Bob Dylan: The Seeds of Greatness

1962 was a significant year for the already rapidly changing musical landscape of the Western world: The Beatles were on the cusp of unprecedented fame, The Rolling Stones formed and The Beach Boys released their debut album, ‘Sufrin’ Safari’. Yet It was in the burgeoning North American Folk Scene where a young, but already acclaimed new artist was beginning to show the first flickers of greatness.

Robert Allen Zimmerman, A.K.A. Bob Dylan recorded his first significant tracks in two recording sessions, during a snowy New York November the previous year. Wearing his influences on his sleeve (most notably with his ode to Folk Troubadour Woody Guthrie in the wryly titled ‘Song to Woody’), Dylan begins to lay down the blueprint for his seminal folk style with a selection of well-chosen and refined traditional standards and classics, from Roy Acuff to Blind Lemon Jefferson.

The arrangement and delivery, present an already clear indication of both the man and his style at the time. ‘Talkin’ New York’, the only other Dylan original on the album, gives a humorous yet bitter view on his personal thoughts regarding his adoptive city. Stacey Williams comments on the lyrics: ‘They were comic, but tinged with a certain sarcastic bite, very much in the [Woody] Guthrie vein’. ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’, made significantly popular at the leading track from the recent major motion picture ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, is given a courser arrangement, whilst Dylan channels the spirits of the blues in the sombre ‘See That My Grave Is Kept Clean’, highlighting yet another facet of his musical styling’s.

In short, ‘The Seeds of Greatness’ provides a fascinating look into the influences of not only Dylan himself, but the wealth of subsequent stars to come. Purely as an album, it offers an intriguing insight into the early musical genetic make-up of a talented Folk singer. Yet looked upon with the power of hindsight, it is the first significant step into a cannon of work that now ranks amongst the greatest and most influential in popular music.

Purchase the MP3 download of ‘The Seeds of Greatness here.