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12 Essential Bob Dylan Tracks

A Dozen Dylan Songs One Must Absolutely Know

By Gabriele Del BussoPublished 2 years ago 16 min read
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Joan Baez and Bob Dylan iconically carrying his guitar and harmonica

For all of those who still think "Why does someone with an asinine voice like Bob Dylan get so much critical acclaim?" and "Maybe he was good for his time, but this man seems incredibly overrated", there is evidently a reason people hold this artist in such high esteem. While you might not necessarily enjoy his music (whether the style, the voice or the genre is simply not to your liking), I do believe it valuable to add Bob Dylan to your music culture if you are someone who seeks to discover great art. It is to note that while these might not be the artist's definite all-time greatest songs, the twelve listed below are a considerable starting point to the wonder that is Bob Dylan. Lastly, my cousin and I once had a talk that if Dylan were to have suddenly died in 1976, his legacy amongst the unsurpassed songwriters of the last century would most likely remain intact to this day. Therefore, although he has continued to release substantial material since then, the twelve songs chosen here reflect his career until that point (with the release of Blood on the Tracks).

Song to Woody

I genuinely believe this to be a great palce to start. Is it amongst his most accomplished work? Not at all. However, to fully understand the praise given to such a monumental artist, it is vital to be conscious of his origins. Woody Guthrie, the great Dust Bowl Troubadour, had a profound influence on Bob Dylan whose early works focused on folk music. Guthrie was a folk singer/songwriter who travelled America during the Great Depression and wrote about the struggles of the common people. It was at the age of twenty years old that Dylan wrote the lyrics to "Song to Woody" as an ode to the great folk singer (from whose tune titled "1913 Massacre" the melody was borrowed). The song is brief, the minimalistic sounds are but an accoustic guitar and the singer's hoarse voice that sounds as if it's coming from an elderly man but actually serves to initiate the listeners and tell them that, just like Woody Guthrie, Dylan is a man of the people with a voice that comes from you and me.

Great Lines:

"Hey, hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song

Bout a funny ol' world that's a-comin' along

Seems sick an' it's hungry, it's tired an' it's torn

It looks like it's a-dyin' an' it's hardly been born"

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

One year later, at the age of twenty-one, the artist recorded this protest song in which every line reveals potent imagery of all one person comes to witness in the early years of 1960's America (imagery which remains potent to this very day). Close your eyes and let your vivid imagination get the best of you for the entirety of this seven-minute track. It will finish much sooner than you think, and the social ideas Dylan attempts to convey will be engraved in you for quite a while longer after that. Throughout the track is revealed numerous sites the wanderer has visited, incidents his eyes have seen, sounds his ears have heard, and people he has met, and every line was supposedly meant to be the start of multiple songs Dylan believed he would never have the time to write. The final verse of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is the most important, as Dylan, considered a spiritual leader in the eyes and ears of many artists of that decade, utters what may arguably be the quintessential line of his entire career: "I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking, but I'll know my song well before I start singing."

Great Lines:

"Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son

And what did you see, my darling young one

[...]

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children"

Subterranean Homesick Blues

The opening song to Bringing it All Back Home, the 1st of Dylan's classic rock album trilogy, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is interpreted with such rapid-fire delivery, some historians have credited it as being a precursor to rap. This is a prime example of Dylan being able to pen a catchy, brief, fun song throughout which he is able to spit out one idea of great social and political import per second (in a similar way that Eminem is able to destroy another musician's career in a single line). The first time you hear this song, it all happens so fast that it will probably leave you wondering just what in God's name Dylan was attempting to talk about. However, the beat is so different, and the lyrics so intriguing, upon subsequent listens, the message grows clearer. At this point in his career, the influence folk music had on him was slowly beginning to die out.

Great Lines:

"Ah get born, keep warm

Short pants, romance, learn to dance

Get dressed, get blessed

Try to be a success

Please her, please him, buy gifts

Don’t steal, don’t lift

Twenty years of schoolin’

And they put you on the day shift"

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

This song is unreal. So much so that Dylan himself had claimed in the early 80's that he had no idea how the inspiration had come to him so many years prior, in the sense that he would never be able to reproduce something like it ever again. First off, whether you have heard this song or not, the title itself should be enough to at least RESPECT and UNDERSTAND why Dylan is of the most accomplished poets of the 20th century. Second off, I believe this song to be vital to his catalogue since it is important to note that not all of Dylan's songs are as catchy as "Subterranean Homesick Blues". There are some tracks of his that might prove difficult on any newcomer who has mostly been exposed to upbeat music. However, it is a masterful example of the existential poetry of which the artist was capable, and those verses of despair that sound grim and cold are done so purposely to contrast the very slight yet optimistic melody within the song's fleeting chorus.

Great Lines:

"Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn

Suicide remarks are torn

From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn

Plays wasted words, proves to warn

That he not busy being born is busy dying

[...]

So don’t fear if you hear

A foreign sound to your ear

It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing"

Like a Rolling Stone

It had to be on the list. Often cited as perhaps the all-time greatest song in popular music, "Like a Rolling Stone" is and will remain a masterpiece in centuries to come, alongside bygone triumphs such as Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 in C minor" and Strauss' "The Blue Danube". For those who do not know the story, Bob Dylan had gained quite the following for his folk persona up until this point. However, with the very first sound that resonates on this track - a loud rimshot which Bruce Springsteen once described as sounding like "somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind" - Dylan abruptly announced to his fans that he was ready to experiment with something completely different. Although revamping oneself might seem exciting in the present day, this was a bold move of his at the time, for many of his fans actually turned on him when his music shifted from folk to rock, but a man like Dylan could not care less, and he kept at it anyways. The instruments all come together nicely, the rhyming is clever and complete, and the straightforward question "How does it feel?" which his raspy youthful voice repeats numerous times throughout the song all made "Like a Rolling Stone" the classic that it is. The first song on Highway 61 Revisited (the 2nd of his rock trilogy album), it begins with "Once upon a time" and concludes after six minutes of personally attacking the poor rolling stone of a human being to whom this track refers. Simply put, it is perfect.

Great Lines:

"You used to be so amused

At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used

Go to him he calls you, you can't refuse

When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose

You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal

How does it feel?"

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

This next track might be an unpopular choice to include in this list, but I believe it to be a prime example of what Dylan was able to accomplish in the very hype of his famed rock trilogy. It has an abundance of literary references, a bluesy flavor, no chorus, and a droll storyline often present in Dylan's works. The opening line "When you're lost in the rain in Juarez, and it's Eastertime too" is so exceptionally unrelatable yet bizarrely personal at the same time, it really makes you wonder just how Dylan was able to pull it off. Never have I travelled to Juarez, nor do I have any idea to whom he was referring by mentioning Sweet Melinda and Saint Annie, but I in point of fact know them, as I do Juarez, as I do the plights and tribulations of the song's main character. Amongst the many great lines in the song, there is one that never fails to leave me in awe, for it's completely ridiculous to me that Dylan was able to fit all of its syllables into the specific time frame, and it goes: "You must pick one or the other though neither of them are to be what they claim". Go ahead, and take a listen.

Great Lines:

"I started out on Burgundy, but soon hit the harder stuff

Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough

But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff

I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough"

Positively 4th Street

Which 4th street was Dylan reffering to? Who was the person he so bluntly criticized throughout this song? Who cares? My mind still harks back to this song every now and then, upon thinking of some past idiotic acquaintance of mine who no longer holds a place in my life. There is no subtle poetry, nor are there vivid images he paints in this one. "Positively 4th Street" simply shows another side of Bob Dylan, one that has the artist make sure the world knows the person depicted in the song is an utter moron. Dylan is smart enough to know that a song like this would have a much bigger effect on the person in question's ego than simply two middle fingers to their face. He was capable of doing this, and he knew it. He evidently had fun with this one, as he did a lot of his other compositions, and the whole track is both lively and satisfying to all those who at one point in time felt the same way about some horrid soul who walked into their own lives.

Great Lines:

"No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace

If I was a master thief perhaps I'd rob them

And though I know you're dissatisfied with your position and your place

Don't you understand, it's not my problem?"

Just Like a Woman

I know it has been subject to somewhat harsh criticism for its supposedly sexist lyrics, but I never understood from where this argument stems to be quite frank, for "Just Like a Woman" is honestly one of the most beautiful ballads I ever heard in my entire life. The song deals with one man who falls totally infatuated with this one girl who has sprung into his life, and Dylan describes through both ardent lyrics and a rich romantic melody how truly wonderful it feels to have found a woman who englobes all he could ever have wished for in a partner. With respect to musical instruments, Dylan was very famous for both his accoustic guitar and his harmonica, and while some deem his harmonica to sometimes sound as if it were screeching too loudly, I beg to differ, and this song should serve as a supreme example as to why. Once the lover finishes serenading the woman, the harmonica blasts, and the last instrumental minute feels as if, although the singer has explained all he possibly could, the love story persists nonetheless, as do all of ours, for there are certain emotions felt with the romantic partners we come to know in our lives that simply cannot be expressed through words.

Great Lines:

"She takes just like a woman, yes she does

She makes love just like a woman, yes she does

And she aches just like a woman

But she breaks just like a little girl"

Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

This next one concludes Blonde on Blonde, the final album of his celebrated rock trilogy (and the first double album in music history), and is impressively hefty. It stands at a little over eleven minutes long, and although calm in nature, it is amongst the Dylan songs I have most revisited in my life. If you are not used to lengthy tracks that do not serve to make you want to dance, you will indeed need to mentally prepare for this one. However, once you are ready, the result is such a gratifying experience, it will leave you content of having tackled what I consider to be a formidable example of unattainable poetry. After listening to Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, I recall having called my uncle with whom I had quite a protracted discussion, for I became convinced every other songwriter in history seemed like a joke next to Dylan. One should not be allowed to have an opinion on Bob Dylan, the poet, the 2016 Nobel laureate in literature, if this track has yet to be discovered, and even if it's not your style or if you simply do not appreciate poetry as a whole, I cannot fathom how one could sincerely think this man did not deserve the revered prize after hearing Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.

Great Lines:

"Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums

Should I leave them by your gate

Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?"

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

After the rock trilogy, Dylan returned to folk with John Wesley Harding, tackled country music with Nashville Skyline and released Self-Portrait in 1970, which was apparently meant to be an album purposely done terribly to remove himself the title of "spiritual leader" to which he was referred by so many people in the 60's. In the early 70's, Dylan did write some impressive songs all the same, such as this one, which might sound familiar even to those who claim to have never before heard the artist's work. Subsequently covered countless times, Knockin' on Heaven's Door incorporates gospel into his folk music and is, above all else, a raw, honest and brief track that serves as a poignant reminder of the inevitability of death. For those who have lost a loved one or simply cannot remove the concept of their own inescapable death, Knockin' on Heaven's Door is a hauntingly beautiful tune that will find you at your most vulnerable state. It is amongst the many reasons the cheery version by Guns N' Roses seems like such a farce after all these years. Axl Rose singing "Knock-knock-knocking on heaven's do-ouh-woor, hey heyyy hey hey yeah!" just does not compare to the heartbreaking sounds of Dylan's original version.

Great Lines:

"Mama, put my guns in the ground

I can't shoot them anymore

That long black cloud is comin' down

I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door"

Tangled Up in Blue

In 1975, Bob Dylan released Blood on the Tracks, an acoustic album of stripped-down songs which many consider to be his magnum opus. Gone are the days of a large backing band and experimentation. This is Dylan at his most vulnerable. The opening track is "Tangled Up in Blue", a triumph in storytelling, throughout which the verses depict sporadic encounters of a man and his love interest over a span of many years. Each verse concludes with the title of the song, and soon afterwards commences another moment in the life of the main character at which point his mind departs from his lover once more. As are all the songs on this album, Tangled Up in Blue feels so relatable, and one cannot help but hark back to past episodes of their own stirring love affairs that tragically came to their fated ending so long ago. Near the conclusion of the track, Dylan begins to prolong the word "blue" in his verses to announce that the end of his tale is indeed near. The final verse has him extend the word in such a way that the listener becomes aware that, although there is no more of the story left to be recounted, there might be some day. Dylan has supposedly added verses every now and then in concert, which just goes to show that this type of love affair is of a fire that will never die.

Great Lines:

"So now I'm going back again

I got to get to her somehow

All the people we used to know

They're an illusion to me now

[...]

But me, I'm still on the road

Heading for another joint

We always did feel the same

We just saw it from a different point... of view

Tangled up in blue"

Shelter From the Storm

A personal favourite of a cousin of mine, which later became a personal favourite to me as well, Shelter From the Storm feels so bare. I must have heard it hundreds of times, and still its lyrics enthrall me. Every line is pure poetry. Every verse reveals masterful imagery. The chorus "Come in, she said, I'll give ya shelter from the storm" brutally stabs me at my core, and the lines are laid over a melody which leaves me with the latent feeling of hope in an overwhelmingly grim world. It is the final Dylan track of the essentials listed here, although once again, this article should more than anything serve as both a starting point to those who seek to learn of the artist's work as well as a list of songs of which people should be aware if they ever wish to enter Dylan into any argument whatsoever. There are obviously other songs I could have included here, and if this dozen was to your taste, an added ten are included (though not spoken about) at the bottom of this article.

Great Lines:

"Well, I'm livin' in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line

Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine

If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born

Come in, she said

I'll give ya shelter from the storm"

BONUS

"Girl From the North Country"

"Don't Think Twice, it's Alright"

"Mr Tambourine Man"

"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"

"Ballad of a Thin Man"

"Desolation Row"

"Visions of Johanna"

"John Wesley Harding"

"All Along the Watchtower"

"A Simple Twist of Fate"

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About the Creator

Gabriele Del Busso

Anglo-Italian having grown up within the predominantly French-speaking city of Montreal.

Passion for all forms of art (especially cinema and music).

Short stories usually deal with nostalgia and optimism within a highly pessimistic society.

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