POLLING THUNDER REVUE: The Bob Dylan Poll Results Thread (He Acts Like We Never Have Met)

I have zero love for Modern Times. A few good songs, but I hate how it sounds.

world gone wrong too low but i didn't vote

world gone wrong eats oh mercy alive

Yup. Would have voted for it but I voted for a ton of boots instead.

OK, here's where I had to make Controversial Poll-runner Decision #1: Most people (including me) voted for Vols. 1-3 as a single unit, because that's how it was released and generally presented. I know that the discs are also available separately, or at least have been. But clearly most people think of this as one album, not three. So that's how I counted it. For the few people who voted for multiple volumes of it in different slots, I awarded the points based on your highest placing of any of the volumes, and then moved up any of your lower votes to compensate for the gaps in your ballot. Feel free to second-guess me, but this is how it shook out.

15. The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3 (Rare and Unreleased) 1961-1991 (1991)
(15 votes, 339 points)

https://a2-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/149/397aa12367384ab2a723c3f40314b018/600x600.jpg

14. Time Out Of Mind (1997)
(18 votes, 347 points)

http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/111/111086_1_f.jpg

13. Desire (1976)
(15 votes, 1 1st-place vote, 376 points)

http://tangledupinmusic.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/bdylan-desire_08.jpg

12. New Morning (1970)
(16 votes, 1 1st-place vote, 394 points)

https://highfidelityla.com/covers/big/R-1485331-1312855985.jpeg

11. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
(18 votes, 412 points)

http://www.vinileshop.it/vinili/images/bob-dylan-Another-Side-of-Bob-Dylan-vinile-lp2.jpg

oh hey just catching up here, fast is fine!

LOL at:

every person who voted for this song awarded it the maximum number of possible points, so it wins, or loses.

Shakey u need to listen to that Fairport version ASAP

I'm gonna be digging into those cover versions for a while, it's like a having tribute album that's actually good

Depending upon Royal Albert, probably most could guess the top 10 at this point. Just hope Love and Theft isn't #1 (doubtful, I would think).

xposts I love the gulf between that photo on Another Side, where he still seems precocious and trying a little hard, and the cover of Bringing It All Back Home, where it all clicks and he becomes something else.

lol who voted for Desire #1?

Sort of vindicating to see the maligned Desire place just above the overrated Time Out of Mind. Does the first place voter wish to reveal themselves? I'd like to shake yr hand.

I had it at #3

Into the top 10, and speaking of becoming something else.

10. Nashville Skyline (1969)
(20 votes, 2 1st-place votes, 459 points)

http://static.usenetmusic.com/covers/sources/b/ba/ba0/ba0d672b-58dc-779c-3b07-326894ea3e87.jpg

My #1

I love the gulf between that photo on Another Side, where he still seems precocious and trying a little hard, and the cover of Bringing It All Back Home, where it all clicks and he becomes something else.

absolutely. Cover of BIABH is like Lou Reed's line: "my week beats your year"

U.S. Maple was robbed in the covers poll, btw.

And here we go with Controversial Poll-runner Decision #2: The votes reflected here were for The Basement Tapes specifically, which imo is a discrete collection of recordings made commercially available in 1975. There were, however, also some votes for the full A Tree With Roots set, and also a few for Mixin' Up the Medicine/The Safety Tape. So. Depending on your own prejudices, you can add the votes for A Tree With Roots (137 points) and/or The Safety Tape (81 points) to this one. Which, by my calculation, would bump it up to 5th place.

9. The Basement Tapes (1975)
(19 votes, 4 1st-place votes, 544 points)

http://robbie-robertson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/The-Basement-Tapes-Dylan-Band1.jpg

This one is entirely too low, imo.

*16. /Modern Times/ (2006)*
/(13 votes, 293 points)/

otm. This was in my top 5 (might've been my #2). Easily up there with Blonde for me.

I voted for From the Reels as my Basement collection. All the various "unsweetened" collections are better than the released one.

8. The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966, the "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998)
(20 votes, 2 1st-place votes, 547 points)

http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/0886977328923.jpg

yeah I'm good with imagining Basement Tapes or whatever you wanna call it at #5, thanks for the clarification.

7. Love and Theft (2001)
(22 votes, 562 points)

http://eboutique.ric-vintage-records-shop.com/WebRoot/Orange/Shops/d3d8e5da-2056-11de-a9cd-000d609a287c/4B1A/936D/573C/5AF6/CCD0/0A0A/33E7/ABC9/CD-BobDylan-LoveAndTheft-1.jpg

relieved it outscored TOOM.

6. John Wesley Harding (1967)
(23 votes, 2 1st-place votes, 574 points)

http://static.musictoday.com/store/bands/93/product_large/DYDD18.JPG

Of all his albums, this one to me sort of stands outside the rest of his stuff. It's connected, obviously, but it has such an odd particular vibe to it. Like a branch he found and explored and couldn't really take anywhere else, but I go back to it over and over.

otm

It's such an outlier that I didn't even put it on my albums ballot despite some really great songs on it.

Top 5! Pour one out for Suze.

5. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
(26 votes, 2 1st-place votes, 650 points)

http://lossless-galaxy.ru/uploads/posts/2010-12/1293363149_the-freewheelin-bob-dylan.jpg

dang, didn't expect to see Freewheelin' so high, but yeah it's a favorite of mine as well. of course, i didn't vote (due to not knowing what i'm talking about) so i should go back to the peanut gallery

The hidden weapon is "Corrina, Corrina."

love the alternate solo corrina, such a great vocal and guitar line. http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Corrina+Corrina+Alternate+Solo+Version/368L1v?src=5

Funny--I was in the middle of listening to this off Grooveshark:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Talkin+John+Birch+Paranoid+Blues/jxbMB?src=5

4. Blonde On Blonde (1966)
(28 votes, 3 1st-place votes, 820 points)

http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS413211-01A-BIG.jpg

Coming in 5 minutes: The top 3, posted in one block.

3. Blood on the Tracks (1975)
(27 votes, 5 1st-place votes, 854 points)

http://cdn-images.9cloud.us/288/piccit_bob_dylan__blood_on_the_trac_415048472.jpg

2. Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
(33 votes, 1 1st-place vote, 905 points)

http://www.bobdylan.com/sites/bdylan/files/5701847_147.jpg

1. Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
(32 votes, 9 1st-place votes, 1,030 points)

http://www.wnyc.org/i/raw/1/1000x1000.jpg

I was a little surprised by Bringing It All Back Home, because it was almost nobody's top pick. But it just hung around near the top of most ballots.

I guess I'm the great Dylan mean when it comes to albums. Voted for five, the top five, almost in exact order (had #3 and #4 reversed). I believe this is the only poll where I submitted an album list.

It's hard to do a decade breakdown because so many of these were released years after they were recorded, but even if you just go by studio releases there are albums in the top 20 from every decade '60s-'00s. Range of 43 years from Freewheelin' to Modern Times.

BIABH at #2 is a surprise.

Range of 43 years from Freewheelin' to Modern Times.

That is mind-blowing to me.

bringing it all back home his best album cover. highway 61 rose in my estimation revisiting (EH?) it for the first time in many years for this poll, blonde on blonde fell.

I feel like Highway 61 gets a little snubbed in the canon because of the double-album hype around Blonde on Blonde. I love plenty of BoB, but 61 is all killer.

OK, obviously too late to start tracks tonight. I'll crank them up in the morning and get through as many as we can.

Everybody must go home.

Range of 43 years from Freewheelin' to Modern Times.

Also kind of amazing that only about 6 months separates the recording of the #1 and #2 albums. I guess '65 was the year Dylan could do no wrong.

Yay @ BoB not being #1!

OK, well, I hate to do this, but looking ahead at the next few days, I do not have the space-time capabilities to post the tracks. Too much stuff has piled up in the rest of the world that needs to be dealt with. So rather than drive myself crazy, I'm going to punt. The tracks will return next week, with a more stately rollout. My apologies. This ended up being a way busier couple of weeks than I initially anticipated.

Until then -- stay cool kids.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bEfdjVTDRmc/TjK8tpmYesI/AAAAAAAAAUw/P4UH-uj1EVs/s1600/dylan-hearts-of-fire.jpg

good results!