John Wesley Harding Songs Ranked

John Wesley Harding is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on December 27, 1967, by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan’s return to semi-acoustic instrumentation and folk-influenced songwriting after three albums of lyrically abstract, blues-indebted rock music. John Wesley Harding shares many stylistic threads with and was recorded around the same time as, the prolific series of home recording sessions with The Band, partly released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, and released in complete form in 2014 as The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete. The album is named after Texas outlaw John Wesley Hardin, whose name was misspelled. Here are all of John Wesley Harding’s songs ranked.

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10. I Am a Lonesome Hobo

“The sneering, sarcastic ‘I Am A Lonesome Hobo’. The opening bloozy harmonica suggests you’re in for something special, and that’s exactly what you get: this time Dylan impersonates a hobo, indeed, but it’s not a hobo that simply sits there and whines about his misery.”

9. I Pity the Poor Immigrant

“‘I Pity The Poor Immigrant’. What can be said about that one? Suffice it to say that it’s hard to believe the song was written in twentieth-century America, at a stage when the hardship and toil of immigration, while still existing, were far from the hardship and toil the poor immigrants were suffering a hundred years ago. I have not the least doubt that, were it penned sometime around 1840 or so, it would have without a doubt turned into the most popular ‘Immigrant Workin’ Song'”

8. Dear Landlord

“‘Dear Landlord’ introduces the first significant change in sound – it’s piano-based instead of guitar-based, and this significantly influences the mood. This is the kind of sound that would be much more typical for Dylan’s subsequent releases (Selfportrait and especially New Morning), a sound that’s far more cozy, relaxed and homely than the dangerous mystery of the guitar/harmonica interplay on the previous cuts.”

See more: Bob Dylan Albums Ranked

7. The Wicked Messenger

“‘Messenger’ probably has the most elaborate melody on the whole record, with brilliantly constructed descending guitar lines replacing simplistic rhythm strumming; and the story that Bob tells is, once again, quite fascinating, though the idea is unclear, and that’s a problem – where the idea is unclear, it’s difficult to tell what kind of emotions or feelings the song should stimulate in you.”

6. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight

“This is one of the best country songs in existence, with a melody close to brilliant and blistering embellishments all over the place: melodic harmonica fills abound, and Drake adds more steel guitar parts, this time completely in their needed place. The harmonica solos on that one are, in fact, more worthy than a dozen tranquilizers: my only complaint is that the song fades out almost in a blink of an eye, and right in the middle of one of these solos.”

5. Down Along the Cove

“And on ‘Down Along The Cove’ Bob suddenly turns to primitive love thematics, with somewhat off-putting, close-to-banal lyrics – a thing which doesn’t work very well, considering that the song itself is just a generic fast blues number. The piano and occasional steel guitar, contributed by Nashville star Pete Drake, don’t help that much.”

See more: Bob Dylan Songs Ranked

4. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

“This is my second favourite on the album, and a number that you should always pplay if you want to convince somebody of Bob’s greatness: ‘I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine’, a song where Bob narrates exactly the very fact.”

3. John Wesley Harding

“It’s the total, almost defiant simplicity and unpretentiousness of the song that makes it such a treat: the lyrics are pretty straightforward, the melody as simple as can be (some say it’s ripped-off of his own single ‘Positively 4th Street’, but it certainly isn’t, as both songs can be independently traced to some obscure folkish originals), and Bob’s voice humble and nonchalant.”

2. All Along the Watchtower

“The soaring anthem ‘All Along The Watchtower’, you’re bound to know this one. Unfortunately, you probably know it due to the Hendrix cover which gets tons of airplay and has already equalled its position as one of the most overplayed ‘classic rock’ numbers, along with ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Pinball Wizard’ and suchlike.”

1. Drifter’s Escape

“‘Drifter’s Escape’, which opens the second side, is an obvious improvement, though. The story here is far less compelling as it is more straightforward; it’s simply a tale of a ‘drifter’ sentenced to death or something worse (‘the jury cried for more’) and how he managed to escape punishment during the panic created by a lightning bolt. But the melody is somewhat more upbeat and involving, more or less in the style of the title track, and Dylan’s funny impression of a bleating folk singer is enough to redeem all the straightforwardness.”