Bob Dylan

What is your favorite song and why?

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A Simple Twist of Fate. Because no artist is really great until they've felt the weight of regret which is the baseline human condition.

Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Visions Of Johanna for the lyrics

one of us must know (sooner or later)

bob-dilan-time-changin-128kbps.ogg.mp3

A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall

Girl from the North Country.

I have soft sports for 'oxford town' and 'a hard rains a-gonna fall' because they got me into dylan

i'd say sad eyed lady of the lowlands though. maybe the man in me just because big lebowski lol.

also, was on a Sup Forums break during the nobel prize kerfuffle. what do you guys think about him winning?

this

IT'S ALRIGHT MA

the version with johnny cash is so good

I think it was dreadful. I say that as a huge Dylan fan. It was a horrible summing-up of how institutionalized rock has become as the establishment music. Their voting for him was like the end of Saving Private Ryan where the guy's whining "was I a good man?" or some shit, and the question he's asking is, was my life worth it? Voting for Dylan was the generation who ruined history to preserve their own comfort saying "we did good, didn't we, we made a difference, didn't we?" Dylan is less naive than they were in voting for him. He knows that arms dealers listen to his music. He knew what it meant to play in China - he joked that they gave away unsold tickets "to the orphanages". Here these corny motherfuckers are giving him a literature award for his libretti, and ignoring his music entirely, for his involvement in a culture he backed away from the minute it crystallized. For a handful of songs he wrote when he was catering to Communists to serve his own purposes. It was a day to play "Day of the Locusts".

This

If you see her, say hello

I agree with about 70 percent of this roughly

I also think that giving him the nobel prize was a misstep, but I view it more as a publicity stunt than some contrived baby boomer effort to preserve their culture.

I like how specific that is, which is the 30 percent you disagree with?

if I had to choose one artist - musician, author, filmmaker - to represent the 20th century, I'd pick Bob

I think it was both, but hugely the latter. Europe's inability to admit that the 60s people were the 80s people, that one made the other possible, that neoliberalism began with the freeing of the erotic economy - all that was at play, it seems to me.

So you don't read books or watch movies, cool, you're not alone.

If I had to choose one, I wouldn't choose any, because it's invalid on its face.

I will add that this is equally true of the Anglosphere if not more so, but western Europe, at least, shares in that delusion, and the Nobel Prize is about who western Europe wants to add to the canon. That generation is now considering its legacy.

yeah, I see you there now

I'm glad!

It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry

What's the love for Nashville Skyline?

Take 1 of Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

but, One of us Must Know, I Want You and Memphis Blues are the best 3 consecutive songs in music

not so sure about it being a prerequisite for great art, also not sure if it's any kind of baseline, I'm interested why you think that though

Not a huge fan of any desu. He may be a great writer but I really hate his voice with a passion. I guess if I had to, Times are-a changing, and Don't think Twice is also ok, but I much prefer both these versions

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Sounds like you disagreed with more than 30 percent. Anyway - I don't think it's a prerequisite for great art, but I do think it's a prerequisite for a great artist. Not every great work of art is about that, but the artist has to be aware of it before they're resonating in the space we're all living in. I think it's the baseline because it's what's left when you get too old for those waves of romantic elation and despair you have when you're young. One day you notice that what you did to hurt other people, what others did to hurt you, and what life did to hurt all of you, is all part of the same thing. There aren't going to be as many chances left to change your mind. People take what you say more seriously and less seriously. There's less you can do that can make up for the past or redefine you or it. Even the best of the ideas you had when you were young have damaged you. Most of your life, you won't be growing up, just growing old, becoming a more limited version of who you are, and you box yourself in every time you move unless you stop worrying about any of it. You can choose to unmoor yourself from any consistent identity or community, but that gets harder to. A new kid in town is exciting, a new thirtysomething in town is a drifter. Whatever you do, as long as your memory lasts, regret is always there. And now you're in the room where most great art comes from. This is when you realize how much of even prestigious culture is not going to nourish you.

harder *too

Only a pawn in their game or Boots of spanish leather. Only a pawn is such a relevant song today as it was back when. Boots is such a beautiful song too. I like this era of Dylan and these are my favorite of the day, but that always changes

Visions of Johanna

Its been my favorite song of his for years. Without even realizing it I felt like all of it connected with me on a personal level, as im sure its meant to with a lot of others. On top of that the beautifully written, dreamy lyricism on top of the quiet blues melody of the band. Its just perfect m8. I honestly cant think of any other piece of music that takes me to that same place that Visions of Johanna does. I feel like ive learned a lot from Dylan and his music.

Probably RltFalloutPlease

Nice backpedaling

Tangled up in Blue - Bootleg 1 - 3 version. Tangled Up in Blue was my favourite until I heard that alternate take, I was fucking gobsmacked at its beauty.

I much prefer the original, but I like the drug induced haziness of the Nashville Skyline version.

No backpedalling involved, re-read the original post. All great artists understand that feeling.

"Don't think twice, it's all right" is probably my favourite and will always be in my playlists. I also love "All along the watchtower" the lyrics are just incredible, the way the story of the song seems to loop. Masterful.

Queen Jane Approximately.

A great mix of a cynical, critical tone mixed with real warmth and love.

Idiot Wind, the GOAT breakup song.

Tbh dont think intenton matters. Plus, i doubt his music has that much influence above his lyrics.

I Shall be Free No. 10

oh right I forgot why

because it makes me mentally image Dylan fighting Ali

Knocking on Heaven's door
Fuck the shitty GnR cover, It's one of the greatest Western songs of all time.

So, what exactly is that thing he learned over in England?

I love Another Side of Bob Dylan by the way, especially Motorpsycho Nightmare.

Abit long and pretentious. Maybe a good life lesson for someone excessively "deep" but i dont think its a prerequisite for great art. Plenty of fantastic art has nothing to do with regret.

I love that side too but i dont see any trong warmth or love vibes in the song. I cant listen though because the harmonica is just painful on the ears.

I've already posted but fuck it, it's too hard to pick just one.

I'm loving Absolutely Sweet Marie right now. If you've ever been in a relationship with a massive fucking pain in the arse of a girl it's a great pick me up.

husbando desu

I think the love, to me, is rather apparent with the narrator asking Jane that he'll be there for them if they wish to leave their painful and fabricated life- especially the way Dylan sings it with such warmth and care. I really like the Harmonica solo but I can definitely see why you could find it grating

This man gets it

Brilliant song, love the bouncy rhythm combined with the thumping keyboard, greatest of all Dylan's harmonica solos as well. Great how the lyrics slowly become more and more abstract and it's probably Dylan's best vocal performance with his gruff, husky world weary voice

the lyrics on stuck inside are 10/10

Ive always interrpruted it as just him talking to some unlikeable drama queen woman pieing everyone off including him and telling her she will get her come uppence and he wants her to come back so he can tell her "i told you so"

I aalso always felt all of it as sung sneeringly.

sarcasm and bitterness is pretty common in dylan

I must admit I also love it for the risque fapping joke.

>I'm just sitting here beating on my trumpet

I think you're taking an element of what makes an artist seem great to you and then extrapolating. then again, I asked because I feel like regret and longing are 2 characteristics of the Dylan stuff I like that stick out to me too and simple twist of fate is one of my favorites as well. But yeah, obviously what makes a great artist actually great is being jewish though.

Masters of War, because it's punk as fuck!

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Even though this isn't really an original song, I still think its his best.

Fourth Time Around

I love it. I need to listen to more of the bootleg albums.

because i listened to it so much when it came out i have a soft spot for "Jokerman"

but probably "Highway 61" for its irreligiousity; I quote the opening sequence pretty regularly.

I also sing a couplet from "Like a Rolling Stone" to myself for self-laceration purposes.

Idiot Wind. Just love how openly bitter and aggressive it feels.

>I also sing a couplet from "Like a Rolling Stone" to myself for self-laceration purposes.

Can I ask which out of curiosity? I repeat to myself the last verse of Buckets of Rain when I'm in a shitty place, although that's not quite the same.

>You’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely/But you know you only used to get juiced in it

why hasn't he died yet

Positively 4th Street - its the biggest fuck off to friends who aren't really friends.

A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall

I'm not sure if this helps or not but I honestly think it would depress Bob to think of people self-harming to his music. I suspect that's why he's so dismissive of Blood on the Tracks as his greatest work ("It's too depressing").

Not as punk as Ballad of Hollis Brown

You really should, a lot of his all-time best stuff is just on compilations released decades after the fact, it's crazy to imagine what it must have been like for Dylan fans in previous decades

Yes, but no punk band has covered Hollis Brown. D.O.A. covered Masters of War, though.

(Other punk bands have also covered Maggie's Farm. Lyrically Hollis Brown IS punk as fuck. You're correct there)

>no Desolation Row
A lot of my Top 20 have already been mentioned but nobody else seems to recognize his No. 1

Back when I had a last.fm until a few years ago I had over 10,000 Dylan plays and listened to almost all of his albums and bootlegs at least twice but I've never found something as awesome an experience as Desolation Row, even after hundreds of times listening to it over more than a decade, I still usually have to pause for a second after it's over to catch my breath

Not fully punk but Rise Against did cover Hollis Brown, it was one of the few not atrocious covers on the Chimes of Freedom compilation if I remember correctly

Indeed, I'm learning Blind Willie McTell on guitar just now, unbelievable to think that song never would have seen the light of day without the bootleg series.

Hurricane, runner up would be Highway 61.

Ballad of a Thin Man is best

My Back Pages and It's All Over now baby blue. Cathartic songs about death and rebirth.

I Want You. It's very sweet and catchy.

I think that song it's kinda underrated here, nobody ever talks about that song. It's sweet but also kinda melancholic and obviously the dychotomy between the surreal verses and the simple and catchy chorus adds something to it.

another one of my favorites

It's a brilliant song. I especially love the dancing child in his Chinese suit verse.

In what way is My Back Pages about death or rebirth? Not criticizing, im genuinely curious. I've got a totally different take on the song.

this.

and the whole blood on tracks album in general

I'm disappointed just because that song came up this late in the thread
seconded

This
Second might be Ballad of a Thin Man
also Visions of Johanna; Girl From the North Country; Don't Think Twice, It's Alright; The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll; Like A Rolling Stone