It was 48 years ago today that Columbia records released the 20 year old Bob Dylan's first album. Of the 13 tracks on the LP, only two were written by Dylan: Song to Woody and Talkin' New York. The former sounds today like a sweetly open and honest, if not doting, appreciation from a young musician to one of his artistic influences and inspirations. The latter is an application of the "talking blues" form that no doubt had many undocumented folk practitioners but was institutionalized by Christopher Allen Bouchillon and further popularized by Woody Guthrie. Even though those are the only two songs he wrote for the LP, I've always thought you could get a sense of some of Dylan's subsequent compositions from this album. Does anyone else hear a rough draft of the guitar riff from It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) in Dylan's cover of Curtis White's Highway 51?
Now give this a listen:
I'm sure I'm not the first person to make or write about the connection between the two songs ... but you feel a sense of ownership, maybe even pride, when you've done it yourself, regardless of who has been there before.
Here are the two originals from Dylan's first:
and
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