John Wesley Harding being Dylan's 1967 release and his 8th studio album is one of Dylans most accessible albums to date. The lyrics are simple and to the point and does not included many strange allusions as he sometimes does on other albums. Songs such as I dreamed I saw St. Augustine, All along the watchtower are great tracks that just happen to follow one another on the album. All along the watchtower was covered by Hendrix in 1968. The book-let has a cover photo of Dylan with a bunch poorly dressed men. I like the photo on back with Dylan singing. It looks so nice and natural. Inside we have a strange little story. I have no idea what it is about. 4/5.

Was anyone ready for this album from Bob Dylan, in 1968? A folk-rock album with some occasional country touches, filled with parable-like lyrics? With arguably the world's most unpretentious album cover, just four guys standing in a forest? Even for Dylan, a guy best known for messing with his fan base, for never making the same album twice, for always defying people's expectations of him, this is quite the change-up.

It's also the only Dylan album I'm aware of when the melodies and singing are more memorable than the lyrics. It's by far the most melodic of Dylan's career. Pretty much every song here is flat-out beautiful - "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" and the piano-fortified "Dear Landlord" (later done by Joe Cocker) are fantastic tearjerkers, while the minor-key "As I Went Out This Morning" is nicely spooky, and there's something menacing about the simple four or five-chord sequence of the classic "All Along the Watchtower." A quick aside about "Watchtower" - it's better known for Hendrix's version, but I think both takes of the song are equally fantastic. Dylan's original take sure doesn't have the jaw-dropping guitar pyrotechnics of the Hendrix version, but the harmonica wails do the same thing equally well. Plus its mood of intimate despair is just as efficient as Hendrix's apocalyptic rage. In other words, Hendrix picked a fantastic song to cover, and he did an equally fantastic cover version. "Drifter's Escape" (also done by Hendrix, although his version of this song isn't half as famous as "Watchtower" - it's on South Saturn Delta and it's good, check it out!) also manages to convey that sense of dread through the power of melody almost as well as "Watchtower" does. So does "The Wicked Messenger" (later covered by Patti Smith), which also adds a captivating riff. The only song without a good melody is "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest," which runs itself into the ground because of that and its five minute running time, despite some cool lyrics. I'll get to the lyrics, don't you worry about that.

Not only do the melodies rule, but Dylan's in great voice here. Not only do "St. Augustine" and "Dear Landlord" have winning melodies, they also have heartbreaking vocals. The musical menace of "Watchtower," "Messenger," and "Drifter's Escape" is also conveyed through Bob's singing, and I love his rambling storyteller vocals on the opening title track. I think this is his best album as a singer by a very long shot. Who'd have thought it? Dylan, the crazy hippie who can't sing (other people's words, not mine!), singing and singing well!

My biggest problem with JWH lies in the lyrics. There are some real winners - everything on "Watchtower," "His tongue it could not speak but only flatter" on "Wicked Messenger," "It's not a house, it's a home" from "Frankie Lee," "Where someone else's life begins, that's where mine ends" (or something to that effect) from "I Am a Lonesome Hobo," but on a whole they strike me as an afterthought. Some of them are downright annoying, like the "I told her with my voice/but you have no choice" rhyme on "As I Went Out One Morning," but most of them are just mediocre preaching.

On top of that, a couple of these songs don't really get off the ground. "The Ballad of Robert E. Lee and Iron Maiden" or whatever it's called doesn't really get off the ground, and neither does "I Pity the Poor Immigrant." And the closing country duo is hit-or-miss - I like "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" plenty, but "Down Along the Cove" is no great shakes.

This album doesn't really grab me the way other Dylan albums have, and it seems a lot of people like it a lot more than I do. But in a lot of ways it's fascinating, and it sure is a change of pace.

2 1/2

This sounds like a pretty bland outing of country-rock for me, especially given Dylan's songwriting abilities around that exceptional time period. While most songs are competent enough to satisfy small expectations, a distinct feeling of the artist on autopilot lingers throughout, even if that pilot is the exceedingly talented singer-songwriter.

This CD is excellent all around, it is mellower than some of the previous albums and has a countryish sound to it. All of the songs provide some deep lyrics and with some great music to go along with them. I like Hendrix's electric cover of All Along the Watchtower, but it is awesome to hear the original that Dylan created in an acoustic manner with such power, which is never played on radio airwaves. This is one of my personal favorites from Dylan, similar in some ways to Nashville Skyline (with more country sound), New Morning (with a vocal jazz sound), and Self Portrait (Dylan's self confessed cover album), which I highly recommend if you enjoyed this album.

It seems hard to believe now both as to the performer as well as to what was being attempted that anyone would take umbrage at a performer using an electric guitar to tell a folk story (or any story for that matter). It is not necessary to go into all the details of what or what did not happen with Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to know that one should be glad, glad as hell, that Bob Dylan continued to listen to his own drummer and carry on a career based on electronic music.

Others have, endlessly, gone on about Bob Dylan's role as the voice of his generation (and mine), his lyrics and what they do or do not mean and his place in the rock or folk pantheons, or both. I just want to comment on a couple of songs here. Needless to say this is a theme album centered on the old West that Dylan has written songs about elsewhere as well (think Girl From The North Country, Hollis Brown, etc.). That too is part of the American folk heritage. This rather good thematic conception hits right from the opening John Wesley Harding (a real, if more villainous, character of the Old West than portrayed here), All Along the Watchtower (that was given its definitive cover by Jimi Hendrix) and finishes up with the bittersweet I'll Be Your Baby Tonight. Politically, I Pity The Poor Immigrant takes on added meaning with today's immigrant trials and tribulations. Is this Dylan's best work? No, but it is a worthy effort.