Bob Dylan – The Forgotten Sessions 1961 – 1963 Review

Everyone starts somewhere and for those wanting an insight into the earliest days of Bob Dylan, you can do little better than The Forgotten Sessions 1961 – 1963. Thankfully available on YouTube and in good enough quality to warrant a listen, Dylan history buffs will find plenty to enjoy with this. None of his hits can be found within and much of these songs are classic murder ballads – something Dylan would return to in the twilight years of his career with Rough and Rowdy Ways. A full-circle beauty, but not something too important to The Forgotten Sessions. Keep an ear out for those few originals which do spark a fire here. They are few and far between, but tapes found from old radio stations, small festivals and the Riverside Church add another piece to the ever-growing jigsaw comprising Dylan’s work.  

Amateur recordings and smaller-budget radio stations have who knows what is buried in their archives. For the likes of the Indian Neck Festival, it means providing Hangknot Slipknot, a barely audible Dylan with a crunchy-sounding acoustic experience. Still, it is the historical context we flock to this release for. Nothing more. This is not the experience of world-beating efforts but an example of how Dylan would hone the craft, and how quickly his image and style as a performer would grow. He is not far off the stage presence which would make him a shockwave of new ideas just two years later. Much of this collection blurs together into similar-sounding acoustic tones but there are a few fresh moments within. Handsome Molly makes for one of the more audibly understandable inclusions, a chance to hear Dylan work the balladeer charm.  

Omie Wise and Poor Lazarus serve as decent inclusions. Barely changed guitar work but an emotional and lyrical integrity Dylan would make good on throughout his decades covering those who have influenced him. He is keen to display those who he listened to while growing up and while our interaction with the songs of our youth has changed astronomically, the remembrance heard throughout The Forgotten Sessions is touching. Take the briefest of listens to those tributes to Woody Guthrie and feel the tingle of trust in great work. It is admirable, truly. Mean Old Southern Railroad sounds tremendous. A harmonica which gives the impression of a chugging train with passengers, living and breathing, on board. Dylan and Danny Kalb breathe new life into traditional songs with such ease. 

A collaboration with Ramblin’ Jack Elliot should be noted too, a monumental meeting of great minds which gives comedy short Acne a decent run through. It is not the preferred type of Dylan performance, but it is hard to remove the humour which lingers through his career – particularly in the early ballads performed before the electric turn and sudden seriousness which riddled his mind. What a change of pace it was, though, a necessary one which makes these earlier moments just as sweet as they are interesting. Tomorrow is a Long Time and some original materials toward the end of this compilation – particularly The Death of Emmett Till and Masters of War – are worth listening to. They hold the shocking, early brilliance Dylan would soon put to tape in the studio.