The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was the album that took Dylan from an unknown artist to a megastar, with the Beatles listening to it constantly and drawing inspiration from it. For me personally, it was the album that took me from Dylan “appreciator” to Dylan fan. I loved the simplicity of it, Bob alone with his voice, guitar and harmonica. I loved how you could really dive deep into what he was singing about as the focus was firmly on…
I fretted over what style of beer I would brew for Highway 61 Revisited more than any other beer in this series. One of my reasons for that was that I’d argue Highway 61 is Dylan’s most important album. It was released about five months after his landmark Bringing It All Back Home album, in which he had “gone electric” for the first time on the first side of the album. This move alienated and infuriated members of the…
It’s hard to know exactly where to start with Blonde on Blonde as it’s one of my all time favorite albums and a true masterpiece. It’s widely regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made, and is one of only two of his albums to go 2x Platinum in the US (the other being Blood on the Tracks). This unique combination of commercial and critical success made designing this beer a bit of a challenge to make sure proper…
For the second release of our Bob Dylan series, we fast forwarded 10 years from our first release, Bringing It All Back Home. This time difference resulted in a lot of change for Dylan, most notably his motorcycle accident in 1966 that lead to him not touring for 8 years, as well as becoming estranged from his first wife, Sara. Although Dylan has claimed in subsequent interviews as well as in his autobiography “Chronicles Volume One” that Blood on the…
For the first release in our Dylan series, I thought an excellent start would be his 1965 release, Bringing It All Back Home. By this time, Dylan had felt like “a pawn in the game” with the folk and protest music scene stifling his creativity and using him for their own purposes. On “Maggie’s Farm”, Dylan sings “Well, I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them. They say sing…
(Brewer’s note: Joyride will be releasing a 5 part Bob Dylan beer series over the course of the next month, all based off individual albums. The first release will be “Bringing it All Back Home Sour IPA” on Wednesday, May 13th) I should start by expressing that I am not a music critic, or even a major music buff. I am a beer nerd, through and through, who also happens to listen to and enjoy a lot of music. While…