John Wesley Harding

Dylan's John Wesley Harding was an absolute masterpiece and one of the most surprising albums I have ever heard. In the era when music was becoming more and more bizarre, more and more 'psychedelic,' This was an album of absolute simplicity, on the surface.

Musically, it was about as stripped down as you can get. Drums, bass, acoustic guitar and harmonica, that was all of the instrumentation and the forms were simple folk/country/blues. The playing was excellent and the simplicity was a welcome retreat from howling guitars and screaming singers. Dylan's voice was, well, Dylan's voice. Either you love it or can't stand it. Personally, I think it  is the perfect voice for what he sings.

On first listen, the lyrics almost seem simple, but, as you listen again, their strangeness comes through. John Wesley Harding is about an outlaw who is sort of a Robin Hood character. The real life outlaw, John  Wesley Hardin, was nothing of the sort. he was a violent thief and a killer. I think, and trying to figure meanings in a Dylan song is a daunting task, that the point of the song is how a man's reputation can be manipulated by how you tell his tale.

All Along The Watchtower is a kind of apocalyptic tale. Civilized man, in his fortress, sees the forces of Nature closing in. Dear  Landlord and I Pity the Poor Immigrant are moving songs about the plight of people just trying to get by. I am a Lonesome Hobo and Drifter's Escape are just what they seem, songs of a traveling man. Wicked Messenger is a scathing attack on the news media and their fascination with gossip and disaster.

To this day, I have no idea what As I Went Out One Morning is about. It is a rollicking tune and Dylan seems almost to be choking back laughter as he sings. I suspect it was never meant to have meaning and was intended as a goof on people who always search lyrics for symbolism and messages. In truth, I almost think the same can be said of I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine, a mournful tune that has little to do with Augustine.

But then you have The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, a long talking blues. Talking blues is a wonderful old form that is perfect for story telling. The story is weird, a gambler and a tempter act out a storyline that has been acted out by man countless times, a story of trust and betrayal and the always present risk of disaster when you don't use your head and when you believe gaudy lies instead of plain truth. It is a fantastic song, full of haunting imagery, a dream of deceit. The song tells of what happens when the chickens finally come home to roost.

The album closes with,  what seem at first to be throw away songs, Down Along the Cove and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight. They are simple little love songs, fun and light hearted. But, these songs are actually the whole point of the album. After all the strangeness, after all the temptations, the betrayals, the despair, publicity both good and bad, what comes through as real and of value is love and good times. The real and simple pleasures of life are the most important things in the World and all you can count on.

John Wesley Harding was a statement. In the face of all of the weirdness, the shoddy politics, the misplaced mysticism of the mid 60s, it was a condemnation of the direction the idiocy of what was
called the counterculture had taken and a reminder that when all is said and done, the old values work because they have stood the test of time. At the same time, there are reminders that there are problems that need to be addressed within those traditions. It is an album of joy tempered with warnings.