50. Wachablosung (1978)
Street Legal surprised fans when Dylan appeared as the lead singer of a big band, with female singers in the background. The words, however, could well represent an indirect personal story, from adolescence to marriage and religious conversion: whatever they were, they brought Patti Smith to tears the first time she heard them.
49. This Wheel Is On Fire (1967)
So they all covered upSiouxsie y os bansheesForKylie MinogueIn every style from psychedelic to electro-glam-stomp, the original basement recording of This Wheel's on Fire, a great song and another of Dylan's countless doomsday visions, has a uniquely strange and intense quality that no one else has achieved. .
48. Pay in Blood (2012)
If you're wondering if Dylan's capacity for rage has been dulled by advancing age, listen to Pay in Blood, a smooth musical accompaniment to a literally murderous expression of rage: snarls; When they come into focus, he seeks revenge on the bankers and politicians who "pump [their his] pee off him" out of him. Voltage.
47. My Back (1964)
Those who were upset when Dylan went electric couldn't say he didn't warn them.somethingThe big thing was coming: My Back Pages spends the better part of five minutes not denying his protest-singing past, but sarcastically denying the kind of certainty that prompted him ("Lies That Life Is Black and White") to embrace.
46. Make You Feel My Love (1997)
No recent Dylan song has become as ubiquitous as Make You Feel My Love, due in no small part to its status as a modern standard.Adele cover version. The original is noticeably darker in tone, mostly because it's sung by Dylan with his terrifying modern husky, but its powerful cocktail of beautifully direct lyrics and indelible melodies is irresistible.
45. I went to gypsy (1970)
This fabulous (perhaps imaginary) account of how he met Elvis casts Dylan in the unlikely role of a wowed admirer and infuses Presley with mystical powers ("he can... pull him out of his fear, put him through the looking glass"). they are to restore another artist's creativity: after meeting them, Dylan has "music to [his] ears from him" from him.
44. Blowing in the Wind (1963)
Seemingly written in minutes, it borrowed the melody.No more auction blocks- a Civil War-era spiritual song performed by Dylan and Odetta - Blowin' in the Wind is perhaps Dylan's most famous protest song precisely because, as he pointed out, it's not a protest song: it's about universals in place of details, which is infinitely customizable. .
43. Don't Talk (2006)
The Modern Times finale brought even more haunting horror (violence, plague, endless suffering) with an opening line that sounded like an old ballad ("when I left...") and a twist that makes no sense. The song's protagonist does justice to a distraught onlooker, but possibly far worse: with his heart filled with "an evil spirit," he ends the song by confronting a lonely woman.
42. One Morning Too Many (1964)
Taking a break from finger-pointing in The Times They Are A-Changing, Dylan reflects on the complex end of their relationship in the poignant One Too Many Mornings.Suze Rotolo: "It's a restless, hungry feeling that doesn't bode well for anyone / If I say something, you better say it."
41. Forever Young (1974)
Written "in a minute," there's a strong case that the best version of the universal depiction of Dylan's feelings of fatherhood is the original demo: the reason he ultimately allowed an incomplete, lo-fi recording to be released is that there is a rawness and emotional force that the two versions of Planet Waves from 1974 never matched.
40. Jokermann (1983)
Produced by Mark Knopfler, Infidels was divided by critics, but everyone seemed to agree that the opening track was great: complex lyrics backed by Sly and Robbie's subtle reggae groove. The best version, however, is the ferocious one that Dylan played on David Letterman's TV show with the new wave band The Plugz, a tantalizing vision of an alternative path in the '80s that he didn't want to follow.
39. Times Change (1964)
The title track on Dylan's third album was truly Dangerous, a call to action that's more about identifying a generational divide that would become a divide as the '60s progressed than any specific reason: "Come on, moms and dads across the country, and don't criticize what you can't understand.
38. Love Minus Zero / No Limit (1965)
"I've never listened to pop music," said a dissenting voice among disappointed folkies interviewed after a Sheffield Dylan performance in 1966. The dissent was right: Dylan's reworking of pop in his own image is emphasized on Love Minus Zero/No. Limit, a deliciously melodic love song with richer lyrics than any love song before it.
37. If It Weren't You (1970)
More compelling than her anthem of marital devotion, Lay Lady Lay, If Not For You offers nothing to unravel, no mystery, nothing to write a lengthy literary essay about, just frankness and emotional connection. It is, to use a phrase not often associated with Dylan's work, captivating.
36. Knocking on Heaven's Door (1973)
Elevation of Knockin' on Heaven's Door to an all-purpose rock anthem, especially inGuns N' Roses Absurdly Revised Cover- This was to be expected given the chorus, but it feels like the song itself is being trampled in the process: you're better off with the simplicity and haunted, reverberating atmosphere of Dylan's original.
35. Slow Train (1979)
Tricky subject: The most controversial of Dylan's reborn songs, which occasionally sails dangerously close to right-wing religious fundamentalism, is also his best. There's a tension to the song that detracts from the slick production, real drama, and conviction in the vocal delivery that shifts from anger to a kind of glee as Judgment Day approaches.
34. Brownsville Girls (1986)
The largely rotten Knocked Out Loaded hinted that Dylan was in trouble. Still, he might occasionally present the goods: co-author with playwrightsam shepard, Brownsville Girl delivers 17 oddly colloquial lines reflecting everything from her lingering writer's block to Gregory Peck, and containing a poignant aphorism from Dylan: "People who suffer together have stronger bonds than those who are happier."
33. Deadly Foul (2020)
Dylan's longest songappeared without warning, in the middle of the Corona lockdown. His meditation on the death of JFK, packed with enough cultural references to keep fans engaged until restrictions are lifted, was a set recitation rather than a song, unlike anything he had recorded before: The Test that the old man was almost 80 years old goes beyond fast. forward.
32. It's All Over, Baby Blue (1965)
"Bringing It All Back Home" ended with a song in the style of the "Another Side" finale, "It Ain't Me Babe". Once again, it's not entirely clear if Dylan is saying goodbye to a lover or to the segment of his fanbase that he wanted him to stay as he was. Either way, he ends with a strong memo to himself: "Access another match, start over."
31. ISIS (1976)
There's a theory that Isis, without backing vocals, is telling the allegorical story of Dylan's attempts to patch up his marriage ("what attracts me to you," he suggests testily, "is what drives me crazy"), but whatever Whatever it is, it's incredibly powerful, his travelogue relentlessly propelled by Scarlet Rivera's violin and the power of Dylan's voice.
30. High Water (for Charlie Patton) (2001)
The culmination of Love and Theft feels like a distant cousin to 1983's Blind Willie McTell, another powerful travelogue inspired by a legendary bluesman whose chorus is lifted from Patton's High Water Everywhere, though the tone is noticeably more menacing, with a odd touch of humor ("Get on the wagon, love, throw your panties into the sea") is profoundly inappropriate.
29. Don't think twice, it's okay (1963)
Ironically, Dylan's paean to Suze Rotolo - in Italy, when she invented the perfect balance between tenderness and poignancy - helped end the relationship for good: when Rotolo heard Joan Baez sing it onstage as a song "about a love affair , how hard". imagined for a long time", this led her to leave him.
28. Along the Watchtower (1967)
thought dylanPortada de Jimi Hendrix de All Along the Watchtowerit was so definitive that he later played it live in the style of Hendrix. But there's a lot to be said for Dylan's humble original, whose brevity and rigor capture the same intensity of recent times in a different way.
27. Most of the Time (1989)
For the most part, both show just how involved producer Daniel Lanois was with Dylan's best album of the '80s, Oh Mercy, the sound is rich, bright and atmospheric, and how Dylan himself bounced back from an artistic crisis: mapping lyrically the emotional consequences. the failed relationship is sharp and sensitive, his delivery perfectly judged.
26. I love you (1966)
The latest song recorded for Blonde on Blonde features a parade of intriguing characters—the "dancer" is Rolling Stone's Brian Jones—but by Dylan's songwriting standards at the time, it's simple: a bouncy, absolutely utter declaration of love. enchanting in which his Nashville band demonstrated once again. The guitar in particular is a joy.
25. A Simple Twist of Destiny (1975)
Dylan admitted to being surprised that people liked Blood on the Tracks ("enjoying that kind of pain," he complained). but regardlessyour backstory, who couldn't love Simple Twist of Fate? A full-blown genius, she's got it all: a hauntingly contagious melody, passionate vocals, and incredible lyrics that show your marriage falling apart in the third person.
24th hurricane (1976)
Imprisoned boxer Reuben Carter's plight prompted Dylan to start writing protest songs again: "Hurricane" is every bit as detailed, harsh and journalistic as "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll." There's real tension between his growling voice and the song's seductive melody, a striking force in its lyrics: "If you're black, you better not show up on the street unless you want to warm up."
23. I Will Be Set Free (1967)
Among Dylan's most covered songs (even the Beatles had) I Shall Be Release turned out to be a sing-along protest anthem, but it's the original, largely unadorned version of The Basement Tapes Raw that best captures its true power: an anthem-like song that's not about a literal prison, but about transcending physical existence.
22. Liberty Bell (1964)
The title makes Chimes of Freedom sound like a protest song, but it's something else entirely, a vivid, poetic account of a storm ("the sky tore apart their poems in sheer amazement... the rain undid the stories") that seems to have produced an illumination of his author: a dazzling guide to where Dylan was headed.
21. I Threw It All Away (1969)
The best Nashville Skyline music. Stunningly beautiful, unbelievably sad, and the complete opposite of Dylan from three years before - her voice doesn't even sound like his - I Threw It All Away is simple, direct, flowing: its beauty lies more in its simplicity than in its density.
20. It's Going to Rain Hard (1963)
In response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall "came straight out of the typewriter," according to a friend who was watching Dylan write. What's more, he recorded it all at once: a torrent of apocalyptic imagery so powerful it survived for a long time until the moment it was supposed to be the soundtrack.
19. The groom is still waiting at the altar (1981)
Dylan's '80s were marked by some strange album track listing decisions, starting here: What made him leave behind that wild slice of blues-rock Shot of Love? It's great, its chaotic snatches and the sheer passion in his voice making it the counterpart to the music of Highway 61 Revisited.
18. Mister Pandereta (1965)
A vestige of the Other Side ofBob DylanForeshadowing her future even more dramatically than Chimes of Freedom, Mr. Tambourine Man was immediately tagged as a song about drugs, but it's more about the act of writing itself, a joyous paean to the moment the muse takes over. control.
17. Ballad of a Thin Man (1965)
No character in a Dylan song has inspired as much conjecture as the Ballad of a Thin Man, poor old Mr. Jones: who the hell could have produced such a relentless discharge of bile? Maybe it doesn't matter: better not to dwell on the subject and just revel - if that's the right word - in its dark sound and the bubbly intensity of Dylan's playing.
16. One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) (1966)
A post-game analysis of a love story gone wrong, One of Us Must Know is the negative image of the "nasty" songs Dylan specializes in: it sounds (most of the time, anyway) like apology instead of apoplexy; His fantastic chorus, driven by Al Kooper's organ, sounds like something between a burst of energy and a sigh.
15. Everything's Fine, Mom (I'm Just Bleeding) (1965)
A song full of justifiably celebrated Dylan aphorisms - "He's Not Busy Being Born, He's Busy Dying" is perhaps the best - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) is an exhilarating rage blast of doomsday imagery that posits the timeless theory. politicians and the media convey a false sense of reality.
14. Things Have Changed (1997)
Dylan's outstanding Oscar-winning contribution to the soundtrack ofwonder boysnotes that he casts, not for the first or last time, a suspicious eye on a world with which he feels out of tune, his insistent, dragging music providing the backdrop for a series of vivid portents of impending doom, all of which accompany the dismissal. with a surly shrug: "I used to care, but things have changed."
13. The Lonely Death of Hattie Carroll (1964)
Arguably the most powerful of all Dylan's protest songs, Hattie Carroll occasionally plays fast and loose with the facts of the racist murder she's depicting, but her combination of journalistic reporting and poetic technique is astonishing: the fact that she's measured unsentimental and unsentimental in Clay makes it all the more shocking.
12. Tangled in Blue (1975)
You could fit some or all of Blood on the Tracks into a list like this: Spurred on by the failure of her marriage, her muse was working overtime, as evidenced by the incredible opening song, a fragmented and unreliable memoir of a failed relationship that It bounces and bounces like a dream moving from one scene to the next.
11. Girl from the North (1963)
Perhaps the best of Dylan's early love songs, Girl From the North County is the memory of an old friend, exactly what is the subject of some rather crazy debate, steeped in nostalgia and regret, mirrored by the harshness of The Freewheelin'. Bob Dylan's Sound turns to muted reflections in the wee hours.
10. It's Not Me, Honey (1964)
In which another kiss to Suze Rotolo -who is frankly a bit lyrical- mixes with Dylan saying goodbye with his generational voice. It's unclear if he's addressing his ex or the public, though closing out his latest acoustic album lends strength to this latest performance.
9. The Sad-Eyed Lowland Lady (1966)
Dylan thought Sad Eyed Lady important enough to devote a whole page to the first rock double album, as if it had to stand on its own. He couldn't decide afterwards if it was an 11-minute masterpiece or if he "just got carried away": listening to the understated tone, cyclical melody and devout lyrics, it's hard not to swear by the earlier performance.
8. It's Not Dark Yet (1997)
The sound of a 56-year-old man grappling with mortality, Not Dark Yet developed a chilling premonition when its author nearly died of pericarditis before its release. But Not Dark Yet doesn't need a scary story. It's successful in its own right: dark, haunting, and at times funny, it was one of the reasons Time Out of Mind was hailed as a masterpiece.
7. Positive Fourth Street (1965)
With one of those grand opening lines stopping you - "You've got a lot of nerve..." - Fourth Street's sly condemnation of the Greenwich Village folk scene seems to hear a particularly savage argument: so cruel you feel guilty because I've heard, so convincingly that you can't help it.
6. Blind Willie McTell (1983)
Another track that Dylan surprisingly discarded, this aching, vibrant and unflinching sonic evocation of the Old South that the eponymous bluesman lived in - equal parts beauty and injustice - was immediately and rightly hailed as one of his best songs when finally released. it was decided to 1991 in Bootleg Series Box volumes 1-3 appeared.
5. Devastation Series (1965)
In the mid-'60s, Dylan complained that he had never written anything as "weird" as the weirdest folk ballads, but on Desolation Row he took balladry to a whole new level. It's a cliché to compare it to TS Eliot's The Waste Land, but it fits: a cheeky 11 minutes of oppressive and absurd imagery that never lets go of the listener, despite its length.
4. Nostalgic Blues Underground (1965)
Everyone knows that the release of Subterranean Homesick Blues was a defining moment in rock history. What's more surprising is how explosive it still sounds, 55 years after the excitement surrounding Dylan's "Going Electric" and the burgeoning counterculture the song seemed to embody: the relentless staccato volley, the lyrical fireworks, the chaotic accompaniment. Infinitely copied, never equaled.
3. Idiot Wind (1975)
On one level, it's an anger that rivals anything his younger, amphetamine-fueled self has generated, but Idiot Wind differs from Ballad of a Thin Man or Positively Fourth Street in that the author not only hurls bitter accusations, but writhes in pain: "I haven't known peace and quiet for so long I can't remember what it's like." The end result is an extraordinary and heartbreaking listen.
2 Visions of Johanna (1966)
Like a Rolling Stone may have been more revolutionary, but Visions of Johanna has a strong claim to be Dylan's best song, a parade of luminous imagery that manages to be both unnerving and incredibly powerful ("The spirit of electricity howls at Through Your Bone Face Meanwhile, his Nashville backing band sounds just right: subtle yet haunting, hours of lyrical storytelling seep into the sound.
1. Like a Rolling Stone (1965)
Let's be clear that ranking Bob Dylan's 50 Greatest Songs is not a relaxing distraction to get you through the lockdown period. It's an extremely frustrating exercise that can only end when you stare in amazement at the songs you skipped and frown in a WTF. Expression. As for number 1, sometimes you have to bow to the inevitable. In the author's own words, Like a Rolling Stone changed everything: six minutes of "constant hate," its chorus loosely based on Ritchie Valens' La Bamba, its musicians—as author Greil Marcus noted—simply hanging on to it with their In the song Fingernails, was a single that broke borders and changed the face of music forever.complete booksMuch has been written about it, unraveling the meanings of its dense lyrics, but Marcus's point is crucial: coupled with the sheer toxicity of Dylan's delivery is the sense that the journey into uncharted territory perpetually on the verge of collapse is the what are you so exciting forever.