Hey Mr. Dylan, Has It Really Been 50 Years?

By Doug Draper

“Columbia Records is proud to introduce a major new figure in American folk music.”

That is the first sentence  in the liner notes for an album released 50 years ago this March 19 and named after the then 20-year-old vagabond who wandered in from the streets of New York’s Greenwich Village with not much more than a guitar on his back to record it.

The name of the album was ‘Bob Dylan’ and it was the first modest release by a young artist who, through the power of his lyrics and a daring blend of folk and rock sounds, revolutionized popular music for generations to come. The release was so modest, in fact, that it originally sold only a few thousand copies and the business suits at Columbia, far from being proud, were ready to dump Bob Dylan, even though the record cost less than 500 bucks to make.

Fortunately, for Dylan and for the world of popular culture at large, the man who produced that first record, John Hammond, had also played a major role in launching the recording careers of Billie Holiday, Count Basie and other musical legends going back to the 1930s and 40s, and was able to persuade the honchoes at Columbia to give the kid one more chance.

 Out of that one more chance, came the 1963 album ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and such folk anthems of the time as ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’, ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’, ‘Masters of War’ and the classic ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’. Within the next few years there would be a wealth of others, including ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ and ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, and somewhere out there, Dylan is still writing and recording great music, and performing it on the road at 70 years old.

There is such a rich body of work in the lyrics alone, I’m sure I could find a line or two from a Dylan song to fit with almost any occasion or any topic I write about. For the occasion of this, the 50^th anniversary of the release of his first album, I would, if I were in the same room with the man; say the following; ‘May your song always be sung. May you stay forever young.’

Thanks for all the great music Bob.

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