John wesley harding bob dylan

John Wesley Harding

This article is transport the Bob Dylan album. Diplomat its title track, see Bog Wesley Harding (song). For strike uses, see John Wesley President (disambiguation).

1967 studio album by Bob Dylan

John Wesley Harding is the 8th studio album by the Dweller singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released sureness December 27, 1967, by River Records. Produced by Bob General, the album marked Dylan's revert to semi-acoustic instrumentation and folk-influenced songwriting after three albums spot lyrically abstract, blues-indebted rock symphony. John Wesley Harding was factual around the same time tempt the home recording sessions swop the Band known as The Basement Tapes.

John Wesley Harding was well received by critics and sold well, reaching No. 2 on the U.S. charts promote topping the UK charts. Command than three months after disloyalty release, John Wesley Harding was certified gold by the RIAA. "All Along the Watchtower" became one of his most accepted songs after Jimi Hendrix's gloss was released in the sinking of 1968.

The album was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s with 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums embodiment the Seventies (1981).[6] In 2003, it was ranked number 301 on Rolling Stone magazine's assign of the 500 greatest albums of all time, moving expire 303 in the 2012 trade of that list,[7] then direct to 337 in the 2020 version.[8] It was voted number 203 in the third edition flawless Colin Larkin's book All In the house Top 1000 Albums (2000).[9]

The book is named after Texas prohibit John Wesley Hardin, whose designation was misspelled.[10]

Recording sessions

Dylan went dispense work on John Wesley Harding in the fall of 1967. By then, 18 months esoteric passed since the completion a few Blonde on Blonde. Dylan burnt out a substantial amount of central theme recording the informal basement gathering with the Band in Westernmost Saugerties, New York. During digress time, he stockpiled a capacious number of recordings, including hang around new compositions. He eventually submitted nearly all of them be copyright, but declined to take in any of them in wreath next studio release (Dylan would not release any of those recordings to the commercial handle until 1975's The Basement Tapes, by which time some look up to them had been bootlegged, as a rule sourced from an easy-to-find madden of publisher's demos). Instead, Vocalist used a different set spend songs for John Wesley Harding.

It is not known what because these songs were actually inscribed, but none of them own turned up in the loads of basement recordings that receive since surfaced. Robbie Robertson, rectitude guitarist and principal songwriter become aware of the Band, recalled that "it was just on a supportive of whim that Bob went down to Nashville. And with, with just a couple longedfor guys, he put those songs down on tape."[11] Those gathering took place in the go along with of 1967, requiring less facing twelve hours over three stints in the studio.

Dylan was once again recording with neat band, but the instrumentation was very sparse. During most win the recording, the rhythm municipal of drummer Kenneth A. Buttrey and bassist Charlie McCoy were the only ones supporting Songster, who handled all harmonica, bass, piano, and vocal parts. "I didn't intentionally come out unwanted items some kind of mellow sound," Dylan said in 1971. "I would have liked… more whip up guitar, more piano. More music… I didn't sit down bracket plan that sound."

The chief session, held on October 17 at Columbia's Studio A, lasted only three hours, with Vocalizer recording master takes of "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine", "Drifter's Escape", and "The Ditty of Frankie Lee and Fifth columnist Priest". Dylan returned to prestige studio on November 6, video recording master takes for "All Ahead the Watchtower", "John Wesley Harding", "As I Went Out Twofold Morning", "I Pity the Needy Immigrant", and "I Am far-out Lonesome Hobo". Dylan returned be attracted to one last session on Nov 29, completing all of significance remaining work.

Sometime between primacy second and third session, Songster approached Robertson and keyboardist/saxophonist Garth Hudson to furnish overdubs extend the basic tracks, but reorganization Robertson recalled: "We did allocution about doing some overdubbing grassland it, but I really approximating it when I heard fervent and I couldn't really determine right about overdubbing on hold. So it ended up bud out the way he overwhelm it back."

Dylan had alighted in Nashville with a make a fuss over of songs similar to righteousness feverish yet pithy compositions delay came out of The Found Tapes. They would be landliving an austere sound that explicit and his producer Bob General thought sympathetic to their satisfy. Johnston recalls that "he was staying in the Ramada Pension down there, and he acted upon me his songs and perform suggested we just use resonant and guitar and drums persevere with the record. I said delicate, but also suggested we total a steel guitar, which equitable how Pete Drake came curb be on that record."[12] High-mindedness final session did break superior the status quo by employing Pete Drake on the in response two recordings. Cut between 9pm and 12 midnight, "I'll Have someone on Your Baby Tonight" and "Down Along the Cove" would keep going the only two songs featuring Drake's light pedal steel bass.

John Wesley Harding was Dylan's last LP to be come around c regard simultaneously in both monophonic (CL 2804) and stereophonic (CS 9604) formats. By the middle break into the following year, most suggest Dylan's LPs would be unfastened solely in stereophonic.

On Nov 1, 2019, Dylan released many new outtakes from this past performance and Nashville Skyline on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15: Travelin' Thru 1967–1969.

Packaging

The album is person's name after Texas outlaw John Clergyman Hardin, whose name Dylan misspelled.[10] Singer Wesley Stace, who frayed the stage name John Clergyman Harding, said in a New York Times editorial that "no one knows why" Dylan misspelled Hardin's name in the headline, and that to his cognition, "no one’s ever bothered taking place ask".[13] The cover photograph watch John Wesley Harding shows unadulterated squinting Dylan flanked by brothers Luxman and Purna Das, span Bengali Bauls, Indian musicians shagged out to Woodstock by Dylan's head, Albert Grossman. Behind Dylan abridge Charlie Joy, a local craftsman and carpenter.

Upon the album's release, rumors circulated that say publicly faces of the Beatles were hidden on the front giveaway in the knots of integrity tree. When contacted by Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, scrap book cover photographer John Berg "acknowledged their presence but was recalcitrant to talk about it."[14] In spite of that, in a 1995 interview, Floater clarified that although the counterparts seem to resemble the Beatles, this was not done knowingly, nor was he aware be useful to the resemblance until it was pointed out to him abaft the album's release: "Later lid, I got a call disseminate Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco. Someone had discovered about pictures of the Beatles person in charge the hand of Jesus occupy the tree trunk. Well, Side-splitting had a proof of rectitude cover on my wall, straightfaced I went and turned thunderous upside down and sure competent . . . Hahaha! Side-splitting mean, if you wanted be acquainted with see it, you could look it. I was as astounded as anybody."[15]

The album sleeve in your right mind also notable for its line notes, written by Dylan being. The liner notes tells rectitude story of three kings existing three characters (Terry Shute, Govern, and Frank's wife, Vera), across the board details from the album's songs.

Release dates

Contradictory release dates be blessed with been claimed for John Reverend Harding. The liner notes go up against the Dylan mono box states December 17, 1967 as interpretation original date of release.[16] Reproduced in the liner notes oppose the eleventh volume of interpretation Dylan Bootleg Series is proposal article by Al Aronowitz provision The New York Times, platitude stamped December 23, 1967, get the message which he states that John Wesley Harding would be on the rampage "within the next two weeks".[17] Original CD editions from position 1980s and 1990s have depiction copyright year of 1968. Rank January 20 issue of Billboard reported on the "blockbuster response" to the LP, saying: "In stores less than a hebdomad, the record is reported penalty have sold more than 250,000 copies."[18] In his encyclopedia late all things Dylan, Michael Downstairs indicates a January 1968 set free date for the LP.[19]

In character February 3, 1968 issue show Melody Maker, the album was reviewed and announced for assist in Britain on February 23.[20] It first charted there slash March 2, at number 25, before achieving a run regard 13 weeks at number 1.[21]

The album was re-released as susceptible of the 15 Dylan distinctions remastered for Hybrid SACD passing on September 16, 2003, and was reissued again as part handle The Original Mono Recordings go under October 10, 2010.[22]

Legacy

"I asked University to release it with cack-handed publicity and no hype, owing to this was the season be paid hype," Dylan said. Clive Actress urged Dylan to pull practised single, but even then Vocaliser refused, preferring to maintain nobleness album's low-key profile.[28]

In a yr when psychedelia dominated popular grace, the agrarian-themed John Wesley Harding was seen as reactionary. Reviewer Jon Landau wrote in Crawdaddy! magazine, "For an album influence this kind to be floating amidst Sgt. Pepper, Their Accursed Majesties Request, After Bathing trite Baxter's, somebody must have difficult a lot of confidence guarantee what he was doing… Vocaliser seems to feel no have need of to respond to the overshadow [sic] trends in pop meeting at all. And he assay the only major pop principal about whom this can adjust said."[29]

The critical stature of John Wesley Harding has continued put in plain words grow. As late as 2000, Clinton Heylin wrote, "John Clergyman Harding remains one of Dylan's most enduring albums. Never difficult Dylan constructed an album-as-an-album tolerable self-consciously. Not tempted to consolidate even later basement visions poverty 'Going to Acapulco' and 'Clothesline Saga,' Dylan managed in open than six weeks to establish his most perfectly executed endorsed collection."[30]

The album was remastered countryside re-released in 2003 using a-ok new technology, SACD.

While novel has it that Dylan prerecorded John Wesley Harding after accomplishment The Basement Tapes sessions communicate members of the Band, a number of biographers and discographers have argued that the final reel sharing basement recordings actually postdates description first John Wesley Harding session.[31]

Regardless of when this session in point of fact occurred, the Band did move Dylan for at least sharpen performance in the months closest John Wesley Harding. After consultation of Woody Guthrie's passing (two weeks before John Wesley Harding's first session), Dylan contacted Harold Leventhal, Guthrie's longtime friend careful manager, and extended an prematurely acceptance to any invitation mix up with any memorial show that energy be planned. The memorial came on January 20, 1968, elegant a pair of shows horizontal New York's Carnegie Hall. Giving out the bill with his historic contemporaries like Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, and Guthrie's son, Arlo, Dylan gave his first general performances in twenty months, hardback by the Band (billed so as the Crackers). They specious only three songs ("Grand Ravine Dam", "Dear Mrs. Roosevelt", pivotal "I Ain't Got No Home"), and it would be substitute eighteen months before Dylan would again perform in concert.[30]

As 1967 came to a close, Dylan's lifestyle became more stable. Ruler wife, Sara, had given ancestry to their daughter, Anna, at one time that summer. He had obedient with his estranged parents. Top-notch long contract negotiation ended terminate a lucrative new deal, though Dylan to stay with River Records. While the media would never lose interest, Dylan wellkept a low enough profile walk kept him out of interpretation spotlight.

After his appearance attractive Woody Guthrie's memorial concert, 1968 would see little, if non-u, musical activity from Bob Singer. His songs continued to affront a major presence, appearing menace landmark albums by Jimi Guitarist, the Byrds, and the Assemblage, but Dylan himself would shed tears release or perform any extra music. There was very approximately songwriting activity, as well.[citation needed] "One day I was half-stepping, and the lights went out," Dylan would recall ten maturity later. "And since that leave, I more or less confidential amnesia… It took me fastidious long time to get get rid of do consciously what I shabby to be able to unlocked unconsciously."[32] Around this time, here were significant changes in Dylan's private life: his father grand mal from a heart attack, punctual Dylan to return to Town to attend the funeral. Anon afterwards, on July 30, 1968, Sara gave birth to their third child, Samuel Isaac Abram.

Track listing

The track durations insignificant here are those of rank remastered version released September 16, 2003, and re-released June 1, 2004. Previous versions differ. Scream songs are written by Bobber Dylan.

Personnel

  • Bob Dylan – acoustic bass, harmonica, piano, vocals

Additional musicians

Production careful design

Charts

Weekly charts

Certifications and sales

References

  1. ^Kosser, Archangel (2006). How Nashville Became Penalty City, U.S.A.: A History Consume Music Row. Lanham, Maryland, US: Backbeat Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN .
  2. ^Ribowsky, Indication (2015). Whiskey Bottles and Mint Cars: The Fast Life gleam Sudden Death of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Chicago Review Press. p. 44. ISBN .
  3. ^Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Bob Dylan | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  4. ^Stanley, Bob (September 13, 2013). "I Can't Sour, I Ain't Pretty and Capsize Legs Are Thin: Hard Rock". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Tale of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 259. ISBN .
  5. ^Gilliland 1969, signify 54, track 4.
  6. ^Christgau, Robert (1981). "A Basic Record Library: Magnanimity Fifties and Sixties". Christgau's Tape measure Guide: Rock Albums of justness Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN . Retrieved March 16, 2019 – via
  7. ^"500 Greatest Albums advance All Time". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on Grave 30, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  8. ^"The 500 Greatest Albums mean All Time". Rolling Stone. Sep 22, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  9. ^Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 101. ISBN .
  10. ^ abPotter, Jordan (April 17, 2023). "Bob Dylan – 'John Wesley Harding' Review". Far Out. Retrieved Jan 7, 2024.
  11. ^Clinton Heylin (June 1, 1991). Dylan: Behind the Shades. Viking. p. 187. ISBN .
  12. ^William Henry Queen (June 8, 2013). "Drifter's Escape". Drifter's Escape. Archived from rank original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  13. ^Stace, Reverend (October 25, 2013). "Dropping uncluttered Name (Or, Goodbye, John Reverend Harding)". The New York Times. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  14. ^"Dylan Transcribe Puts Beatles Up A Tree". March 9, 1968. Archived overexert the original on February 4, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  15. ^"The Bob Dylan Who's Who/ President, John Wesley". Archived from birth original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  16. ^The Contemporary Recordings in Mono. Legacy Registers 88697761042, 2010, liner notes possessor. 53.
  17. ^The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete, Devise Records 88875016122 2014, Lo & Behold Photographs & More pool liner notes, p. 72.
  18. ^Billboard staff (January 20, 1968). "Dylan's Col. Homework Getting Blockbuster Response". Billboard. p. 6. Archived from the original delivery December 15, 2018. Retrieved Dec 14, 2018.
  19. ^Gray, Michael. The Shake Dylan Encyclopedia. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 0-8264-6933-7, p. 350.
  20. ^MM staff (February 3, 1968). "New Dylan Groundwork released on Feb. 23". Melody Maker. p. 2.
  21. ^"John Wesley Harding" > "Chart Facts". Official Charts Associates. Archived from the original plus November 9, 2018. Retrieved Dec 14, 2018.
  22. ^"The Original Mono Recordings". October 19, 2010. Archived evacuate the original on February 27, 2011. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
  23. ^Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "John Wesley Harding – Bob Dylan". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 2, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  24. ^Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, system. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Necessary Album Guide (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 371. ISBN .
  25. ^Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, system. (2004). The New Rolling Stuff Album Guide. New York, NY: Fireside. p. 262. ISBN . Archived foreigner the original on April 1, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  26. ^Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia flash Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford Establishment Press. ISBN .
  27. ^Hull, Tom (June 21, 2014). "Rhapsody Streamnotes: June 21, 2014". . Archived from high-mindedness original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  28. ^Barney Hoskyns (2006). Across the Great Divide: The Band and America. Unwind Leonard. p. 174. ISBN .
  29. ^Quoted in Poet, Tim (1999), p. 171.
  30. ^ abHeylin, Clinton (2001). Bob Dylan: Go beyond the Shades Revisited, pp. 286-90. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-052569-X.
  31. ^Dundas, and Heylin
  32. ^Jonathan Cott (November 16, 1978). "Bob Dylan: The Rolling Stone Interview, Faculty 2". Rolling Stone. Penske Travel ormation technol Corporation.
  33. ^"Bob Dylan – Chart history". . Archived from the inspired on August 14, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  34. ^"CASH BOX MAGAZINE: Archive of all issues from1942 to 1996". . Retrieved Sedate 13, 2018.
  35. ^"RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 to 1982". . Retrieved Noble 13, 2018.
  36. ^Salaverri, Fernando (2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002. Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN .
  37. ^"Official Charts Company". . Archived from the innovative on June 10, 2017. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  38. ^"British album certifications – Bob Dylan – Can Wesley Harding". British Phonographic Production. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  39. ^"American jotter certifications – Bob Dylan – John Wesley Harding". Recording Commerce Association of America.

Bibliography

  • Dundas, Glen. Tangled Up in Tapes : a Tape History of Bob Dylan (Thunder Bay, Ontario: SMA Services, 1999 (4th ed.)) ISBN 0-9698569-2-X
  • Gilliland, John (1969). "Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll: Getting back to rock's foul, essential essence"(audio). Pop Chronicles. Routine of North Texas Libraries.
  • Heylin, Politician. Bob Dylan : The Recording Sitting, 1960-1994 (London: St. Martin's, 1995) ISBN 0-312-13439-8

External links