[Note: in honor of Bob’s 70th birthday, I change my “Favorite Songs” list from 30 to 70.]
It’s my thought that, after 45 years, everybody who loves Bob Dylan has their own Bob Dylan. By which I mean, once you’ve fallen in love with Bob’s music, your relationship to it is different than anybody else’s.
So rather than some kind of overview of details that you’ve heard a zillion times before and/or don’t really care about, here are are some snippets of how my ongoing love of Bob’s music, etc. has intersected with my life for the past 30 or so years. 30 more, please!
- At some point in the mid-1980s, I discovered that the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State had a vinyl copy of infamous “Royal Albert Hall” bootleg. Why they had it, I don’t know. I do know that there were a couple of other boots there, including The Rolling Stones Live’R Than You’ll Ever Be. In any event, I recorded it to cassette a couple of times, and spent the next few years trying to figure out how to, uh, liberate it from its involuntary servitude. I often wondered how those boots ended up in the Library and, just now, I did an online search of the Henry Madden Library to see if it’s still there. Apparently not. Good. Perhaps it was played to death.
- My brother Joseph turned me on to Bob Dylan. He was the original Dylan freak in our household, and I first grew to love Bob’s songs not as much through the original records, but rather through Joe’s interpretation of songs like “I Don’t Believe You” and “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry.” He would often sit in his room and play them on an acoustic guitar, and I would wander in and bang out primitive percussion on the back of a broken old acoustic.
- Some Dylan songs that I think are incredibly overrated and/or don’t really need to hear again:
- “I Shall Be Released”
- “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”
- “Joey”
- “They Killed Him”
- “Ballad of a Thin Man”
- “Masters of War”
- “Disease of Conceit”
- “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”
- That Victoria’s Secret commercial? Hilarious, not scandalous. Same goes for his cameo on, er, Dharma & Greg.
- Mid-1980s again. This time in the KFSR office, Kirk & I are listening to the promo copy of (I think) Infidels, and I couldn’t help but think that I was part of a grand tradition of college students stretching back two decades who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the new Dylan album. I’m betting that tradition has now stretched forward two decades as well.
- Q. How awesome is it that Modern Times debuted at #1? A. Pretty fracking awesome! His first #1 in 30 years. How often does any artist — pick a field, any field — who pretty much changed the world when he was 25 is still doing work that ranks with his best at 65? And how often do people get that fact and actually purchase the art in droves?
- I think it was in the late 1970s or early 1980s when I saw my first excerpts of the live 1966 footage — Dylan screaming through his hands, all around the mic while The Hawks just kept getting higher and higher behind him. It was from some rock history documentary, and wow. You know. Wow. I desperately wanted more, and eventually got my hands on an 764,987th generation bootleg video cassette of Eat The Document. Of course, that wasn’t enough, either, even though this boot had the full version of the infamous limo ride with John Lennon where a clearly fracked-up Bob annoys the shit out of John. Anyways, the No Direction Home DVD had a couple of full songs from this tour as extras. Still not enough.
- My original “Best-of” Bob Dylan cassette compiliation was made on May 8, 1989, and it took up five full C-90s. It also didn’t include Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home which shared a C-90 or Blood on the Tracks, which fit pefectly on a C-60, if you added “Up to Me” at the end where it belonged. OK, so that was eight cassettes. In 2002, that grew to ten 80-minute CD-Rs, and who knows how many .mp3z the next one will be.
- I’ve seen Dylan in concert four times:
- November 1980 — The Warfield, San Francisco: This was the first of his post-gospel tours.
- June 1986 — Greek Theatre, Berkeley: with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
- July 1987 — Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland: with the Grateful Dead.
- May 1995 — Community Theatre, Berkeley
The nadir was the Dead show in Oakland. It goes without saying that those stadium shows are pretty brutal during the best of times, and it seemed like Bob couldn’t care less. However, I did get a really cool T-Shirt with an iconic mid-60s headshot of Bob. Somehow, Joseph ended up with that T-Shirt. I’m assuming that it shrunk and I didn’t.
- Late 1980s: an recently exed-girlfriend walked up to me and breathlessly declared this: “My new boyfriend has long hair, a beard and he likes Bob Dylan and Woody Allen.”
- I had a cat named “Zimmerman.”
- It was during one of those awesome mid-1990s record swaps at USF — maybe even the one where I met Keith Knight — where I found all five discs of The Genuine Basement Tapes. Even after 15 years of the Bootleg Series, there is still enough unreleased stuff on those to rival anything he’s ever put out. Hint, Hint.
- If pressed, I will name these as my favorite Dylan albums where he recorded all of the songs at pretty much the same time:
- Bootleg Series 4: Live in Manchester 1966 (The Electric Disc)
- Blood on the Tracks
- Blonde on Blonde
- Highway 61 Revisited
- The Genuine Basement Tapes
- “Love and Theft”
- Bringing It All Back Home
- John Wesley Harding
- World Gone Wrong
- Time Out of Mind
- Planet Waves
- Here are my essential Dylan compilations:
- Bootleg Series 1-3
- Bootleg Series 7: No Direction Home
- Biograph
- Bootleg Series 8: Tell-Tale Signs
- I first got online in the spring of 1993 via the now-defunct Prodigy. P*! After poking around for a bit, I ended up joining — and for a couple of years, until I discovered Netscape, contributing a lot to — a couple of online communities. One was centered around The Replacements, and the other was centered around Bob Dylan. The Replacements boards were essentially my indie-rock peer group, only spread across the country: we were all pretty much the same age and had similar experiences and outlooks.
The Dylan boards were more heterogenous: the age group ranged from 16 to 66, and there were tremendous arguments over things like politics and religion and music. The only thing that everybody agreed upon was Bob Dylan. And in the early 1990s — when a lot of people, especially the Baby Boomers — thought he was washed up, there was even a lot of disagreement on him.
- Rox is not a Dylan fan. It’s that whole voice thing. She tolerates him for my sake, knowing that it’s one of the many many prices she has to pay for marrying me. So I was pretty surprised when she said that she liked “Things Have Changed” as we were watching Wonder Boys. The lesson here: no one is immune.
- For one of my classes at Fresno State — I think it was something like “American Popular Culture of the 20th Century,” I actually got to write a term paper on Bob Dylan. Kirk was in that class with me, and he got to write his on Woody Allen. I felt like I was getting away with something, or maybe it was because I’d stopped going to the class, knowing that most of the grade was based on the term paper.
- The liner notes in World Gone Wrong are awesome — despite the fact that it was the second album in a row of decades-old covers, those liner notes alone suggested that he hadn’t fully lost contact with his muse. I love the part about the Never-Ending Tour.
- This could literally go on forever. The Never-Ending Post!
- I think that if you look at Masked and Anonymous as a piss-take, as opposed to some kind of grand statement, you’ll realize that the haters are wrong. It’s the visual equivalent to the World Gone Wrong liner notes. Or maybe it’s about happened to the guy in Don’t Look Back had he not had the motorcycle accident.
- Of all of the Bob Dylan parodies over the years, and there have been so many that the RIAA oughta launch an investigation, my very favorite is “Song For Julie Newmar” by The Cat Burglars. Just for the chorus:
How does it feel?
To be a cat
To be stared at
To be far from flat
To be caught by a bat
2F3567
Like a Batman villian
Like a Batman villian - The above, BTW, was an inside joke, as is this: “Bob Dylan. Boooob Dylan. Bob. Dylan. Bob Dylan.”
- Only one song from the 1966 tour was officially released in 1966: on the B-Side of the “I Want You” single, they put “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” recorded live in Liverpool. It’s never been released on an album in the U.S.A., though I think it’s part of those rarities that iTunes is currently hawking. It’s amazing: Garth Hudson’s organ sounds like Christmas lights blinking in the fog. Anyways, somehow a copy of that 45 made it to the jukebox in the Olympic Tavern (now Club Fred) in Fresno. Whenever one of my bands played there, I made sure to put it on prior to soundcheck and prior to when we hit the stage. I kept waiting for “holy shit” reactions but it never got any.
- “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” Bob Dylan has been recontextualizing riffs and melodies and words for his entire career. And yet, from “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” through “Girl From the North Country” to “The Levee’s Gonna Break,” once it’s filtered through him, it comes out like Dylan, doesn’t it?
- There are nearly as many Bob Dylan books are there are Bob Dylan songs. As a matter of fact, because of the success of Greil Marcus book about “Like a Rolling Stone,” each song will eventually have its own book. Out of all of the ones that I’ve read, my favorite is Clinton Heylin’s Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions [1960 -1994]. One one level, it is exactly what it sounds like — a listing of every song that Bob’s ever recorded, who played on it, and which album it was recorded for. On the other hand, given the ongoing treasure trove of bootlegs, it’s also a fascinating look at Dylan’s process. And Heylin — who’s been able to monetize his Dylan obsession, and is as opinionated as they come — is a hoot. The only problem, of course, is that it’s now ten years out of date. We need a new edition!
- I think that my favorite music video — by anyone — is for “Jokerman.” I don’t know why, I just know that I’ve loved it ever since we taped it from — I think — USA Network’s “Nightflight.” It almost had to be, because they sure as shit wouldn’t have played it on MTV.
- Compared to some of the people out there — the ones who’ve been following his every move for years and have created elaborate organizations and websites — I don’t think that I would consider myself a mega-fan, at all.
- These were my favorite Bob Dylan songs when I decided to make a list of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. I have no doubt whatsoever that I missed several. This is roughly in order of preference. (Updated on May 15, 2011.)
- “Visions of Johanna” – Blonde on Blonde (but also the Bootleg Series 7 version. Whew!)
- “Tangled Up in Blue” – Bootleg Series 2 (but really, any version of this amazing, changeable tune)
- “Jokerman” – Infidels
- “Up to Me” – Biograph (If this had ended Blood on the Tracks, it would have been my favorite album by anyone.)
- “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” – Live in Manchester 1966
- “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry” – Highway 61 Revisited
- “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” – Live in Manchester 1966
- “Isis” – Desire
- “Shelter From the Storm (Live)” – Hard Rain (In a lifetime of great singing, he’s never topped the way he sang “And they gave me a lethal doossseeee!!” on this version)
- “Cold Irons Bound (Bonnaroo 2004)” – Bootleg Series Vol 8 (from the “Deluxe” Version)
- “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” – Bringing It All Back Home
- “Drifter’s Escape” – John Wesley Harding
- “Like A Rolling Stone” – Highway 61 Revisited
- “Girl From the North Country” – Live in New Orleans 1981 (from the Child’s Balloon bootleg, one of my favorites)
- “Delia” – World Gone Wrong
- “She’s Your Lover Now” – Bootleg Series 2
- “Not Dark Yet” – Time Out Of Mind
- “High Water (For Charlie Patton)” – “Love and Theft”
- “Blind Willie McTell” – Bootleg Series 3
- “I’ll Remember You” – Live in Australia 1986 (from the Hard to Handle video)
- “Tell Me, Momma” – Live in Manchester 1966
- “(Stuck Inside of Mobile With The) Memphis Blues Again” – Blonde on Blonde
- “Mississippi” – “Love and Theft”
- “You’re a Big Girl Now” – Blood on the Tracks
- “The Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar” – Shot of Love (no one remembers that this was originally a b-side)
- “I’m Not There (1956)” – I’m Not There Soundtrack
- “Most of the Time” – Oh Mercy
- “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)” – Blonde on Blonde
- “Subterranean Homesick Blues” – Bringing It All Back Home
- “Precious Angel” – Slow Train Coming
- “Farewell, Angelina” – Bootleg Series 2
- “Sugar Baby” – “Love and Theft”
- “Goin’ To Acapulco” – The Basement Tapes
- “Positively 4th Street” – Biograph
- “Walking Down The Line” – Bootleg Series 1
- “Things Have Changed” – Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol 3
- “Idiot Wind” – Blood on the Tracks
- “Tombstone Blues” – Highway 61 Revisited
- “It Ain’t Me, Babe” – Another Side of Bob Dylan
- “All Along The Watchtower” – John Wesley Harding
- “It’s Hell-Time Man” – Band of the Hand Soundtrack
- “Please Mrs. Henry” – The Basement Tapes
- “Brownsville Girl” – Knocked Out Loaded
- “Dirty World” – Traveling Wilburys Vol 1
- “I’ll Keep It With Mine” – Bootleg Series Vol 2
- “World Gone Wrong” – World Gone Wrong
- “We’d Better Talk This Over” – Street Legal
- “Every Grain of Sand” – Shot of Love
- “Absolutely Sweet Marie” – Blonde on Blonde
- “Love Minus Zero / No Return” – Bringing It All Back Home
- “When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky” – Bootleg Series Vol 3
- “Day of the Locusts” – New Morning
- “Hurricane” – Desire
- “Something There Is About You” – Planet Waves
- “I’ll Keep It With Mine” – Bootleg Series Vol 2
- “When He Returns” – Slow Train Coming
- “Desolation Row” – Highway 61 Revisited
- “Series of Dreams” – Bootleg Series Vol 3
- “Po’ Boy” – “Love & Theft”
- “Never Say Goodbye” – Planet Waves
- “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” – Pat Garret & Billy The Kid
- “In The Garden (Live)” – Live in New Orleans 1981
- “Baby Stop Crying” – Street Legal
- “Workingman’s Blues #2” – Modern Times
- “Highlands” – Time Out of Mind
- “Broke Down Engine” – World Gone Wrong
- “One Man’s Loss” – The Genuine Basement Tapes
- “New Morning” – New Morning
- “God Knows” – Under the Red Sky
- “Mr. Tambourine Man” – Bringing It All Back Home
- I still hate when he is described as “Folksinger Bob Dylan.” Seems so limiting.
If you dislike balad of a thin man you have gotten too old.
If you dislike masters of war your a republican.
thats where i stopped reading. this article is WAY too long.
Thinking something is overrated is not disliking it. However, I should point out that I’ve always thought that “Ballad of a Thin Man” was overrated, so age doesn’t enter into it.
Interestingly enough, “Masters of War” was written while a Democrat was President, though somebody who spells “ballad” b-a-l-a-d probably doesn’t have any sense of history. And if you think I’m a Republican, you don’t have much sense at all.
However, you’re right about one thing: the article is WAYYYYYY too long.
“Puffing heavily on a cigarette, he smokes 80 a day”.
I’m glad I’m not me.
It took me a second to get that comment.
I am going to disagree with you about Ballad of a Thin Man. It still stands up today — if it were a novel (and, in a way, it is a novel), it would be considered up there with the greats of the 20th century.
Fantastic article! Should of made it longer.I’m definetly a more casual/pedestrian-like fan of Dylan but here is my list of most under-rated Dylan songs.
10) ‘Your’re a big girl now’
9) “Not Dark Yet”
8) “Dignity”
7)” Foot of Pride”
6) “Let Me Die In My Footsteps”
5)” Its alright Ma (I am Only Bleeding)”
4) “Million Dollar Bash”
3) “The man In Me”
2) ” High Water For Charlie Patton”
1) “Love Minus Zero No Limit”
Regarding that new video… them visions of Johansson kept me up past the dawn.
Thanks John,
Imagine how long the one for R.E.M. will be. I actually was in the middle of how *they* helped change everything.
# 1 If you think that makes him a Republican, let me shock you: King Bob is clearly a neo-con. He peaked as a leftist in his early twenties then wrote “… I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”.
Following this epiphany, he has pretty much kept his political opinions to himself and does not go in for the kind of silliness you would expect. Another reason to admire him.
Hi there
Noticed your Dylan stuff
You might like to link to my blog – it has MODERN TIMES TRACK BY TRACK
10 essays on the album
It’s at
chrisgregory.org\blog
Let me know if you can do this and I’ll arranmge a reciprocal link
Cheers
Chris Gregory
great art-icle! you should check out the piece on music here… might find interesting:
http://shanesblog-o-sphere.blogspot.com/
I was neutral on Dylan until this phenomenon. Now I’m pretty sure I don’t like his work.
Yeah, I can see your point. Still, you can’t blame Dylan for this, can you? It would be like blaming the Beatles for “Beatlemania.”
The greatest Dylan song is sad eyed lady of the lowlands. It never gets boring
Thanks to Expecting Rain, I found this link today. Oh boy, where to begin. My love for Dylan was just ignited this past February. For years, I always liked his song but not his voice. I grew up listening to Desire, so I always had a thing for Hurricane.
But today, I love EVERYTHING about his voice. I love the way he uses it at 67. I love the way he used it at 27. I love the joke he makes about it with that reporter from Time magazine back in 66 (something about being just like Caruso).
I’m buying Dylan albums slowly, and I like it that way. I can savor each song. I bought Modern Times recently and my first reaction to my friend was this: “I have 4 words for you: Holy Sh*t it’s awesome!”
I don’t think I will ever tire of listening to Bob, especially on Theme Time Radio Hour.
Hey great post–your knowledge of the bootleg aspect to the Dylan career is pretty impressive. I liked the way you weaved in some of your personal stuff with your brother and the concerts.
Nice job!
Wow, another tour de force. I thought I knew Dylan, but I hardly know anything post-Desire.
The iTunes Music Store thanks you heartily for this piece. I’m assembling a 70-song playlist for a Dylan’s Birthday Party at my house Tuesday, and your list led to 11 downloads (more than Rolling Stone’s did).
PS “Your a Republican” — hee hee.
Thanks, rsd!
I Like your remark about the fact that Dylan is different for each of his “fans”. My point is that once you really start listening to a Dylan song (I’ve got my execptions, too, of course) you discover something you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Most of his songs make sense in the same way a good view of a city or a valley or a mountain make sense, they appeal directly to something inside your mind
even though it’s just words and music.