Bob Dylan — Bob Dylan · Vinyl Curator

Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Bob Dylan

c. 1962-64 · CBS BPG 62022 · Mono · UK (Philips pressing for CBS; "Made In England" on the labels) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	CBS
Catalogue number	BPG 62022
Year	c. 1962-64
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	UK (Philips pressing for CBS; "Made In England" on the labels)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Folk / Folk-Blues
Producer	John Hammond
Musicians	Bob Dylan (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  620-22-3A-1 A1 P 0
Side B:  62022-3B-1 A 0P

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NN/NM

Variant chronology

1962 - UK CBS mono, Philips pressing, earliest cutting (catalogue number printed on the front cover)
1962-64 - UK CBS mono, Philips pressing, later stamper cut, catalogue number absent from the front cover  <- this copy
1962 - UK CBS stereo (SBPG 62022), Philips pressing
1964 - UK CBS mono repress, same label design

This Pressing

UK mono CBS pressing (Philips pressed) of the debut album - later stamper cut without the catalogue number on the front cover, placing it after the earliest Philips-pressed copies rather than at the head of the run.

The Album

Recorded in two brief sessions in New York in late 1961, this debut set a twenty-year-old Bob Dylan loose on a repertoire of blues, gospel and folk standards alongside two originals of his own, Talkin' New York and Song To Woody - the latter a direct tribute to the ailing Woody Guthrie whose influence pervades the whole record. Dylan had been performing around Greenwich Village coffeehouses for barely a year when he was signed, largely on the strength of his harmonica work on a Carolyn Hester session and the enthusiasm of the producer who brought him to the label. The album leans heavily on the Village folk and blues revival scene of the moment, reworking pieces associated with figures like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Eric Von Schmidt and traditional Appalachian sources, filtered through Dylan's own raw phrasing and guitar style. It sold modestly on release and gave little hint of the songwriting explosion that would follow within a year, but in hindsight it stands as the opening statement of a career that reshaped popular songwriting. Critics at the time were divided on the voice but recognized an unusual intensity and command of the idiom in a performer still largely unknown. It has since been reassessed as a vital document of the early-60s folk revival and the clearest evidence of the tradition Dylan absorbed before he began inventing his own.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. She's No Good (J. Fuller)
2. Talkin' New York (B. Dylan)
3. In My Time Of Dyin'
4. Man Of Constant Sorrow (arr. Bob Dylan)
5. Fixin' To Die Blues (B. White)
6. Pretty Peggy-O (arr. Bob Dylan)
7. Highway 51 Blues (C. Jones)

Side 2

1. Gospel Plow (arr. Bob Dylan)
2. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (R. Von Schmidt)
3. House Of The Risin' Sun (trad.)
4. Freight Train Blues (trad.)
5. Song To Woody (Bob Dylan)
6. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (B. Jefferson)

The Label

The side labels are the orange CBS design with the boxed "CBS" logo and concentric-ring/tonearm mark, catalogue number BPG 62022 (with CL 1779 shown in brackets) to the right, and "MADE IN ENGLAND" around the rim - a UK Philips-pressed CBS label used across the title's early-to-mid 1960s mono pressings. The front cover on this copy does not carry the catalogue number beneath the CBS logo that identifies the very earliest Philips-pressed copies, which places this copy later in that pressing run rather than at its head. The back cover's "CBS MONO BPG 62022" wording versus the plain "BPG 62022" on the side labels is simply sleeve-versus-label house style, not a variant marker on its own.

Fidelity

This is a flat mono cut from the original tapes, pressed in the UK by Philips on CBS's behalf during the label's early years before it operated its own British plant. Collectors generally rate these early UK Philips pressings as full-bodied and dynamic, on a par with or ahead of the contemporary US Columbia mono pressing, though later stamper cuts such as this one can show more surface wear from heavier use of the metalwork. There is no audiophile remastered edition of this title that supersedes an original mono pressing in collector esteem; the stereo mix is a separate, less favoured listening experience for this largely solo acoustic recording.

Notes

This is a UK CBS mono pressing of Bob Dylan's debut, manufactured by Philips on CBS's behalf before CBS had its own UK plant. The front cover lacks the catalogue number beneath the CBS logo that marks the very earliest copies of this pressing, and the runout carries a later stamper combination than the earliest cutting, both pointing to this being a subsequent pressing within the same UK mono run rather than the first. The orange CBS label design itself matches the title's early-to-mid-1960s UK mono issues.

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