Bob Dylan

This album now seems as remarkable as his mid-'60s breakthroughs. Like Presley's Sun Sessions, it is both the remnant of a lost rural America and the seed of rock culture. The music is primarily Dylan, with acoustic guitar, barking traditional folk, and blues. He was 20, a northern hick come to New York to be the next Woody Guthrie. It's amazing that at 20 he sings In My Time of Dying and See That my Grave is Kept Clean, not as traditional songs, but making their doom and resignation sound personal.