The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by Bob Dylan, released in May 1963 on Columbia Records and produced by John Hammond. It is the album that established Dylan as the defining voice of the American folk revival and the political protest tradition, and the first full demonstration of his ability to write original songs of sufficient depth to displace the repertoire of traditional folk material. Dylan wrote eleven of the thirteen tracks (the other two are traditional arrangements), including 'Blowin' in the Wind' (which had been released as a single by Peter, Paul and Mary before the album was released and reached the top ten as their cover), as well as 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall,' 'Masters of War,' 'Girl from the North Country,' and 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.' The protest material ('Oxford Town,' 'Blowin' in the Wind,' 'Masters of War') addressed the civil rights movement, nuclear anxiety, and the Vietnam buildup with a directness that made Dylan the cultural center of the New Left folk scene centered in Greenwich Village; 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' was widely interpreted as a response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan reached number 22 on the Billboard 200 and launched a cultural influence that far exceeded its commercial chart position; it is consistently listed among the greatest albums ever made. Dylan's authorship of all original material, in a genre dominated by traditional songs and public-domain texts, established the singer-songwriter as a legitimate art form and directly influenced a generation of artists including John Lennon, Paul Simon, and Joni Mitchell.