There's a bunched young couple; his shoulders hunched like he was talking about a job well done yet so easily, her head resting on him as if she was really impressed and her arms clinging
on his as if to assure him that no one on this planet could have done the job so well as he did. And yet it seems that they're walking on a road that is littered with earthquake debris.
Or maybe something was blowin' in the wind. Or perhaps what was blowin' in the wind was blowin' on my mind.
So how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?
The answer, my friend.
No. 97, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 127, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.
No. 47, Music Radar, The 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time.
Photo by Don Hunstein. Album produced by John Hammond & Tom Wilson. Columbia 1963.
staff photographer Don Hunstein at the corner of Jones Street and West 4th Street in the West Village, New York City, close to the apartment where the couple
lived at the time. In 2008, Rotolo described the circumstances surrounding the famous photo to The New York Times: "He wore a very thin jacket,
because image was all. Our apartment was always cold, so I had a sweater on, plus I borrowed one of his big, bulky sweaters. On top of
that I put on a coat. So I felt like an Italian sausage. Every time I look at that picture, I think I look fat."
In her memoir, A Freewheelin' Time, Rotolo analyzed the significance of the cover art: It is one of those cultural markers that influenced the look of album covers
precisely because of its casual down-home spontaneity and sensibility. Most album covers were carefully staged and controlled, to terrific effect on the Blue
Note jazz album covers ... and to not-so great-effect on the perfectly posed and clean-cut pop and folk albums. Whoever was responsible for choosing
that particular photograph for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan really had an eye for a new look.
Critic Janet Maslin summed up the iconic impact of the cover as "a photograph that inspired countless young men to hunch their shoulders, look distant, and let the
girl do the clinging". More
Here's the cover art on the spot where it was shot. twistedsifter.com
(A) Blowin' in the Wind - Girl from the North Country - Masters of War - Down the Highway - Bob Dylan's Blues - A Hard Rain's a-Gonna' Fall
(B) Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Bob Dylan's Dream - Oxford Town - Talkin' World War III Blues - Corrina, Corrina - Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance - I Shall Be Free
"Blowin' in the Wind" music video from Giulia Zarontonello on YouTube.
