10 Essential Bob Dylan Albums

Bobcats are fascinating people if you get to know us. We love Bob Dylan for unique style and we look up to various Dylanologists who have made themselves known for analysing Bob Dylan and giving us great reading material (please refer to my article "10 Books on Bob Dylan" for more information). With his incredibly large catalogue, it's never easy becoming a Bobcat because you are really lost of what there is to listen too—there's so much choice!

I always like turning people into Bobcats and I love it when new Bobcats enter our universe so we can share songs and experiences of listening to Bob Dylan together. What we are going to go through first is the 10 essential albums that you will be required to listen to if you are beginning your journey to becoming a Bobcat.

This will include various commentary on the albums, mention of particular songs, and a bit of personal stuff to do with my history with the album. Bob Dylan really is a formidable character, so welcome to the beginning of your Bobcat journey towards becoming a real hardcore Bob Dylan fan.

There will more during this series, but I wanted to start off nice and easy if you're not already into that much Bob Dylan, you really need to start listening to the following 10 albums:

1. 'Highway 61 Revisited'

"God said to Abraham, kill me a son..."

This album is a staple in the life of any Bobcat. Including possibly one of his most well-known songs, "Like a Rolling Stone"and some great epic stories, this album has made a name for itself as being the second in the trilogy series preceded by Bringing It All Back Home and succeeded by Blonde on Blonde. This album also has an iconic cover which has been copied and copied by musicians after Bob Dylan, it's a very "fight me" look and he's almost daring you to listen to the album. The importance of this album is that this is when Folk Rock and Folk Rock and Roll was really born, it was growing up and now, everyone was respecting him and listening to his words. Every song is important in its own right and the album is made up of incredible music that you just can't pin down. It's brilliant. My own history with this album is that it was the first Bob Dylan album I listened to and the very first song I ever heard was "From a Buick 6," it was loud and raving and really got me into listening to his stuff - I just thought it was incredible.

Three key songs:

• "Like a Rolling Stone"
• "Desolation Row"
• "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"

2. 'Blonde on Blonde'

Blonde on Blonde is one hell of a great album. It has some really great songs on there like the epic "Visions of Johanna"and the brilliant "Absolutely Sweet Marie."The album's sound is versatile and different to its predecessor, Highway 61 Revisited. It has a brilliant amount of work that has clearly gone into it. There are so many key songs on this album that it was difficult to just pick three. But Blonde on Blonde is normally known as his magnum opus of the 1960s, his great masterpiece of an album and his most enigmatic lyrics are contained within. I loved listening to this album through my first year of university because of its ability to influence an entire generation of people and more. It has the ability to influence writing style and rhythm, I found it incredible to listen to when getting into my own writing. Anyways, here we go.

Three key songs:

• "Visions of Johanna"
• "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"
• "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again"

3. 'Blood on the Tracks'

Normally called "the divorce album," Blood on the Tracks is more than just a divorce album—it's a story. There are so many great songs on this album that it is hard to measure and Bob Dylan really outdoes himself when it comes to writing classic folk songs. The sound of this album is normally quite mellow and traditional folk, but there are some faster paced songs on it as well like "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts"and the famed "Tangled Up in Blue."The album is a timeless classic and some people even say it's better than Highway 61 Revisited—I understand that because here we get more of Bob Dylan's vocal talents as well as his writing ones. I love the way the album moves from one song to the next like it's giving you a bigger narrative and I also have this album featured on many of my top ten songs lists as many of the songs come from this album. It is a grand album and not many experiences of listening to music can top listening to Blood on the Tracks.

Three key songs:

• "Shelter from the Storm"
• "Tangled Up in Blue"
• "Idiot Wind"

4. 'Bringing It All Back Home'

This album is incredible because it's the first album where Bob Dylan fuses rock and roll and folk together. Normally taken as the beginning of the holy trinity—Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited,and Blonde on Blonde—Bob Dylan creates a great argument to why he is the most important musician and songwriter of the 1960s. Songs such as the famed "Subterranean Homesick Blues"and the brilliance of "Maggie's Farm"are featured on the epic with other songs standing out because of their musical resistance to form. I listened to this album a lot and I have loved every single song on it (managing to actually be able to recite the lyrics to "Subterranean Homesick Blues"in the song's timing is an achievement, I think). And now, time for our regular key songs. These are songs you should listen to because of how known they are, not necessarily my favourite songs from the album—we're not getting that personal just yet!

Three key songs:

• "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
• "Gates of Eden"
• "Mr. Tambourine Man"

5. 'Time Out of Mind'

I think this album is very important when it comes to getting into Bob Dylan's music because it represents the resurgence of Bob Dylan's classical folk style and yet, has an incredible amount of experimental sound on it. There are some incredible songs on this album and there are also some brilliant lyrics involved with each of them. The album won a Grammy, I believe and it was well-deserved. Time Out of Mind means so many things to Bobcats because of its wonderful almost classical sound. I remember listening to this album so much on my MA that I actually didn't play very much else on my headphones throughout the day!

Three key songs:

• "Trying to Get to Heaven"
• "Not Dark Yet"
• "Highlands"

6. 'Infidels'

Infidels is a great album released in 1983, it represented the end of the Gospel era and the return to form, folk rock and rock and roll. It's Bob Dylan showing us that he can do what he likes, when he likes. And the album cover is amazing, I love that photo of him. Anyways, seminal epics like "Jokerman"and the famed love song "Sweetheart Like You"colour the album and Bob Dylan still retains that vision of sin and virtue that also represented the Gospel Era. I personally love this album because it's one of my favourite Bob Dylan albums ever. There is not a single bad song on this album. (But then again, Bob Dylan has never really done a bad song, has he?) Every song on this album stands out. I actually wrote an assignment about "Jokerman"at university and how it represented Bob Dylan talking to himself—I know, amateur Dylanology from the stupidest person in the room. Let's move on...

Three key songs:

• "Jokerman"
• "Sweetheart Like You"
• "License to Kill"

7. 'Shot of Love'

This album is highly underrated and serves as the greatest album of the Gospel Era of Bob Dylan. Released in 1981, this album has since become a turning point in Bob Dylan's career, not only marking the "end" to Bob Dylan's Born-Again Christian albums but it also marked a new idea for rock music. It made Gospel Music and Christian Rock become cool and have some real flavour to it. Songs like the famous "The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar"and the amazing "Property of Jesus"colour this album and there are many, many great songs to listen to here. I loved listening to this album well, because, I love the Gospel Era. I like the fact that Bob Dylan found Jesus, obviously.

Three key songs:

• "The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar"
• "Property of Jesus"
• "Every Grain of Sand"

8. 'Love and Theft'

This is a brilliant album to start your Bobcat journey with because it represents Bob Dylan's great catalogue of Folk Rock and what he can do with it. This is Folk Rock, mixed with Rock and Roll, mixed with Swing. I love this album for its amazing tracks and even though it was released in 2001, it remains timeless almost twenty years later. This song is coloured by the songs "Lonesome Day Blues,"the darkened "High Water," and the epic "Mississippi."Fun Fact: "Mississippi"is actually my favourite song of all time, and that's not just Bob Dylan songs—it's any song. "Mississippi"is just my favourite. It's a beautiful album.

Three key songs:

• Mississippi"
• Lonesome Day Blues"
• Sugar Baby"

9. 'John Wesley Harding'

This album is such a great masterpiece because it comes straight after Blonde on Blonde and the famed motorcycle crash of '66. This album represents Bob Dylan going back to the acoustic, or at least half-acoustic sound for a while. It's normally called a minimalist album and has some incredible songs on it. The songs that are probably the most musically mind-blowing are "Dear Landlord"and "As I Went Out One Morning."There's something really nice about this album to listen to, for Bobcats it represents when Bob Dylan went back to doing something that made him happy. He didn't look all that happy on his '66 tour and on the cover of this album he looks like he's having a great time—and to a Bobcat, that's what really makes this album great.

Three key songs:

• "The Wicked Messenger"
• "Dear Landlord"
• "All Along the Watchtower"

10. 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is one of those seminal albums. It has many great songs and represents the fame that Bob Dylan was coming into during the early 1960s. There are many great songs on this album and it is normally called one of the greatest albums of all time. This is where Bob Dylan finally becomes what we've all been waiting for: The God of Folk. There are many great songs on the album to listen to and there are many great other versions of these songs as well, not just by Bob Dylan but also by other artists. I loved listening to this album when I started university, my undergraduate. I was always into finding new meanings in poetry and so, I used "Masters of War"for one of my creative assignments, and again—I didn't tell anyone. I love interweaving my ideas about his songs into my creative works—it's fun.

Three key songs:

• "Blowin' in the Wind"
• "Masters of War"
• "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"