Bob Dylan: History Leading up to Bringing It All Back Home
- Dropped out of college during freshman year
- Traveled to New York City in 1961 to perform and visit idol Woody Guthrie
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Guthrie was major influence on Bob’s early music
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"The songs themselves had the infinite
sweep of humanity in them ... [He] was the true voice of the American spirit. I
said to myself I was going to be Guthrie's greatest disciple." - Bob Dylan
- From February 1961, Dylan played at various venues around Greenwich Village
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Picked up and learned a lot about folk music
- Earned positive reviews in New York Times of show at Gerde’s Folk Theater
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Played harmonica on folk singer Carolyn Hester’s
third album
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Brought his talent to attention of producer John
Hammond
- Hammond signed Dylan to Columbia Records in October and released album titled Bob Dylan in 1962
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Album only sold 5,000 copies in a year
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Columbia considered dropping him, but Hammond
defended Dylan
- March 1962, Dylan played harmonica and sang back-up vocals to album Three Kings and a Queen
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Dylan used the pseudonym Bob Landy to record as
a piano player on the 1964 anthology album, The Blues Project, issued by
Elektra
Records
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Under the pseudonym Tedham Porterhouse, Dylan contributed
harmonica to Ramblin' Jack Elliott's 1964 album Jack Elliott
- Legally changed name to Bob Dylan in 1962 and signed management contract with Albert Grossman
- From December 1962 to January 1963, Dylan made his first trip to the United Kingdom
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He had
been invited by TV director Philip
Saville to appear in a drama, The Madhouse on Castle Street,
which Saville was directing for BBC
Television
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Dylan performed Blowin’ in the Wind at end of play
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Dylan performed in several clubs whilst in
London
- Dylan began making a name for himself in 1963 with the release of his 2nd album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan which was filled with protest songs inspired by Guthrie
- Blowin’ in the Wind blended blending a stream-of-consciousness, imagist lyrical attack with a traditional folk form
- Freewheelin' also included a mixture of love songs and jokey, surreal talking blues
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Humor was
a large part of Dylan's persona and the range
of material on the album impressed many listeners, including The Beatles
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George
Harrison said, "We just played it, just wore it out. The
content of the song lyrics and just the attitude—it was incredibly original and
wonderful.”
- The rough edge of Dylan's singing was unsettling to some early listeners but an attraction to others. Describing the impact that Dylan had on her and her husband, Joyce Carol Oates wrote: "When we first heard this raw, very young, and seemingly untrained voice, frankly nasal, as if sandpaper could sing, the effect was dramatic and electrifying."
- In May 1963, Dylan's political profile was raised when he walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show
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During
rehearsals, Dylan had been informed by CBS
Television's "head of program practices" that the song he
was planning to perform, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues",
was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with the
censorship, Dylan refused to appear on the program
- Dylan was prominent figure in Civil Rights Movement
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Sang at March On Washington on August 28th,
1963
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By the end of 1963, Dylan felt both manipulated
and constrained by the folk and protest movements
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Another Side of Bob Dylan, recorded on
a single June evening in 1964,had a lighter mood than its predecessor
- In the latter half of 1964 and 1965, Dylan's appearance and musical style changed rapidly, as he made his move from leading contemporary songwriter of the folk scene to folk-rock pop-music star
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His scruffy jeans and work shirts were replaced
by a Carnaby Street wardrobe, sunglasses day or
night, and pointy "Beatle boots"
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A London reporter wrote: "Hair that would
set the teeth of a comb on edge. A loud shirt that would dim the neon lights of
Leicester
Square. He looks like an undernourished cockatoo."
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Featured his first recording with electric
instruments
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The A side of Bringing it All Back Home is considered to be the rock/protest side
of the album
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The B side
of Bringing It All Back Home consisted of four long songs on which Dylan
accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica
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