Bob Dylan’s 60 Greatest Songs: Chosen by Paul McCartney, Bono, Patti...
September 8, 2024 7:17 AM Subscribe
... Smith, Nick Cave, Chris Martin and more! Yep, it's another listicle - but one with a more interesting set of contributors than most. Probably best to ignore the rankings element and just treat it as collection of music biz folks discussing their favourite Dylan tracks.
The list was put together by Mojo magazine. Some of the comments quoted go back as far as 2004, but they say they updated the thing just couple of days ago.
The list was put together by Mojo magazine. Some of the comments quoted go back as far as 2004, but they say they updated the thing just couple of days ago.
Ron Wood described Lily Rosemary And the Jack Of Hearts as a “strong mini-novel with twists and dark turns like something Ray Bradbury would have written.” This is interesting to me because I have always thought Tangled Up in Blue was basically a Raymond Carver story: simultaneously compact and epic.
posted by scratch at 7:51 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
posted by scratch at 7:51 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
Dylan is, after all these years, still completely implausible to me. There is an alternate version of music history in which no one remotely like Bob Dylan appears, no one who is pouring out poetry with that simultaneous urgency and detachment, sounding ancient and absolutely new. He’s written a hundred songs that are all like magic tricks, like deja vu.
Also, I believe Dylan deserved to win the Nobel Prize just for the fact of having written a song titled “Subterranean Homesick Blues” that does not contain the line “I got those subterranean homesick blues.”
posted by argybarg at 8:06 AM on September 8 [13 favorites]
Also, I believe Dylan deserved to win the Nobel Prize just for the fact of having written a song titled “Subterranean Homesick Blues” that does not contain the line “I got those subterranean homesick blues.”
posted by argybarg at 8:06 AM on September 8 [13 favorites]
I'd have personally put Tangled Up In Blue and Hard Rain's Gonna Fall higher on the list, but hey.
....argybarg, you've heard of the biopic about Dylan that's coming up this year, yeah?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:13 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
....argybarg, you've heard of the biopic about Dylan that's coming up this year, yeah?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:13 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
I'd have personally put Don't Think Twice, It's All Right at the top of list. It's not there at all, so I guess 61st place then.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:16 AM on September 8 [3 favorites]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:16 AM on September 8 [3 favorites]
I Threw It All Away is devestating, glad it made the list via Nick Cave.
Tangled Up In Blue is indeed better if you listen to the demo versions.
Blind Willie McTell is probably my favorite. It's like a soundtrack to American reality.
posted by swift at 8:26 AM on September 8 [2 favorites]
Tangled Up In Blue is indeed better if you listen to the demo versions.
Blind Willie McTell is probably my favorite. It's like a soundtrack to American reality.
posted by swift at 8:26 AM on September 8 [2 favorites]
Other than SHB, I never found Dylan very engaging as a performer, but he is an absolutely fantastic song writer.
posted by pattern juggler at 8:28 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
posted by pattern juggler at 8:28 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
Neither of my favorites are on this list at all, which is either a testament to the depth of Dylan's songbook or to my terrible taste. ¿Por qué no los dos?, yeah, yeah
Anyway, paper chromatographologist already shouted out Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, so may I propose Boots of Spanish Leather for 62.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:41 AM on September 8 [2 favorites]
Anyway, paper chromatographologist already shouted out Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, so may I propose Boots of Spanish Leather for 62.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:41 AM on September 8 [2 favorites]
My favorite Dylan albums are from "Bringing It All Back Home" through "Blonde On Blonde" and "Blood On The Tracks" and "Desire". "Gotta Serve Somebody" too. Then I turned toward African, Brasilian and music from the all over the Caribbean due to some fine synchronicity.
posted by DJZouke at 8:54 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
posted by DJZouke at 8:54 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
It's Alright Ma at least made the top ten but that's easily my number one.
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:07 AM on September 8 [2 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:07 AM on September 8 [2 favorites]
Clearly 42 and 43 should be switched.
posted by chasing at 9:13 AM on September 8 [4 favorites]
posted by chasing at 9:13 AM on September 8 [4 favorites]
I Threw It All Away is devestating, glad it made the list via Nick Cave.
Nick Cave - I Threw It All Away - Chicago record store 1986
and because the algorithm just served it up ....
Scott Walker - I Threw It All Away
which is interesting on the if-only-Dylan-had-a-decent-voice tip, because I'd take Bob's original over this any day.
posted by philip-random at 9:48 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
Nick Cave - I Threw It All Away - Chicago record store 1986
and because the algorithm just served it up ....
Scott Walker - I Threw It All Away
which is interesting on the if-only-Dylan-had-a-decent-voice tip, because I'd take Bob's original over this any day.
posted by philip-random at 9:48 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
and I love what Patti Smith has to say about Changing of the Guards (link is to her version, a counter-example to what I just said about Scott Walker -- here a more powerful voice elevates the song)
I would never presume to know what his songs are about, but it has such a mix of tarot card and Joan of Arc imagery. The song starts, ‘Sixteen years...,’ and Joan of Arc was 16 when they shaved her head and burned her at the stake. No matter how bitter or melancholy his songs are, there’s always so much resilience, a sense of him striking back. Like the line that goes, ‘Gentlemen, he said, I don’t need your organisation, I’ve shined your shoes.’... The downtrodden hero always manages to have the last word. I don’t really analyse his songs, but I’ve been following him since I was 16-years-old and I don’t question what he does. He can do what he wants as far as I’m concerned.”
posted by philip-random at 10:06 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
I would never presume to know what his songs are about, but it has such a mix of tarot card and Joan of Arc imagery. The song starts, ‘Sixteen years...,’ and Joan of Arc was 16 when they shaved her head and burned her at the stake. No matter how bitter or melancholy his songs are, there’s always so much resilience, a sense of him striking back. Like the line that goes, ‘Gentlemen, he said, I don’t need your organisation, I’ve shined your shoes.’... The downtrodden hero always manages to have the last word. I don’t really analyse his songs, but I’ve been following him since I was 16-years-old and I don’t question what he does. He can do what he wants as far as I’m concerned.”
posted by philip-random at 10:06 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]
... and now having made it through the list, I must conclude it's a damned good list. Thank you, Paul Slade, for tipping me into a Bob Dylan wormhole this smoky Sunday morn. Big fires burning inland from here, which feels eerily appropriate -- the end is always nigh with Bob.
If I have any grievances with the selections in question, it's the same one I usually have with Dylan lists -- too much of the very early stuff, before he grew wise to the fame and spokesman-for-his-generation bullshit. Not to say there aren't some absolute gems on those first three or four albums, but once he plugs in goes fucking electric, the universe truly fractalizes, and expands.
Finally, because every list is WRONG about something. Where the hell is One More Cup Of Coffee, probably Dylan's single greatest vocal performance (on record)? Or as Allen Ginsberg put it, "Hebraic cantillation never heard before in U.S. song, ancient blood singing."
posted by philip-random at 10:30 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
If I have any grievances with the selections in question, it's the same one I usually have with Dylan lists -- too much of the very early stuff, before he grew wise to the fame and spokesman-for-his-generation bullshit. Not to say there aren't some absolute gems on those first three or four albums, but once he plugs in goes fucking electric, the universe truly fractalizes, and expands.
Finally, because every list is WRONG about something. Where the hell is One More Cup Of Coffee, probably Dylan's single greatest vocal performance (on record)? Or as Allen Ginsberg put it, "Hebraic cantillation never heard before in U.S. song, ancient blood singing."
posted by philip-random at 10:30 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]
I like Siouxsie's "fml I didn't know it was Dylan" energy.
posted by credulous at 11:18 AM on September 8 [3 favorites]
posted by credulous at 11:18 AM on September 8 [3 favorites]
He was so prolific at such a high level that a bunch of famous music people can come together and rank his 60 best songs and my favorite Dylan song isn't even on the list.
Boots of Spanish Leather, probably mostly for reasons of nostalgia.
posted by gurple at 12:23 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
Boots of Spanish Leather, probably mostly for reasons of nostalgia.
posted by gurple at 12:23 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
As a huge fan of Bob Dylan and Oasis… I’m waiting for the crowd from the Oasis thread to drop in and start slagging off Bob Dylan.
I'm of the opinion that Bob Dylan is like basketball player Pistol Pete Marinovich for example, great for his time and elevated the genre, but his music has been borrowed and surpassed since, but I think 'has Oasis ever blatantly ripped off Bob Dylan like they do The Beatles?' (I actually think Oasis' first two albums are great - after that not so much) is a good question. Off down a rabbit hole to figure it out.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:44 PM on September 8
I'm of the opinion that Bob Dylan is like basketball player Pistol Pete Marinovich for example, great for his time and elevated the genre, but his music has been borrowed and surpassed since, but I think 'has Oasis ever blatantly ripped off Bob Dylan like they do The Beatles?' (I actually think Oasis' first two albums are great - after that not so much) is a good question. Off down a rabbit hole to figure it out.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:44 PM on September 8
Huh, I never knew Time Out Of Mind was supposed to be Dylan's Odelay. (and was that before or after he got the first royalty check for the Them sample?)
posted by credulous at 12:54 PM on September 8
posted by credulous at 12:54 PM on September 8
A fascinating amount of punk and new wave artists on that list. Richard Hell, Johnny Marr, Siouxsee Sioux, two guys from Gang of Four, Nick Cave? But then it's also David Gray(ew) and Nas and Devendra Barnhardt and just.... The breadth of artists who have deep, thought out and wild things to say about Dylan is really its own testament here.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 12:59 PM on September 8 [2 favorites]
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 12:59 PM on September 8 [2 favorites]
That was a fun list to go through, with some very perceptive commentary. I realize most of this is from 2004, before Modern Times came out, but I still suspect that a more recent list would still omit the Dylan track I return to most often, Workingman’s Blues #2.
The piano line has really wormed its way into my mind, it can start playing at random times on my internal radio station. I also love how the lyrics mix discourse about the economy, with old blues phrasings, and the perspective of an exiled poet. It’s a really strange effect, but it communicates some kind weary alienation, the long afternoon of a life lived beyond usefulness.
Anyway, all this just goes to show that there are enough great Bob Dylan songs for everyone to have their own favorite. And I don’t even know if Workingman’s Blues #2 is my favorite, but it’s definitely the one I think about the most. Mind you, a lot of Dylan songs are on heavy rotation on my inner radio station. Just today I had Abandoned Love playing on repeat.
posted by Kattullus at 1:11 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
The piano line has really wormed its way into my mind, it can start playing at random times on my internal radio station. I also love how the lyrics mix discourse about the economy, with old blues phrasings, and the perspective of an exiled poet. It’s a really strange effect, but it communicates some kind weary alienation, the long afternoon of a life lived beyond usefulness.
Anyway, all this just goes to show that there are enough great Bob Dylan songs for everyone to have their own favorite. And I don’t even know if Workingman’s Blues #2 is my favorite, but it’s definitely the one I think about the most. Mind you, a lot of Dylan songs are on heavy rotation on my inner radio station. Just today I had Abandoned Love playing on repeat.
posted by Kattullus at 1:11 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
I was glad to see "Most of the Time" makes the list, IMHO that song says the most with the least. Somewhere out there is a Marianne Faithfull cover which I've never found again, but is a heartbreaking take.
posted by Rumple at 2:33 PM on September 8 [4 favorites]
posted by Rumple at 2:33 PM on September 8 [4 favorites]
I would like to hear a Dylan cover of Oasis' Champagne Supernova please.
posted by bluesky43 at 3:54 PM on September 8
posted by bluesky43 at 3:54 PM on September 8
Just today I had Abandoned Love yt playing on repeat.
could well be my fave only-released-after-the-fact option. Though Blind Willie McTell is hard to argue against in that regard.
posted by philip-random at 4:11 PM on September 8 [1 favorite]
could well be my fave only-released-after-the-fact option. Though Blind Willie McTell is hard to argue against in that regard.
posted by philip-random at 4:11 PM on September 8 [1 favorite]
Speaking of punk and new wave remember when Dylan performed Jokerman with The Plugz on Letterman? Daniel Romano (who is a great artist you should check out anyway) did the whole Infidels album in that style. It's pretty great.
posted by downtohisturtles at 5:14 PM on September 8 [4 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 5:14 PM on September 8 [4 favorites]
My favorite non-Dylan version of “I Threw It All Away” is by Cher.
posted by smelendez at 5:58 PM on September 8
posted by smelendez at 5:58 PM on September 8
Here's my favorite Dylan cover. I was a little surprised that my favorite Dylan song didn't make the list. I know it's such a pedestrian choice but "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" on "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" is my personal all time favorite. It was covered by Nick Drake and Peter, Paul, and Mary, but I'm not gonna link them, sorry, I don't like 'em.
posted by evilDoug at 7:40 PM on September 8
posted by evilDoug at 7:40 PM on September 8
Such a delightful post, such delightful comments.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:40 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:40 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]
"Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" (Time Out of Mind)
Isn't that an unreleased track from the bootleg series?
posted by milnak at 10:13 AM on September 9
Isn't that an unreleased track from the bootleg series?
posted by milnak at 10:13 AM on September 9
It's been said that some of Dylan's songs have never been released on an "official" album. The album breakdown here is indeed telling:
7: blood on the tracks
6: non-album
5: bringing it all back home, Freewheelin, Highway 61
4: blonde on blonde, Times they Are
3: another side
2: basement tapes, Desire, Love and Theft, Oh Mercy, Time out of Mind
1: bob dylan, Infidels, John Wesley Harding, Knocked Out Loaded, Nashville Skyline, New Morning, Pat Garrett, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Shot of Love, Street Legal
posted by milnak at 10:24 AM on September 9 [3 favorites]
7: blood on the tracks
6: non-album
5: bringing it all back home, Freewheelin, Highway 61
4: blonde on blonde, Times they Are
3: another side
2: basement tapes, Desire, Love and Theft, Oh Mercy, Time out of Mind
1: bob dylan, Infidels, John Wesley Harding, Knocked Out Loaded, Nashville Skyline, New Morning, Pat Garrett, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Shot of Love, Street Legal
posted by milnak at 10:24 AM on September 9 [3 favorites]
Dylan is such a powerful and prolific song writer, that some of his most memorable songs do not even appear in this 60. Several people have already mentioned Don't Think Twice, It's Alright and Boots of Spanish Leather. Also: Maggie's Farm, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Rainy Day Women #12 and 35, ....
posted by JonJacky at 1:34 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 1:34 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]
Many of these picks are deep tracks not mostly hits, which is cool.
My fave Dylan cover is Garcia/Saunders Positively 4th Street.
posted by ovvl at 3:44 PM on September 9
My fave Dylan cover is Garcia/Saunders Positively 4th Street.
posted by ovvl at 3:44 PM on September 9
No love for the Byrds ?
You ain't going nowhere
Mr tambourine man
posted by yyz at 4:50 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]
You ain't going nowhere
Mr tambourine man
posted by yyz at 4:50 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]
« Older Language of the Rococo | Who Gets to Kill in Self-Defense? Newer »
Let’s make sure we’re equal-opportunity offenders here at MetaFilter.
posted by khrusanthemon at 7:47 AM on September 8