The only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keepin’ on like a bird that flew, a Bob Dylan thread

Music
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I recently realized that my knowledge of Bob Dylan’s music pretty much stopped 25 years ago, within a few years of exiting college. I never moved beyond a handful of albums, namely Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks and Desire. I knew his 1960’s greatest hits and heard Before the Flood, Basement Tapes and Dylan and the Dead a bunch of times, but was mostly ignorant of everything else. Over the decades I’ve gotten way more into Dylan’s later contemporaries like Grateful Dead, The Band, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. In fact, Joni Michell has been in my top 5 favorite artists/bands for at least a decade.

With this deficiency on my knowledge, I decided to try and listen to as much Dylan as possible during September and see how much of the discography I could get through. Given the high number of studio albums I hadn’t heard yet, I decided to focus there and hold off on the live Dylan for a different month, and also excluded The Basement Tapes since I think of that as a Dylan and the Band album. After I relistened to the 4 albums mentioned previously, I started digging into albums I haven’t heard, or maybe heard once but don’t remember anything outside maybe a radio hit. I listened to each of these albums at least twice, and most several more times than that to try and get a feel for each song and album. As the month was approaching an end, it was obvious I was not going to get through the entire discography, but luckily once I got to the 1980s, I started skipping less interesting albums in anticipation I would not make it through everything. That way I was able to review the 25 studio albums that were most intriguing to me and able to get a representation across 7-decades.

Not too surprisingly, my four favorite studio albums haven’t changed, but after the first four there are some surprises. Based on other rankings I’ve seen, I was not expecting to like Street-Legal, Infidels or Self Portrait as much as I did. I could easily see one of them passing Desire as my fourth favorite the not-so-distant future. I was also not expecting to be as lukewarm on John Wesley Harding and Time Out of Mind. I probably relistened to those the most to try and find more sparks of interest, to little avail. Please don’t be upset about the location of Freewheelin’ in the bottom half…I rated it according to my current tastes, not within its historical context. Anyway, here is my rankings for the 25 I reviewed last month:

  1. Highway 61 Revisited
  2. Blood On The Tracks
  3. Blonde On Blonde
  4. Desire
  5. Street-Legal
  6. Infidels
  7. Self Portrait
  8. Rough And Rowdy Ways
  9. Bringing It All Back Home
  10. New Morning
  11. Love And Theft
  12. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  13. Nashville Skyline
  14. Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid - Original Soundtrack Recording
  15. Modern Times
  16. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
  17. Another Side Of Bob Dylan
  18. Planet Waves
  19. Empire Burlesque
  20. Oh Mercy
  21. Bob Dylan
  22. John Wesley Harding
  23. Tempest
  24. Time Out Of Mind
  25. Slow Train Coming

songs that are still perfect or near perfect after at least a decade of listening (in no particular order):

Like a Rolling Stone
Queen Jane Approximately
Desolation Row
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Tangled Up in Blue
Simple Twist of Fate
Shelter from the Storm
Mozambique (it took 3 decades for this to become my favorite song on Desire)
The Man in Me
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

songs new to me that I love (in no particular order):

Changing of the Guard
No Time to Think
True Love Tend to Forget
Where are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat)
All the Tired Horses
Copper Kettle (The Pale Moonlight)
Gotta Travel On
Jokerman
I and I
Day of the Locusts
Mississippi
Sugar Baby
Spirit on the Water
I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
Mother of Muses

How’d I do? Where am I off?

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Also settled on top 5 Dylan tracks:

  1. Tangled Up In Blue - Blood on the Tracks
  2. Like A Rolling Stone - Highway 61 Revisited
  3. Shelter From The Storm - Blood on the Tracks
  4. The Man In Me - New Morning
  5. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door - Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
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Where to begin on this one? Many of you know that I’m a big Dylan fan. I first found his music at the age of 14 or 15 listening to Blonde on Blonde on a fishing trip with my dad, uncle, and cousin. I hated it. But I had Stuck Inside of Mobile inside my brain and it wouldn’t let go. I held out as long as I could, but I did ask my dad—in my nasal-iest voice–who that “Oh mama” guy was. After that, I listened to nothing but Dylan for a straight year. But it started strangely with Good As I Been To You that I borrowed from the library. That’s an album of folk covers released in 1992 (which I just put on the accompany this writing). Weird start to my Dylan obsession.

But I soon enough got the classics on CD, and I started even trading Dylan bootlegs on tape and later CD. That was around 1997, right when Time Out of Mind was released. That one moved me deeply and has always been at the very top of my list. When looking at Gizzhenge’s list, it doesn’t pain me to see that album so low. I can understand how the dark tones and melancholy might not land. They sure hit me powerfully at the age of 15, despite it being Dylan’s most poignant lyrical reflection on mortality, loss, and legacy. I was just starting my days of striving, and I had nothing of what I wanted, so I guess that was it.

Since then, I’ve continued listening to lots of Dylan and seeing him live every chance I get. I haven’t kept a close count but I’m up to about 30 shows, and many have been so meaningful from my first show at St. Bonaventure in 1997 with my dad to my most recent one in Hershey PA with my kids for their first Dylan show.

So, I’m not going to attempt to rank my own top 25. Don’t think I’ve ever done that, but I know which ones I love the most and which ones I love but less than the rest. Here are a few I want to emphasize.

John Wesley Harding is one that I love and would personally rank highly. I sing every song when I put that album on and I’m driving alone. None of the songs are ones I’d rank all that highly alone, but as a whole album, it’s one of my favorites.

Another Side of Bob Dylan is my favorite of his first four with Spanish Harlem Incident being a song that is way up on my fictional list of favs. The album is joyous and deep and silly and sardonic. It makes possible everything that came next.

Desire is one that I just don’t reach for often and never really have. I do love many of the songs, and I even had a pretty big crush on a girl in high school named Isis. I should probably go back to this one soon. It’s been a long time. Maybe it’s that I was annoyed by “Hurricane” being the only song many people knew. Or maybe it was my own desire to be different that I pushed this one away. Definitely time to give it another good hearing.

Rough and Rowdy Ways is the magic of Dylan at full force. He’s cultivated this incredible knowledge of music and culture that pervades every second of this album. He’s also trained his voice for this spectacularly. It’s from all those cover albums of crooners and classics. You might need to listen closely at first and get through a few songs to really let it sink in. But this is a culminating work. I feel like this album is important to us as human beings.

As for my favorite songs, a lot of them are the same as the ones you’ve got there. Here are some more of mine

Every Grain of Sand, Quinn the Eskimo, Dark Eyes, Forever Young, It’s All Right Ma, Roll On John, Don’t Think Twice, One Too Many Mornings, See Ya Later Allen Ginsberg, Song to Woody, Farewell Angelina, Beyond Here Lies Nothin’, Highlands, Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues, Blind Willie McTell, Tell Ol’ Bill, Clothes Line Saga, I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met), I Shall Be Released, Not Dark Yet, Duquesne Whistle, Jet Pilot, Apple Suckling Tree, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, Ain’t No More Cane, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, Must Be Santa, Po’ Boy, The Wicked Messenger, All Over You, Absolutely Sweet Marie

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Thanks for sharing. You have such a cool history with Dylan’s music. I’ll certainly keep giving Time Out Of Mind and JWH more listens to see if they connect.

Melancholy would not shy me away from liking music though. Melancholy is my jam. Many of my favorite artists are masters of the sad song and atmosphere. Joni Mitchell is a top 5 artist for me and Blue might be the most famous melancholic album of all time, but I still like Hejira more as the perfect melancholic album. I even have a favorite personal playlist named “comfort in melancholy” after a favorite Joni lyric from the album. Pavement, another top 5 for me are masters of indifferent and sarcastic melancholy. Sufjan Stevens another top 5 artist melancholy is a bit more desperate and chaotic as a semi-closeted gay/Christian whos been through a lot of pain, suffering and loss in his life, and likes to write about it. Sterolab is like a cool, electric, lounge melancholy, while Beach House is dream pop melancholy. There are so many more too. I absolutely love melancholy. Time Out Of Mind just failed to move me. Rough and Rowdy Ways feels more like what maybe people want me to feel from Time Out Of Mind. Maybe Bob needed to get older and closer to death for me to hear the truth in his voice and tones.

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What are you favorite tours for Dylan bootlegs? I’ve been told 1978 has some some peak live Dylan recording.

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Late 90’s and early 00’s is really an excellent touring band. 2001 is my favorite.

He just released 27 discs of 1974. That’s a good time.

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I would personally rank Oh Mercy much higher, but I tend to love anything Lanois touches.

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Whew I relistened to Desire and was feeling pretty much the same about it until Sara. Damn that hits differently as I’m older now and married a pretty long while.

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My favorites on Desire have definitely shifted over the years to where my least favorite songs 30 years ago seem to be my favorites now. For some reason Mozambique really clicked on the last few listens. Other favs now are One More Cup of Coffee and Black Diamond Bay.

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I really appreciate your prompt to get me obsessing over Dylan again. It’d been a while. I still listen to him regularly, but I have my favorites for when I’m craving Dylan. Some of these albums I haven’t listened to for a good while. Just since I last posted in here I’ve relistened to Planet Waves, Empire Burlesque, Rough & Rowdy Ways, Street Legal, and John Wesley Harding.

I never owned Street Legal or Planet Waves, but I bet those would be some of my favorites if I had. Of course, I’ve listened to them a decent amount, but I didn’t grow up with them. Both of those albums really hit me just right this time around.

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Disappointed in myself that I only got into Dylan’s music last year. I had some favorites like Stuck Inside of Mobile but it didn’t click until I sat down and got into Desire. That’s been my go-to since personally but I’m still finding so much as I go through his discography (including all those Bootleg Series discs). This thread makes me want to go and explore it some more so thanks!

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Just found a clean copy of Slow Train Coming from the Goodwill today. Red hot gospel for $2. Ignore the message, dig the amazing tunes. Knopfler in the house!

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That’s definitely the one I like the most from his religious period. Man Gave Names to All the Animals? That’s just good fun. Gotta Serve Somebody and Do Right To Me are my other two favs.

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I really love the rolling thunder revue live release

It’s got my favorite version of hard rain

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Yeah I saw him probably 5 times from 98-01 and the band, his playing was top notch. I also dig all the albums from that era too, Love and Theft criminally underrated.

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I found an old list of Dylan shows I’d seen. Also, I totally misremembered how many I’ve seen. It’s closer to 20 than it is 30 shows. Here are the ones I saw during that time period:

4/25/1997 St. Bonaventure University – Olean, New York
8/8/1997 Darien Lake
8/26/1997 Blossom Music Center – Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
2/14/1998 Public Hall – Cleveland
2/17/1999 CSU Convocation Center – Cleveland
2/23/1999 Marine Midland Arena – Buffalo
11/5/1999 Civic Arena – Pittsburgh, PA – with Phil & Friends
11/11/2000 Lowell Mass
8/15/2002 Erie County Fair Grandstand, Hamburg, NY

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my favorite cover of a Dylan song that isn’t Hendrix doing All Along the Watchtower:

the original 1963 Dylan outtake is underrated too:

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Hard agree, haha!

On the subject of covers, do you know Odetta Sings Dylan? One of my favorites.

Also, THIS:

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yeah I’ve heard the Odetta, but the Dylan in the 80s in new to me. Pretty cool to see Tea Leaf Green on it lol…don’t really know most of those songs well yet. Here is another favorite cover that I was a fan of since it came out in 1994, and may of even heard it before I heard the Dylan version…or at least around the same time:

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I always had an appreciation from my parents playing Desire and Blonde on Blonde in the house growing up, but it all really hit me listening to Highway 61 Revisited for the first time on the train after moving out of home. Specifically Ballad of a Thin Man, which remains my favourite, just the one that speaks to my experience like probably no other song ever will. Ever since then I haven’t stopped looking for all the different little ways he’s connected to basically all the other music I like. I couldn’t believe it when Rough and Rowdy ways came out, how he is still so with it.

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