John Wesley Harding Stumps Joe | Discovering Bob Dylan, Ep. 10

Well it had to happen, a Bob Dylan album Joe isn't crazy about (you'll have to watch the album for the score). And apparently it happened here in 1967. While everyone else in the music world decided to go for baroque, Dylan went back to basics with the extremely black and white, agrarian John Wesley Harding, his most stripped down record yet. Coming so soon after Blonde on Blonde, it was perhaps the starkest indication yet that Bob Dylan does what Bob Dylan wants to do. And Bob Dylan wants to make a stripped down, guitar, bass, harmonica and drums kind of album. What people didn't know is that Bob had been playing with the Band in the basement, and this kind of rootsy rock was already on his mind. But it still must have been a shock to hear. Containing the seminal All Along the Watchtower, John Wesley Harding sold well and got plenty of good reviews. It was also his last record for over a year. He would be back as a country crooner with Nashville Skyline, but not until 1969. Enjoy the album? Enjoy the show? Let us hear it. Leave your thoughts in the comments. Is Joe crazy? Or do his tender young ears just not have the capability to really HEAR what Bob Dylan is doing on John Wesley Harding. Thanks for watching!