As we mark the fiftieth anniversaries as so many events from a consequential year, let’s include the release of Bob Dylan’s eighth record, John Wesley Harding. Recorded in Nashville in the fall of 1967, it became available to listeners the following January. Along with so many other events, it adds to the perception of 1968 as a turning point year. To say that the record was eagerly awaited may be something of an understatement. After breaking from the folk movement and “going electric” in 1965, Dylan had released three ground-breaking records in quick succession. They injected a modernist spirit into Read more