and sluggish sales, consisted mostly of adaptations of well-worn folk songs. The new album, eventually titled The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, would be different: Dylan wrote eleven of the thirteen tracks chosen for the record; all but one feature no accompaniment other than the artist himself on guitar and harmonica.

The album was a critical and commercial success, selling upwards of a million copies. Tracks such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” became classics of American songwriting. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan heralded a major talent and inspired untold legions of spinoffs: aspiring musicians who figured if Dylan could write and perform his own songs, they could too. By the end of the...