[rating=4.00]
Of all the extraordinary aspects of Bob Dylan’s flair for composing early in his career, the prolific nature of his writing may be the most awe-inspiring. As demonstrated by The Witmark Demos, Dylan’s output reached and remained at a prodigious level not just in terms of quantity, but in the scope of the writing.
Certainly the likes of “The Ballad of Emmett Till” and “Masters of War,” sound simplistic emotionally and philosophically and one wonders what direction(s) Dylan’s career path might’ve taken had he relegated his preferences largely to such songs. Certainly he would’ve been embraced as an icon, but perhaps to the detriment of true personal communication at the core of songs such as his “Boots of Spanish Leather” and “Only A Hobo.”
“All Over You” and to a lesser extent “I’d Hate to be You on That Dreadful Day” evinces the nasty edge in Dylan that he’s brandished throughout his career. Yet there’s an overt humor in the former that makes his attack more lethal than on the latter, though there is a glee in that reading that’s impossible to miss: he chortles throughout his singing.. Bob’s off-the-cuff manner in running through these songs for the sake of his music publishing company at the time gives these recordings an unpretentious and utterly charming spontaneity.
And because so many of these performances don’t go on long, the quick succession of tracks over the course of two cd’s vividly portrays a talent growing in leaps and bounds. It’s not hyperbole to state “Girl From the North Country” sounds as timeless as the folk archetypes from which Dylan learned, while “Hero Blues,” in its blues structure, spiced with harmonica, presages Bob Dylan’s expedition into electric rock (he performed this tune with The Band on the 1974 tour). A worthy addition to The Bootleg Series, The Witmark Demos will transport the listener to a time quite unlike the one we live in now and make it real through the unabashed passion of Bob Dylan’s songs and performances.
