Blind Boy Grunt

In late 1962 and early 1963, Bob Dylan made over a dozen recordings at sessions administered by the folk magazine Broadside. In October 1963, three of these songs -- "John Brown," "Only a Hobo," and "Talking Devil" -- appeared on the Broadside/Folkways compilation LP Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1, credited to Blind Boy Grunt. (The album also included a Dylan composition, "Let Me Die in My Footsteps," on which Happy Traum took the vocal, and Dylan contributed backing vocal and guitar.) Even at this early point in his career, it was immediately obvious to anyone who had heard Dylan,...