I too loved it at the time of it’s release (I still have my original LP). I found the reaction to the lyrical content amusing. I guess the counter-culture didn’t listen to the lyrics of the John Wesley Harding album, which was released at the height of the hippie era (as was The Band’s Music From Big Pink, which was also very against-the-tide). It was chock full of biblical references.
Of his "newer" albums, I really like "Love And Theft".