John Brown (song)

The song, written in October 1962 was released under his pseudonym "Blind Boy Grunt" on the Folkways Records compilation album Broadside Ballads, Vol.

It is an anti-war song that draws on traditional tunes and themes, and narrates the tale of a mother who is proud to see her son go off to war.

[6] The lyrics are influenced by "Mrs. McGrath",[1] which relates how a young Irish soldier is maimed after fighting in the British Army against Napoleon's forces, and is met by his mother who asks how he was injured.

[11] Dylan used a pseudonym, "Blind Boy Grunt", due to contractual issues; he was signed to Columbia Records but Broadside Ballads, Vol.

[13] A demo of the song performed for publishing company M. Witmark & Sons in August 1963 was officially released in 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol.

[5] In the Vancouver Sun in 1970, the critic Al Rudis referred to "John Brown" as "one of the best yet least known Dylan protest songs", calling the Broadside Ballads version "chilling", and comparing it to the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's 1939 novel Johnny Got His Gun;[16][17] both works give a severely-injured soldier's perspective.

[6] The critic Jim Beviglia considered what he described as the "furious bluegrass" version of "John Brown" the highlight of the Unplugged album.

[18] The song was also picked as a highlight from the album by Mark Robinson of the Reno Gazette-Journal, who felt it was impactful despite a failure on Dylan's part to deliver the final line about the soldier handing over his medals to his mother as the "brutal punchline" it should have been.

[24] Authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon commented that Dylan, who was 21 when he composed the song, "had little life experience" at that point.

[26] The journalist and author Mike Marqusee criticized the quality of the lyrics, but found that the song's "repugnance at jingoism, glancing references to class, filial rage, and anguished opening to an internationalist vision, the song shows Dylan working to synthesize something new, a contemporary folk music that was emotionally raw and politically uncompromising".

The Los Angeles Times critic Pete Johnson praised the lead vocals for "achiev[ing] a delicate balance between pathos and understatement".

[36] The Staple Singers version influenced Maria Muldaur's cover on her 2008 album Yes We Can!, which was described by Andrew S. Hughes of the South Bend Tribune as a "chilling, visceral rendition".