“How many roads?” Just turned 21 a couple months before this track from his second album was recorded, Bob Dylan was still a well-kept secret, the private property of so few folk purists that his debut LP (released March ’62) did not even chart. That would all change for the Bard of Hibbing by the summer of 1963, when the eleven self-penned songs on Freewheelin’ exploded all preconceptions of what a modern folk singer’s role could be. At the same time, more than a dozen cover versions of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and this song-the first rallying-cry of the nascent civil rights movement-flooded the charts (Peter, Paul & Mary’s rendition hit #2). Freewheelin’ and nearly three dozen more Bob Dylan albums would break the Top 40 charts over the next four decades, through electric changes, mysterious interludes, religious turnarounds, historic collaborations and presidential honors.
Bob Dylan "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

Bob Dylan Playlist: The Very Best Of Bob Dylan: 1960's