In February of 1962, less than a month before the release of his debut album, an obscure young folk singer named Bob Dylan recorded some songs and an interview for a local New York City radio show called FolksingerΓÇÖs Choice.

The show was broadcast on WBAI and hosted by Cynthia Gooding, an established folk singer 17 years older than Dylan. As it happened, both Gooding and Dylan were native Minnesotans. Gooding had first met Dylan in Minneapolis in late 1959, not long after he graduated from high school.

As the interview gets rolling, the 20-year-old Dylan wastes little time before launching into some tall tales about his past. He says he moved to Minneapolis from South Dakota, because Minneapolis was ΓÇ£about the only place you didnΓÇÖt have to go too far to find the Mississippi River.ΓÇ¥ Before that, he says, he traveled with a carnival, ΓÇ£off and on for about six years.ΓÇ¥ When Gooding asks whether that might have interfered with his schooling, Dylan doesnΓÇÖt miss a beat. ΓÇ£Well,ΓÇ¥ he says, ΓÇ£I skipped a bunch of things, and I didnΓÇÖt go to school a bunch of years and I skipped this and that.ΓÇ¥ He says he wrote a song for the ΓÇ£elephant ladyΓÇ¥ in the carnival and called it ΓÇ£WonΓÇÖt You Buy A Postcard?ΓÇ¥ But he quickly adds that he forgot how it went.

If you listen to the complete one-hour program you will be treated to 11 songs from his early repertoire.  They include several that Dylan wrote, along with some old folk and blues songs:

    ΓÇ£(I Heard That) Lonesome WhistleΓÇ¥ (Hank Williams/Jimmie Davis)
    ΓÇ£FixinΓÇÖ to DieΓÇ¥ (Bukka White)
    ΓÇ£Smokestack LighningΓÇ¥ (HowlinΓÇÖ Wolf)
    ΓÇ£Hard TravelinΓÇÖΓÇ¥ (Woody Guthrie)
    ΓÇ£The Death of Emmett TillΓÇ¥  (Bob Dylan)
    ΓÇ£Standing on the HighwayΓÇ¥ (Bob Dylan)
    ΓÇ£Roll on JohnΓÇ¥ (Rufus Crisp)
    ΓÇ£StealinΓÇÖΓÇ¥ (traditional)
    ΓÇ£It Makes a Long Time Man Feel BadΓÇ¥ (traditional)
    ΓÇ£Baby, Please DonΓÇÖt GoΓÇ¥ (Big Joe Williams)
    ΓÇ£Hard Times in New York TownΓÇ¥ (Bob Dylan)