THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,599) Bob Dylan — “John Brown”
Bob Dylan’s greatest anti-war song never to appear on a Dylan studio album, released under the name Blind Boy Grunt on a Folkways Compilation LP. The “hair-raising” song’s “novelistic depiction of a mother’s misguided patriotism and her disillusioned son’s appalling fate” (Chris Morris, https://variety.com/lists/bob-dylan-80-best-greatest-cover-songs/the-byrds-mr-tambourine-man-best-bob-dylan-covers/) is simply devastating. “You are left with horror and empathy for both the shattered title character and his war-loving mother who faces the hard truth of war that outweighs any medals of honor.” (Michael Kantu (R.A.M.), https://medium.com/@rwmusic77/the-dignity-of-john-brown-47592d3f7db0) “In the Vancouver Sun in 1970, the critic Al Rudis referred to [it] as ‘one of the best yet least known Dylan protest songs’, calling the Broadside Ballads version ‘chilling’, and comparing it to the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s 1939 novel Johnny Got His Gun; both works give a severely-injured soldier’s perspective.” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(song))
Wikipedia tells us that “In response to an open invitation from the folk music Broadside magazine for recordings, Dylan recorded a version of “John Brown” in February 1963 that was released on the compilation album Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1 . . . Dylan used a pseudonym, “Blind Boy Grunt”, due to contractual issues; he was signed to Columbia Records but Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1 was released by Folkways Records”. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(song))
Bob Dylan Plagiarisms tells us that:
The idea for the melody is borrowed from the “Reuben’s Train/Nine Hundred Miles” [see #823-25] family of songs . . . . “Train 45″ by Grayson & Whitter (1927 . . . ) was the first recording. But Dylan surely was familiar with Woody Guthrie’s “Nine Hundred Miles” (1944 . . . ).”
Broadside Ballads:
Live ’62:
Live ’63:
Unplugged ’94:
Here are the Staple Singers:
Grayson & Whitter:
Woody Guthrie:
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