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

NOW NOW NOW

All this week plz!

Go for it. We want you exhausted and dehydrated for Bonnaroo.

yea whatever works for you tipsy but a brisk pace is fine.

Like, nowsville, daddy-o.

OK! In the absence of objection, I will plow ahead as planned.

3. "Joey" Desire (1975)
(4 votes, 128 points)

He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich
They threw him in the hole one time for tryin’ to stop a strike
His closest friends were black men ’cause they seemed to understand
What it’s like to be in society with a shackle on your hand

a shackle ON your hand eh

Several of these songs on my worst list but what makes them terrible is Dylan's singing.

Hmm I like the vibe of Joey too, if only the lyrics weren't so bad. Emmylou Harris does great backing.

2. "Ballad in Plain D" Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
(5 votes, 2 worst-place votes, 173 points)

From silhouetted anger to manufactured peace
Answers of emptiness, voice vacancies
Till the tombstones of damage read me no questions but, “Please
What’s wrong and what’s exactly the matter?”

lol

tipsy these little lyric excerpts are wonderful

Thx! Of course, even a lot of his great songs have lines that you could excerpt to make them seem awful.

true, very nice excerpting!

awful lyrics on that one :(

And as Clemenza predicted -- every person who voted for this song awarded it the maximum number of possible points, so it wins, or loses. I don't really mind it (I like the trombone), but having heard it bellowed at frat parties, I understand the antipathy.

1. "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" Blonde on Blonde (1966)
(5 votes, 5 worst-place votes, 200 points)

They’ll stone ya when you’re at the breakfast table
They’ll stone ya when you are young and able
They’ll stone ya when you’re tryin’ to make a buck
They’ll stone ya and then they’ll say, “good luck”

http://coolalbumreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/dylan_bob_idiot_wind.jpg

i can't remember but i feel like ballad in plain d completely blew my mind at 15, it was some serious profound shit

I'm glad to see proper deference toward Christmas in the Heart -- all killer no filler

haha, another great photo.

Listened to RDW a few times recently, don't mind it at all - and it's funny too! Was surprised to learn that it was a big hit for him, the first one since 4th Street or something. Also seem to remember reading that it was the song on BoB that took most takes, but then again Heylin writes it was recorded in something like one continuous 17 minute take.

Onward!

BOB DYLAN: UNDER COVER

A total of 26 people submitted lists of favorite Dylan covers. Herein the 25 most appreciated.

25. "Goin' to Acapulco" Jim James and Calexico (I'm Not There Soundtrack, 2007)
(4 votes, 97 points)

http://listentothelion.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452439d69e20148c7d414b3970c-pi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R45yXcXUa3I

Well the alternative schedule would be side polls today, 100-81 tomorrow, 80-61 Weds, and the top 60 next Tues-Thurs. I'm fine with that, not sure what it would do to Outkast rollout (or if that matters -- people can probably follow two polls at once).

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, June 9, 2014 8:46 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

I vote for this btw

When's the album roll out

Yes, great cover, my introduction to basement tapes (now prefer that version)

I'm Not There was on cable the other night - kinda loses a little steam 2/3rds of the way through but man what a great version of Bob. I wonder what he thinks about it.

xpost

Album rollout will be later today, after the covers.

btw, did not mean to post the video, just the link. Will do that for the other covers, when there is one. (I'm not even going to bother posting links during the tracks poll, because Dylan stuff gets scrubbed so much it's not worth the effort.)

Yes, the line is bad, but I really like Ballad in Plain D, it made my list

24. "Lay Lady Lay" The Isley Brothers (Givin' It Back, 1971)
(3 votes, 1 1st-place vote, 98 points)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIIw-LsESqM

Huh. I thought if you left the https it just posted the YouTube link? Or do you take the s off? Or should I just not worry about it and post embeds? There will only be 25 of these, so it shouldn't overwhelm the thread.

I think stet fixed the https thing so you should probably through a [url] around it or something

xpost skeleton: yeah, it sounds good, well sung/played

you've got a lotta nerve to vote for just like a woman as worst. HIGH on my real ballot for the fragile reading on Live 1966. but hopefully more on that later?

re embedding maybe you can use the youtu.be short links?

How did forget to vote for the Isley's? The live version from the next year is just...y'know, you wanna make kids as soon as possible upon hearing it.

My #1 cover. I actually didn't know there was a single edit; I've only heard the 10-minute version.

23. "Mighty Quinn" Manfred Mann (Mighty Garvey, 1968)
(4 votes, 101 points)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/MightyQuinn45.jpg

http://youtu.be/MegdMhdseuI

22. "My Back Pages" The Byrds (Younger Than Yesterday, 1967)
(4 votes, 102 points)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/TheByrdsMyBackPages.jpg

http://youtu.be/h80l4XIPJC4

delivery of "but when Quinn the Eskimo GET'S here" instead of "get's HERE" annoys me but love the flute and overall sound of Manfredd Mann's

21. "All I Really Want to Do" The Byrds (Mr. Tambourine Man, 1965)
(5 votes, 108 points)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a5/TheByrdsAllIReallyWantToDo.jpg

http://youtu.be/9Xc-p0DlQEY

20. "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" Willie Nelson and Calexico (I'm Not There Soundtrack, 2007)
(6 votes, 123 points)

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g225/mintjulip/2368051286_524d7c7fce-1.jpg

http://youtu.be/neWugI4pafs

lame cover results so far, hope something cooler emerges

top 5 is gonna be the band prob

or hendrix. or gene clark. ha i just say that b/c that's what i voted for

I like Dierks Bentley's "Senor" cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsIHbOz-Eus

that's more like it

A-plus thread title

19. "If Not For You" George Harrison (All Things Must Pass, 1970)
(5 votes, 124 points)

http://johannasvisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/bobdylandylan_harrison.jpg

http://youtu.be/rLhculGmGn0

god help me I prefer George's version (first and only time I'll write those words)

it's better!

and harmonica!

18. "Tears of Rage" Gene Clark (White Light, 1971)
(5 votes, 126 points)

http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9szvm1T2Z1rvfns3o1_500.jpg

http://youtu.be/FDTpK-RpYF4

I mean you couldn't drop Neighborhood Bully or Union Sundown off Infidels for, oh I don't know, maybe Blind Willie McTell

Infidels is sort of a special case; I imagine most Dylan fans would indeed have liked to see “Willie” and “Foot of Pride” remain on the album. (Wikipedia quotes someone writing that Dylan cut “Willie” because “he didn't feel his tribute lived up to its sources”... I dunno.)

Dylan cut “Willie” and added “Union Sundown,” which was also the lead single; guess he was in a political mood, or someone thought it’d be a hit.

lol at "union sundown" being the lead single. Dylan's back, baby!

Hmm... just did a little digging, and Wikipedia's list of singles may be misleading -- looks like "Union Sundown" may have been a UK single only, and "Sweetheart Like You" was the first U.S. single (w/"Union Sundown" on the B side).

(Honestly, that's even weirder -- why would UK listeners care about "Union Sundown"?)

yes "Sweetheart Like You" was the single -- got a video too iirc.

It reached #55 on the Hot 100 (not... bad?)

his last top sixty single

Blind Willie would have towered weirdly over the rest of Infidels, threatening to dwarf Jokerman

I like the sound of that record and the outtakes but man there are some embarrassing songs

in a way Brownsville Girl would've been better on a bootleg collection

I'm actually ok with "Blind Willie" being a bootleg thing, but probably would prefer "Foot of Pride" on the LP.

(And yet, that song's obscurity made it all the more awesome when Lou Reed performed it on that TV concert.)

^^^ exactly

foot of pride has so many outrageous lines:

Well they'll choose a man for you to meet tonight
You'll play the fool and learn how to walk through doors
How to enter into the gates of paradise
How to carry a burden too heavy to be yours
Yeah, from the stage they'll be tryin' to get water outta rocks
A whore will pass the hat, collect a hundred grand and say thanks
They like to take all this money from sin, build big universities to study in
Sing "Amazing Grace" all the way to the Swiss banks

I love paranoid/post-Christian, crypto-political Bob.

They used to grow food in Kansas
Now they want to grow it on the moon and eat it raw
I can see the day coming when even your home garden
Is gonna be against the law

How to carry a burden too heavy to be yours

The sneer at the end of the verse

Wow for someone who thinks No Direction Home is literally the best rock documentary ever made, this is pretty tasty news

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/bob-dylan-martin-scorsese-rolling-thunder-film-netflix-1203104499/amp/