The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

“如果说Elvis Presley（猫王）在五十年代给了摇滚乐以生命的话，那麽可以说鲍勃·迪伦在六十年代给了摇滚乐以灵魂。” 一个年仅二十二岁的青年人，操着一副仿佛六十岁的沙哑喉咙，一把木吉他，口琴挂在脖子上，在1963年出版了一首歌，名字叫“在风中回响”（Blowing In Wind）。从此，他的名字也开始在全世界回响。 他迄今创作超过五百首歌曲，43个专集，销售额超过五千七百万套。无数乐坛名人翻唱过他的作品，听过后你会发现，所有人唱得似乎都比他本人的演绎好听。然而却有人认定他的嗓音具有惊人的表现力，曾专门向其求教朗诵技巧，此人就是当代美国着名诗人艾伦·金斯堡。 他在六十年代被人称为“出色的诗人、尖刻的社会评论家、反主流文化的勇敢旗手”。然而到了九十年代的今天，他所代表的文化，已然成为新的主流文化的一部分，他的歌词被编如入美国大学教材，美国总统卡特在竞选时把他的诗句当作格言来大量引用。 1941年5月24日，Bob Dylan出生于明尼苏达州的图卢斯。60年代，Bob受民间音乐大师Woody GuthRie的影响来到纽约，开始了他的歌唱生涯。在这期间，他经常参与一些民谣歌手专辑的录制，渐渐小有名气。1961年10月，Bob的首张专辑出版，可是却未被看好。直到1963年初，他在英格兰BBC电台弹唱了民歌《The Madhouse On Castle Street》，才开始引起了人们的注意。同年5月，Bob在美国录制的《The Freewheelin’Bob Dylan》推出，并且一炮而红，打入排行榜第22位，Bob也因此被推崇为民谣明星，获得了大批的歌迷。在这张专辑中，《A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall》和《Blown In The Wind》都是非常经典的歌曲。 1961年12月，Bob Dylan在朋友家的地板上睡了几年之后，终于搬进了他在纽约的第一个住所，当时的女友Suze Rotolo也和他住在一起，他们两人相互依偎走在雪后的纽约第四街的照片，被用做了该专辑的封面。 这张专辑在滚石杂志选出的500张历代最强专辑中排名第97位。 It's hard to overestimate the importance of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the record that firmly established Dylan as an unparalleled songwriter, one of considerable skill, imagination, and vision. At the time, folk had been quite popular on college campuses and bohemian circles, making headway onto the pop charts in diluted form, and while there certainly were a number of gifted songwriters, nobody had transcended the scene as Dylan did with this record. There are a couple (very good) covers, with "Corrina Corrina" and "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance," but they pale with the originals here. At the time, the social protests received the most attention, and deservedly so, since "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" weren't just specific in their targets; they were gracefully executed and even melodic. Although they've proven resilient throughout the years, if that's all Freewheelin' had to offer, it wouldn't have had its seismic impact, but this also revealed a songwriter who could turn out whimsy ("Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"), gorgeous love songs ("Girl From the North Country"), and cheerfully absurdist humor ("Bob Dylan's Blues," "Bob Dylan's Dream") with equal skill. This is rich, imaginative music, capturing the sound and spirit of America as much as that of Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, or Elvis Presley. Dylan, in many ways, recorded music that equaled this, but he never topped it.