Come gather 'round people wherever you roam

Continuing my trip back through the 1965 album charts.

13/06/65 : The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan


Our twelfth visit with Bob and, given how well the title track is known, I'm surprised we've not met it before. Which suggests to me that maybe the rest of it ain't quite so hot, but let's see. Oddly, it's not available on Amazon so I had to rely on a YouTube version which didn't have the best sound quality, but I'm not sure the original did either. 

Hmmm - it's not really that it's not so hot, it's just that it's not that different. He's not singing in his most annoying Bob voice, but it's certainly quite annoying - and I appreciate that he's singing about important stuff like civil rights, but it's all a bit boring and whiny. I did like the title track and "With God On Our Side" though, although I'm not sure the latter needed to be seven minutes long.

We're at #14 in the charts this week on his last week of a fourteen week run, with it having peaked at #4 in its seventh and ninth weeks, although this is its fifth run and it actually first charted back in July '64. The top five this week were TSOM, Bob Dylan (about to start an eight week run at #2, all behind TSOM), The Beatles, Mary Poppins and more Bob Dylan - he was also at #20 as well this week with an album we've yet to meet (but don't worry, we will!). We also have two new entries in the chart for The Rockin' Berries (#15) and Joan Baez (#16) - I've never heard of The Rockin' Berries before but apparently they're still going with their original lead singer, who is now 81.

Wikipedia has less than I was expecting (188 milliPeppers) but there's still more there than I can be bothered reading. It's his third studio album, but his first with only original songs on it. Critically, the view was that maybe it was just all bit too much in your face and lacking humour or variety but it got to #20 in the Billboard 200 chart.

"Customers also listened to" - well, we'll never know but I imagine other Bob albums are involved. It's not the Bob album I've hated the most and the title track is obviously of interest, but I didn't exactly love it either.

06/06/65 - A most curious album
20/06/65 - Back where it all began

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