History Music / JohnWesleyHarding

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The black-and-white cover.

---> ''There must be some way outta here...''

* TeamShot: Subverted - the cover shows Dylan posing with three people, none of whom have anything whatsoever to do with the actual album. (Specifically, two Indian musicians and a local stonemason.)

* HereWeGoAgain: "All Along The Watchtower" is effectively an infinite loop, beginning ''in medias res'' with a discussion between the joker and the thief, and ending with them riding into shot.
--> ''There must be some way outta here...''

# "All Along The Watchtower" (2:31)
# "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest" (5:35)

# "I Am A Lonesome Hobo" (3:19)
# "I Pity The Poor Immigrant" (4:12)

# "Down Along The Cove" (2:23)

* DeathBySex: Frankie Lee dies of thirst after 16 days in a whorehouse, presumably not playing checkers.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Judas Priest from "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest" . So awesome that this one [[Music/JudasPriest heavy metal band]] took the name for itself.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade / VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The title track. The RealLife [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hardin John Wesley Hardin]] (Dylan added the G) was hardly a friend to the poor, he was definitely known to hurt an honest man, and he was eventually both caught and killed.

* NotChristianRock: Many of the lyrics are heavily influenced by Dylan's reading of the Old Testament, though they come across more as parables on morality and humanity than religion.
-->'''Beattie Zimmerman:''' ''In his house in Woodstock today, there's a huge Bible open on a stand in the middle of his study. Of all the books that crowd his house, overflow from his house, that Bible gets the most attention. He's continuously getting up and going over to refer to something.''

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: All of the songs feature just acoustic guitar or piano, bass and drums.

''John Wesley Harding'' is the seventh studio album by Music/BobDylan, released in 1967. His first studio album released since ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde'', the tumultuous world tour, his mysterious motorcycle accident in July 1966, and following TenMinuteRetirement, it's [[NewSoundAlbum yet another departure from anything he'd released earlier]], stripping back the music of his electric albums to acoustic guitar, harmonica, bass and drums, and with concise, ambiguous lyrics containing neither the directness of his ProtestSong phase or the wild-grown surrealism of his mid-60's output. (He'd spent the summer recording and writing ''Music/TheBasementTapes'' with Music/TheBand, but those recordings wouldn't be publicly released for years).

''John Wesley Harding'' came in at #303 in Magazine/RollingStone's ''Music/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime''.

[[AC: Side One]]

[[AC: Side Two]]

''John Wesley Harding'' is the seventh studio album by Music/BobDylan, released in 1967. His first studio album released since ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde'', the tumultuous world tour and following TenMinuteRetirement, it's [[NewSoundAlbum yet another departure from anything he'd released earlier]], stripping back the music of his electric albums to acoustic guitar, harmonica, bass and drums, and with concise, ambiguous lyrics containing neither the directness of his ProtestSong phase or the wild-grown surrealism of his mid-60's output. (He'd spent the summer recording and writing ''Music/TheBasementTapes'' with Music/TheBand, but those recordings wouldn't be publicly released for years).

* AsTheGoodBookSays:

* TwelveBarBlues: "Down Along The Cove".

It's probably best known today for the single "All Along The Watchtower", which would quickly be CoveredUp by Music/TheJimiHendrixExperience on their album ''Music/ElectricLadyland'' to the extent that most of Dylan's various live versions through the years resemble the Experience's version of the song far more than his own.

** Music/TheJimiHendrixExperience famously covered "All Along The Watchtower" on ''Music/ElectricLadyland'', in a version that is nowadays more famous than Dylan's original.

'''''John Wesley Harding''''' is the seventh studio album by Music/BobDylan, released in 1967. His first studio album released since ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde'', the tumultuous world tour and following TenMinuteRetirement, it's [[NewSoundAlbum yet another departure from anything he'd released earlier]], stripping back the music of his electric albums to acoustic guitar, harmonica, bass and drums, and with concise, ambiguous lyrics containing neither the directness of his ProtestSong phase or the wild-grown surrealism of his mid-60's output. (He'd spent the summer recording and writing ''Music/TheBasementTapes'' with Music/TheBand, but those recordings wouldn't be publicly released for years).

'''''John Wesley Harding''''' is the seventh studio album by Music/BobDylan, released in December 1967. His first studio album released since ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde'', the tumultuous world tour and following TenMinuteRetirement, it's [[NewSoundAlbum yet another departure from anything he'd released earlier]], stripping back the music of his electric albums to acoustic guitar, harmonica, bass and drums, and with concise, ambiguous lyrics containing neither the directness of his ProtestSong phase or the wild-grown surrealism of his mid-60s output. (He'd spent the summer recording and writing ''Music/TheBasementTapes'' with Music/TheBand, but those recordings wouldn't be publicly released for years.)

It's probably best known today for the single "All Along The Watchtower", which would quickly be CoveredUp by Music/JimiHendrix on his album ''Music/ElectricLadyland'' to the extent that most of Dylan's various live versions through the years resemble Hendrix' version of the song far more than his own.

"John Wesley Harding" came in at #303 in Magazine/RollingStone's ''Music/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime''.

# "All Along the Watchtower" (2:31)
# "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" (5:35)

# "I Am a Lonesome Hobo" (3:19)
# "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" (4:12)

# "Down Along the Cove" (2:23)

So when you see your neighbor carryin’ somethin’, help him with his load\\

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Judas Priest from "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" . So awesome that this one [[Music/JudasPriest heavy metal band]] took the name for itself.

* ManlyTears: "I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine" ends with the narrator weeping in remorse.

** The metal band Music/JudasPriest named themselves after the song "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest".
** Music/JimiHendrix famously covered "All Along The Watchtower" on ''Music/ElectricLadyland'', in a version that is nowadays more famous than Dylan's original.

It's probably best known today for the single "All Along The Watchtower", which would quickly be CoveredUp by Music/JimiHendrix to the extent that most of Dylan's various live versions through the years resemble Hendrix' version of the song far more than his own.

-->Well the moral of the story, the moral of this song\\

And don’t go mistaking Paradise for that home across the road.

-->Stay free from petty jealousies, live by no man’s code \\
And hold your judgment for yourself lest you wind up on this road

-->I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: and, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

-->A wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health.

-->Just then [[BoltOfDivineRetribution a bolt of lightning]] struck the courthouse out of shape\\
And while everybody knelt to pray, the drifter did escape

-->And he was told but these few words which opened up his heart:\\
"If you cannot bring good news, then don't bring any."

-->There must be some way outta here...

-->'''Beattie Zimmerman:''' In his house in Woodstock today, there's a huge Bible open on a stand in the middle of his study. Of all the books that crowd his house, overflow from his house, that Bible gets the most attention. He's continuously getting up and going over to refer to something.

-->My trip hasn't been a pleasant one, and my time it isn't long\\
And I still do not know what it was that I've done wrong

-->...Nothing is revealed.

-->Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl\\
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/97427463e0f0cfa4c46b2c03b5d1d163.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''There was a wicked messenger, from Eli he did come'']]

* TwelveBarBlues: "Down Along The Cove"

* BringerOfBadNews: The Wicked Messenger seems to be one against his will.

-->Outside in the distance a wildcat did howl\\

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