The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" The first album was more of a stutter start – maybe a case of stage fright? Christ, he was barely 22. Here he's 23, and it's "acoustic Bob Dylan" in all the glory of his glorious glories. It's the one of his to have pre-1965 if you can only have one. So much here is so familiar that you may be surprised by how fresh these versions are: "Blowin' in the Wind," "Girl from the North Country," "Masters of War," the above-mentioned "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Oxford Town," "Talking World War III Blues," "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance." It's Bob Dylan the boy naïf, the caustic wistful joking voice of a generation, all goofy sprightly and expressive in his singing style and strum-a-strum strum all day long on the guitar. The lava flows of words only a gathering stream at this point, but the current unmistakably strong. Quite strong.