Expecting Rain

I first found Dylan’s music in 1983 from my Dad’s copies of the first album and The Times they are a Changing. I loved these records and slowly started buying records with money saved from my paper round.

I hadn’t read any books on Dylan at that stage so came to the records without any idea of their supposed worth or relative merits as viewed by critics.

I can’t now remember what order I bought them in, certainly not in any order of release. I am not going to go through the whole catalogue but have set down a few first impressions of some of his records.

The Freewheelin

I pirated this from the local record library. The main impression was how different it seemed from the first album and from Times. I loved A hard rain and talking word war 3 having never heard anything like them before. I still love this record.

Another side

I played this a lot. It seemed a bit uneven in quality but a lot lighter in tone than the earlier records. It was much later that I found out that he recorded it in one night along with a lot of drink. I never liked Ballad in Plain D as it seemed downright nasty– I assumed for many years that it was entirely fictional. It was only when I read Shelton’s biography that I realised it was based on his own life.

Bringing it all back home

This blew me away on the first listen and it still does. Pure genius. The first time I heard this record, I ran around to a friend’s house saying “You have to hear this” – he had cloth ears though and wasn’t impressed.

Hard Rain

Fantatsic – bought it on cassette from John Menzies. This was my first introduction to live Dylan and to songs from Blood on the Tracks/Desire.

Street Legal

I played this once and hated it – didn’t like the sound or the lyrics. I gave it another try about 6 months later and fell in love with it.

The Gospel Trilogy

The cover of Saved gives a fair idea to the listener of what he is likely to be in for. What I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer passion with which these songs are performed. I really do like these records.

My first impressions were in 1973, buying that magnificent double LP, More Greatest Hits with the moody blue Bangladesh photos on the cover. When I found myself buying a denim jacket a week later, I knew I was hooked!

Good job it wasn't Empire Burlesque.....

The Essential greatest hits double disc, 2001.

Hard Rain was also my first introduction to live Dylan (also my first introduction to any Dylan, really). And like you, I too bought it on cassette. Except mine was from WH Smiths.

Remember when you used to be able to buy albums in shops? Man, those were the days....

Being able to find anything decent in Smiths... man that was an achievement, See Andy Kershaw's rant on Facebook:

Am I Being Served? (An exciting new Facebook feature. AK reports fearlessly from the front line of the High Street).

In WH Smith's (Stationery), just now...

AK (At the counter) - "Can I pay you for this please?" (Hands over ring-binder).
Shop assistant (Male, early 20s) - "Is it just the one?"
AK - "Er, yes. Just the one, please. That's why I brought just one to the till"
Shop assistant - "Would you like any of this confectionery at the special price of..."
AK - "No, thank you. How much do I owe you for the ring-binder?"
Shop assistant - "Is it for business?
AK - "What?"
Shop assistant - "This." (Holds up ring-binder). "Is it for business?"
AK - "Does it look like it might be for pleasure? I can't see what difference that makes, anyway. And, what's more, it's none of your ruddy business. Can I just pay for it please?"

After I finally manage to hand over £2.09, he hands me FIVE bits of paperwork, a mixture of receipts and vouchers. I drop them in the bin outside the shop.

Have we gone bloody mad?

Great follow up comments at
https://www.facebook.com/theAndyKershaw

Totally agree. I often want a bag of kids jelly sweets for a pound and a voucher for half price Richard and Judy books when I'm buying my Mojo.

Well the whole thing goes back to when I was an exchange student in Germany and during music class they played "Blowin' in the Wind". I didn't think much of that song (still don't) but some guy started imitating the harmonica-playing like total dumbass and that kind of attitude infuriated me so much that as a way to rebel I got The Essential Bob Dylan, and I think I loved SOME of the songs, esp. "Jokerman", but I don't think I paid that much attention to the lyrics. Don't really remember what happened next but at some point later I heard "Desire" and that's when I really fell in love with the music and the sound that it had, I listened to it for about 4-5 times in a row, again, without paying that much attention to the words. Later when I heard "Visions of Johanna" the lyrics just totally blew me away and I thought, I need to listen to what he has to say. Then came "Highway 61 Revisited", that one just knocked my socks off, I couldn't stop playing it, it was like God farting into your face (in a good way). The rest is history. But yeah, I didn't think much of the music at first, but since I loved older music at that point I was still drawn to it. Took me a while to get warmed up to him and start appreciating his writing, but when I did, it just touched my soul in a way no one has ever been able to touch; it reached some place deep in my heart and filled it with wonder and awe and happiness, often sadness and anger, a whole spectrum of emotions. And it still has that effect on me, so how on Earth could I possibly stop listening.

Not sure I can see this as "good"...

Yeah, might wanna retire that analogy...

or the Tight Connection to My Heart music video

Oh well. On the other hand, whatever God does, it's always His plan, innit? Your family could die and it would still be "His plan". At least if you're a believer.

Either way hearing "Highway 61 Revisited" for the first time was an amazing experience.

You ain't goin' nowhere from GH2, and JLAW from Bangladesh were appetizers, then Desolation Row and God on our Side were the main course, those studio tracks heard on a propitiously timed broadcast.

Even though I am the right age to have been there all along the way, I came in at Modern Times..... a downstream not long after it came out from a NYC radio station.... listened it thru at work.... the listened it thru again.... they went to Amazon and start ordering.... got the three Greatest Hits albums first.... went home and watched a tape I had made of NDH when it was first aired.......and watched it again every night for days to follow......then got all the rest of the albums, three at a time (free shipping from Amazon)... picked 'em by the covers.... Yes, I admit it, I owned Self Portrait before Blood on the Tracks!!!!

After I ran out of albums to buy (still had not been on line here..... didn't know about bootlegs yet.... yes, I had quite a small town shetered life going at the time).... I thought.... 'geeze... I wonder if anyone ever wrote a book about this guy???"..... ..... Yeah, started ripping thru those..... Think I started with Shelton and Chronicles....

Biggest shock moment..... (other than the list of books)..... went from Freewheelin' to Love and Theft....on first listens..... the voice change does rather slap you up along the head when you do that.....

All of this happened in 90 days or less..... yep, caught up on over 40 years in 90 days....

The first listen to MT was in November .... and then my first concert was the following June......

As crazy as this sounds...... I did not know he wrote Blowin' In the Wind until I watched NDH the first time......One of those truth is stranger than fiction facts.... I was aware of him as an icon.....a colorful poster..... and a Wilbury.... but really didn't know anything about his music.....

..... and so it goes!!!!

what's wrong with it? I'm sure his diet is Divine - unless he's vegetarian, in that case Watch out !

nice trajectory Lily - i wouldn't have guessed - but it explains your unique and comprehensive view on things ! (it's unique to find him comprehensively enjoyable is what i'm saying)

I got stuck behind a very frail old woman at the checkout in Smith's recently. She very, very, slowly kept going through the entire contents of her purse looking for the voucher for 20p off her Daily Mail, or whatever. The cashier offered to give her another voucher but apparently it wasn't the correct one. After nearly twenty minutes of this the cashier finally said to her, "let me serve this gentlemen first." The old dear's probably still there muttering to herself, "I could have sworn it was in here somewhere."

Whatever happened to John Menzies anyway? The W H Smith in my town changed to John Menzies suddenly one day and then, several years later, went back to W H Smith. During this time the contents of the shop changed not one iota.

Bob Dylan's 115th Dream.

Having just got the album. Listening to this song on the way to work with a co-worker snoozing in the passenger seat.
I remember vividly visualizing it as the song unfolded! I was gobsmacked!! Great word for it

I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. I knew the NAME Dylan but had no concept of his place in the grand scheme of things music-wise. That quickly changed.

I dont know. I think Menzies were the money laundering front for WH Smiths for a while, but at some point Smiths realised nobody was going to twig that the world's most badly and randomly laid out shops could only survive by actually being an international cartel drug ring front, and just decided to go for it with their main name. I am convinced that if you ask for the right combination of special offers and use specific vouchers, you can get pretty much anything you need.

That fat woman was probably hurting real bad.....

Hearing "John Birch Society Blues" on the car radio while driving with my dad in 1964. He thought it was very funny and had to explain to me what the "John Birch Society" was. I just liked the sound of Bob's voice.

You must have been thinking of another song. Dylan's unreleased John Birch most certainly wasn't played on radio in 1964.

No, it was "John Birch Society Blues." I assume the dj had a copy of one of the 1964 shows where it was played live. Vietnam was just getting cranked up. I'll never forget hearing the song or my dad explaining the Birchers, who I'd never heard of. I think the dj was giving listeners a one-time treat playing an unreleased concert recording. I didn't hear the song again for many years.

My city had two basic AM rock stations, but one of them--KRLA--became just a bit edgy if you listened late at night. Why, they'd even play folk singers! So, I'd heard Len Chandler presenting Phil Ochs (who sang "Crucifixion" live in the studio once), Dave Van Ronk, Eric Von Schmidt--and, of course, Dylan. I think that the first song of his that I heard--other than the PP&M version of "Blowin' In The Wind--was "Hard Rain." Great, great lyrics--but, I definitely responded to that magnificent voice before I got to the lyrics.

Now, convincing my parents that it was OK to be listening to "that long-haired, hippie folk singer"--THAT was the hard part!

And, I also credit "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and LARS for convincing me that there was popular music out there which was worth listening to.

TALKIN' JOHN BIRCH was also on the earliest pressings of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, some of which were probably sent to radio stations.

I was just thinking in terms of before the 'FM underground' when you didn't have to have a commercial consideration to get a record played. Can't see why John Birch was played, especially with Dylan still being a minor commercial entity (at best) in 1964. But maybe it was.

Perhaps the DJ liked it, or perhaps it was a request?