This week I am taking you back to the record that witnessed Bob Dylan turning his back on countercultural scene for whose construction ge was majorly responsible. In mythical heart of music - Nashville - he had recorded this beautiful homage to folk and country mixed with pop and rock. Inspiration from the record came from his motorbike accident a year before, but I am pretty sure his wandering, nomadic nature was also abundant source of creativity. It is the same wild nature that made him reject essential folk back in 1965.
While the rest of the pop world sucked for inspiration on a breast of hallucinogenic drugs and marijuana, Bob shower his conservative face. The result was one of his softest and most consistent materials, and in my opinion, one of his five best albums. John Wesley Hardling is a collection of 12 concise and mellow themes, and that becomes clear right away after the opening title track. Great play, calm atmosphere and straightforward lyrics of the song serve as an homage to John, a notorious revolver. One of the most impressive songs in his whole catalogue when it comes to lyrics and melody is As I Went Out One Morning with phenomenal baseline and paranoid lyrics. It opens up for magnificent standard All Along The Watchtower, one of the most covered Dylan's songs. Bob accomplished to connect lyrics and melody in a way no other Nobel prize winner was ever capable of. I proclaim this as the best apocalyptic song in the history of music. There I said it.
Delicious piece of folk-rock comes with The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, the longest composition on this material. I am personally invested in this song due to the verse Don't go mistaking paradise for that home across the road. Dylan never sounded this cool.
Another standout is I Am A Lonesome Hobo which once again brings divine simplicity, while Drifter's Escape is a suggestive story about someone who is running away from society. The album closes with I Will Be Your Baby Tonight, the song that hold one of the best bridges I have ever heard in my life. His crooner coolness here get me everytime.
After opening doors to modern rock, Dylan might be responsible for development of another propulsive genre - Americana. And the album I have just reviewed is the best possible evidence. Even If you don't agree with that, you will find John Wesley Hardling to be a master piece.
