Chronicles: Volume One

Dylan rode with Lou Levy of Leeds Music Publishing in a taxi to a recording studio on West 70th Street. He had recently arrived in New York City and was signed by Columbia Records, a big deal, considering that “folk music was considered junky, second rate and only released on small labels” (5). It was the years before the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Dylan’s “hard-lipped folk songs with fire and brimstone servings” (6) didn’t fit with the “sanitized and pasteurized” (5) music that was played on late 50s and early 60s radio. Nevertheless, talent scout John Hammond believed Dylan showed promise. He set him up with Leeds and set a date to start recording after having heard only two of Dylan’s songs.

The next step was to talk to Billy James, Columbia’s head of publicity. James asked Dylan annoying questions about his past and what folk music was. Dylan, who “didn’t feel the need to explain anything to anybody” (8), told James that he came to New York in a boxcar, even though it wasn’t true. James asked Dylan to compare himself to another popular musician, but there was no one Dylan wanted to emulate.