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

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

1964 · CBS BPG 62193 · Mono · UK (Made in England, printed on both labels) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	CBS
Catalogue number	BPG 62193
Year	1964
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	UK (Made in England, printed on both labels)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Folk
Producer	John Hammond
Composer	Bob Dylan
Musicians	Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica); uncredited on the jacket for “Corrina, Corrina”: Bruce Langhorne (guitar), George Barnes (guitar), Dick Wellstood (piano), Gene Ramey (bass), Herb Lovelle (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  62193-4A-1 C2 0
Side B:  62193 1B 1 C0 0 A

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: NM-

Variant chronology

1963 - UK CBS SBPG 62193, stereo, first release, Philips pressing
1963-64 - UK CBS BPG 62193, mono, first release, Philips pressing
1964 - UK CBS BPG 62193, mono, repress, CBS Aston Clinton/Oriole pressing  <- this copy
1964 - UK CBS SBPG 62193, stereo, repress, CBS pressing
1963 - France CBS 62193, mono, En Roue Libre edition
1963 - US Columbia CL 1986, mono
1963 - US Columbia CS 8786, stereo
1966 - Italy CBS 62193, mono reissue
1967 - UK CBS S BPG 62193, stereo reissue, non-flipback sleeve
1969 - UK CBS SBPG 62193, stereo reissue
1969 - Netherlands CBS S 62193, stereo reissue
1971 - Spain CBS S 62193, stereo reissue
1972 - Italy CBS 62193, mono reissue repress
1973 - Italy CBS 62193, reissue

This Pressing

1964 UK CBS mono pressing (BPG 62193) - CBS's own ℗ 1963 pressing of the Freewheelin' catalogue number, following the earlier Philips-pressed run of the same number.

The Album

Recorded across several sessions in New York between 1962 and 1963, this second album remade Bob Dylan from a Greenwich Village interpreter of old blues and folk songs into a songwriter of his own generation, dropping most of the covers that filled his debut for a set almost entirely of his own compositions. “Blowin' in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall” gave the folk revival its defining protest anthems just as the civil rights and nuclear-anxiety movements were gathering force, while “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right” and “Girl from the North Country” showed a gift for personal, plainspoken songwriting that would carry well beyond folk circles. Dylan was still in his early twenties and largely unknown outside New York clubs when the album was finished, and its success - helped by Peter, Paul and Mary's hit cover of “Blowin' in the Wind” - made him the young spokesman the folk movement had been waiting for, a role he would spend the rest of the decade complicating. The record's mix of topical protest, wry talking blues and love songs set the template other singer-songwriters of the 1960s would follow, and it remains one of the most influential folk albums ever made, regularly placed among the greatest records of its era by critics and historians alike.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Blowin' In The Wind
2. Girl From The North Country
3. Masters Of War
4. Down The Highway
5. Bob Dylan's Blues
6. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Side 2

1. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
2. Bob Dylan's Dream
3. Oxford Town
4. Talking World War III Blues
5. Corrina, Corrina
6. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
7. I Shall Be Free

The Label

Both sides carry the orange CBS label with the black CBS box logo and a single centred eye device, the rim text warning against unauthorised broadcasting and copying, the publisher credit “Blossom Music”, the ℗ 1963 date line, “MADE IN ENGLAND”, and “(CL 1986)” printed beside the BPG 62193 number on each side - a reference line also known on other UK CBS pressings of this catalogue number. The ℗ 1963 copyright-line format (rather than a “RECORDING FIRST PUBLISHED” line) marks a pressing run by CBS’s own plant, which the label took over from Philips as CBS’s UK pressing arrangements changed through 1964; the “RECORDING FIRST PUBLISHED 1963” wording belongs to the earlier Philips-pressed run of this same catalogue number. The one-eye orange CBS design itself was the label’s standard mono design through the mid-1960s before the printed text and logo placement were later reset, so this copy’s label dates it to the 1964 CBS pressing window rather than to the first Philips pressing or to the later 1967-69 reissues.

Fidelity

This mono cut was mastered from the original Columbia session tapes for the UK CBS pressing plant rather than from a later remix or digital source. Collectors generally rate the early-1960s UK CBS mono pressings of Dylan's Columbia catalogue as a solid, warm-sounding cut, though they are consistently ranked behind the first US Columbia six-eye mono pressings, which most forum consensus treats as the sonic benchmark for this album. Against later specialist reissues of the mono mix, this original-era UK pressing is generally preferred by collectors for its vintage cut, even if it sits below the best US first pressings in outright fidelity ranking.

Notes

This is the CBS-pressed UK mono issue of BPG 62193, identifiable by the ℗ 1963 copyright line on the label rather than the “RECORDING FIRST PUBLISHED 1963” text used on the earlier Philips-pressed run of the same number. Both labels carry the same orange one-eye CBS design and the “(CL 1986)” reference line seen on other UK pressings of this catalogue number. The runout carries 4A on side one and 1B on side two, stamper numbers distinct from those of the Philips-pressed version of this release and not from the very first lacquer cut.

Documenting collections

I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch: email

This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/bob-dylan-freewheeling-uk-mono/