This album is an apotheosis. Recorded in two days, essentially, and with very few takes. I find it almost impossible to choose between 7 of these songs, which are absolute masterpieces. I guess I'll go with "Mr. Tambourine Man" but "It's Alright, Ma" is close.
― Sam Weller, Monday, 9 April 2018 09:54 (six years ago) link
On the Road Again.
Just kidding. It's Alright Ma
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 9 April 2018 15:05 (six years ago) link
"Love Minus Zero/No Limit"
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 9 April 2018 15:10 (six years ago) link
Nearly impossible to choose between the last two tracks.
― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 9 April 2018 15:14 (six years ago) link
while Outlaw Blues and On the Road Again are both lesser songs, the only possible dud on this album is Gates of Eden which verges on parody but mostly reads like a very tired person on amphetamine:
The motorcycle black MadonnaTwo-wheeled gypsy queenAnd her silver-studded phantom causeThe gray flannel dwarf to screamAs he weeps to wicked birds of preyWho pick up on his bread crumb sins
― niels, Monday, 9 April 2018 17:05 (six years ago) link
reads like a very tired person on amphetamine
also reads like bruce springsteen's first three albums, verbatim
― fact checking cuz, Monday, 9 April 2018 17:47 (six years ago) link
the "Gates of Eden" from the Halloween show is better because it's even more tired & deliberate.
― droit au butt (Euler), Monday, 9 April 2018 18:44 (six years ago) link
agree that "gates of eden" ends up seeming a bit like a parody of dylan's surrealist songs, but i was just listening to this live electric version from 1988 and he really sells the song there. totally vicious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXsNi02mRPw
― tylerw, Monday, 9 April 2018 18:52 (six years ago) link
could pick anything from the second side honestly, all of which are duking it out with SHB and Maggie's Farm. as much as I love Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde, etc., Bringing It All Back Home is the album I usually return to, and the one with my favorites of all his lyrics.
― stormzy daniels (voodoo chili), Monday, 9 April 2018 18:54 (six years ago) link
i always overlook this record, among the pre-motorcycle crash electric records i always go to highway 61 first
subterranean homesick blues is nuts, that pure manic energy, distillation of the beats, rock n roll, chuck berry, speed, the mid-60s zeitgeist, that kind of shit that made me obsessed w/ that decade. i love the video he did, rabbi ginsberg lurking around in the background
― marcos, Monday, 9 April 2018 19:11 (six years ago) link
"She Belongs to Me", with "...Baby Blue" in a close second (the upper registers in his vocals on that one always send shivers up my spine).
― bodacious ignoramus, Monday, 9 April 2018 19:30 (six years ago) link
xp oh hell yeah that's a great live version, it needed a little preaching up!
― niels, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:58 (six years ago) link
Been ages since I played the actual album (as opposed to my favourite songs)--truthfully, I can't remember how "Outlaw Blues" or "On the Road Again" go. I'm sure I'd immediately remember them within a few seconds. After "She Belongs to Me," I'd go with "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Maggie's Farm," "Love Minus Zero," "Mr. Tambourine Man," and "Baby Blue." Great album cover, although I'd probably still go with the next two for cover art.
― clemenza, Monday, 9 April 2018 22:37 (six years ago) link
this record really is great. even those throwaways you mention — "outlaw blues" and "on the road again" get by on pure attitude. might go w/ love minus zero ... just such wonderful lyrics:
The bridge at midnight tremblesThe country doctor ramblesBankers' nieces seek perfectionExpecting all the gifts that wise men bringThe wind howls like a hammerThe night blows cold n' rainyMy love, she's like some ravenAt my window with a broken wing
― tylerw, Monday, 9 April 2018 22:43 (six years ago) link
like clemenza, I can't remember the last time I played this album. Probably my favorite sixties Dylan after JWH, though.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 9 April 2018 22:53 (six years ago) link
"bob dylan's 115th dream" was my favorite thing in the world for like two months after i discovered it, i remember writing a short story for high school in sophomore year loosely based on it. still think it builds to one of the best endings of any story-song i've ever heard -- maybe the best, feels as complete and satisfying as, like, "casey and the bat" or something. and nobody says GOOD LUCK quite like bob.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 9 April 2018 23:00 (six years ago) link
You say "How are you? Good luck," but you don't mean it...
― clemenza, Monday, 9 April 2018 23:09 (six years ago) link
They'll stone you, and then they'll say "Good luck"...
― clemenza, Monday, 9 April 2018 23:12 (six years ago) link
Total weak setup line: "I asked the captain what his name was and how come he didn't drive a truck."It's in there for no reason except to set up the rhyme "He said his name was Columbus and I just said 'good luck'."I always thought that if he recorded the song about 10 years later, he could've said "I asked the captain what his name was, as if I gave a fuck."Oh well.― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:34 (thirteen years ago) Permalink
It's in there for no reason except to set up the rhyme "He said his name was Columbus and I just said 'good luck'."
I always thought that if he recorded the song about 10 years later, he could've said "I asked the captain what his name was, as if I gave a fuck."
Oh well.
― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:34 (thirteen years ago) Permalink
― explosion from DOOM courtesy of id software (Doctor Casino), Monday, 9 April 2018 23:23 (six years ago) link
"bob dylan's 115th dream" was my favorite thing in the world for like two months after i discovered it, i remember writing a short story for high school in sophomore year loosely based on it.
No way, we did a skit based on it freshman year.
― timellison, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 03:39 (six years ago) link
I feel bad saying this, but it feels to me like a warm-up for Tombstone Blues.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 03:44 (six years ago) link
Welp, I voted for Gates of Eden, and I'm not sorry. It's not necessarily the best song on here, but to me it's maybe the one that's the most intense and visionary. Seems to be fearlessly exploring some other woozy dimension. To be honest I feel it feels kind of of a piece with "It's Alright Ma...". They compliment each other.
― glumdalclitch, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 03:58 (six years ago) link
― timellison, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 3:39 AM (thirty-three minutes ago)
haha that is awesome!
"and how come he didn't drive a truck" seems like a very bob dylan thing to ask someone, somehow
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 04:15 (six years ago) link
Shocked at 1) no Love Minus Zero consensus 2) people aren't totally sick of Subterranean Homesick Blues
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 04:47 (six years ago) link
Only other real contender here is Mr. Tambourine Man. Great record, but it has Love Minus Zero.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 04:48 (six years ago) link
I'm just coming out and saying that I refuse to choose.
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 05:37 (six years ago) link
i said, you know, they refused jesus, too. he said, you're not him.
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 06:19 (six years ago) link
even those throwaways you mention — "outlaw blues" and "on the road again" get by on pure attitudeindeed one of my favorite Bob moments is
Then you ask why I don't LIVE hereHoney, how COME you don't MOVE
― niels, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 06:27 (six years ago) link
i love the two takes in 115th dream! i voted baby blue!
― 龜, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 18:25 (six years ago) link
Yeah the false start on the dream is awesome
― stormzy daniels (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 19:10 (six years ago) link
It's Alright Ma
― brimstead, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 22:50 (six years ago) link
Leaning a lot towards It's All Over Now Baby Blue but I really can't ignore Love Minus Zero/No Limit either - went for the latter in the end.
― Valentijn, Thursday, 12 April 2018 13:52 (six years ago) link
115th Dream, for the false start, for the hilarity of its twisted take on the founding fathers/Moby Dick, for the sound of a band having fun
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Friday, 13 April 2018 12:11 (six years ago) link
Shocked...people aren't totally sick of Subterranean Homesick Blues
I'm a little tired of it too, except when I watch the Pennebaker clip, when it automatically becomes the greatest thing ever done. I'm going to copy it for my staff yearbook photo this year (deciding on which cue card right now).
― clemenza, Friday, 13 April 2018 13:03 (six years ago) link
voted for Maggie's Farm, love the bile and the way that he sketches those characters
Well, he puts his cigarOut in your face just for kicksHis bedroom windowIt is made out of bricksThe National Guard stands around his doorAh, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more
― stormzy daniels (voodoo chili), Friday, 13 April 2018 13:46 (six years ago) link
his bedroom window is made out of bricks is such a devastating insult lol
she talks to all the servants about Man and God and Law. everybody says she's the brains behind pa.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 13 April 2018 21:14 (six years ago) link
THEN HE FINES YOU EVERY TIME YOU SLAM THE DOOR
well he hands you a nickel, he hands you a dimehe asks you with a grin if you're havin' a good time
it's that "with a grin" that makes the line for me
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 13 April 2018 22:14 (six years ago) link
otm
maggie's brother is the most immediately hateful one: the paymaster and enforcer. cruel smile on display. but behind him, pa capital, walled up and guarded (yet still smoking in yr face)-- probably worse. and behind him... what? an idea? an eye in the pyramid kind of deal? when force is gone, there's always mom
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 13 April 2018 22:21 (six years ago) link
also, where is maggie? what does she do? have always wondered.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 13 April 2018 22:25 (six years ago) link
Welp, I voted for Gates of Eden, and I'm not sorry. It's not necessarily the best song on here, but to me it's maybe the one that's the most intense and visionary.
feel u, certainly it has some fairly jumbled verses but it also has some of my fave images on the album (dogs on the beach, rotting kingdoms, "the princess and the prince discuss / what's real and what is not" is superior to pound and eliot in the tower imo), a droning vortex melody that makes the clumsier lines at least spooky, and (my fave moment) the drawled assonance on the phrase "i try to harmonize".
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 13 April 2018 22:39 (six years ago) link
voted Dream just cos it's so much fun. feels like one of those 60's comedies with Peter Sellers or whoever and a house full of random partiers.
really love when he sings "An Englishman said 'fab'", it just comes out of nowhere so it's extra funny. it's just so plainly stated, it doesn't need any spin to it, just the idea of an Englishman saying "fab" in this whirlwind of insanity instantly gets the joke across.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 13 April 2018 22:47 (six years ago) link
― difficult listening hour, Friday, April 13, 2018 5:25 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
maggie thatcher, obv
― stormzy daniels (voodoo chili), Friday, 13 April 2018 22:48 (six years ago) link
dylan always was ahead of his time
http://phildellio.tripod.com/homesick.JPG
I'm guessing a quarter of the people I work with already think I'm senile, so really, this can only help.
― clemenza, Friday, 13 April 2018 22:50 (six years ago) link
SHB is classic, more than ever. for me the cards have transcended from cool to overused cliche to now legendary, its an Instagram post, its a selfie, a meme, complete with celebrity photo bomb cred. the funny thing about being ahead of your time is that doesn't stop being true in fact it only seems for prophetic as time goes on.
really love the Nilsson/Lennon version on "Pussy Cats", it has a real cool dirty Voorman bass line. Dylan's original band recording is of course perfection, the ultimate junkyard rock. like a wheezing huffing punk steam engine dying in slow motion.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 13 April 2018 23:17 (six years ago) link
I play tambourine carefully and, I think, reasonably well. Good tambourine players are few, and what they do is subtle and song-enhancing. I love a well-played tambourine.
HOWEVER. There is no one in the history of ever who has "played a song" on the tambourine, as if it were a solo instrument capable of harmony, melody, or song structure.
And, I will further postulate, if it were possible to "play a song" on the tambourine, no one who "played a song" on the tambourine did so in a way that was sensorally transformative to the assembled listeners.
― fleetwood machiavellian (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 13 April 2018 23:29 (six years ago) link
I always thought Mr. Tambourine Man’s primary instrument was guitar and that Turkish tambourine was just an extra.
― Made in the Shadow Blaster (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 April 2018 00:32 (six years ago) link
Have you ever played a tambourine...on acid?
― how's life, Saturday, 14 April 2018 00:59 (six years ago) link
i want to say also it took me some time but eventually it clicked that Lou Reed is trying to be Dylan on so many VU tracks ("baby be gooood/ do what you shouuuld/ you know it'll be alriiight").
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 14 April 2018 15:57 (six years ago) link
ah im regretting not voting for "It's All Over Now Baby Blue". the chord change where he dives into "the carpet too is moving under you" is so unexpected it feels like like an emotional sucker punch. the rest of the song is just standard I/IV/V and the sudden unsteadiness never fails to take me back. it's like the brief time when you are going down a set of stairs and miss a step. or when you are in a relationship and someone says something and you get this feeling in your stomach. so beautiful, that fall.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 15 April 2018 02:12 (six years ago) link
and on that line!
― difficult listening hour, Sunday, 15 April 2018 02:13 (six years ago) link
the Them version of "Baby Blue" is also classic, the vibraphone lick fits the trippiness of the words. its a good fit for the soul vocals of Van Morrison ("look out the saints are coming through"). Beck, another Dylan acolyte, interpolated Dylan & Them for his "Jackass".
legendary is the "Don't Look Back" take of Dylan playing it to Donovan. this is what it's like when rock stars drunkenly crash each others parties chasing memes/feuds in the 60s. Dylan starts playing "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" at 2:49:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sqAhF6i9H4
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 15 April 2018 02:25 (six years ago) link
that performance is so great. and for all the talk/myth/apocrypha about that night & its context, I always preferred the version of Love Minus Zero that Dylan plays in that hotel room over the version on the record. Again, it's the sublime & resigned chord changes paired with the devotional lyric. Negation and infinity.
― flappy bird, Sunday, 15 April 2018 02:39 (six years ago) link
― Made in the Shadow Blaster (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 April 2018 03:30 (six years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 16 April 2018 00:01 (six years ago) link
Donovan's "To Sing for You" is a really nice song. I've written lots about how Donovan is the god of pop-music soundtracks, even more than the Rolling Stones. I'm a big fan, and I was glad he went into the rock'n'roll HOF.
What makes that Pennebaker clip so great, though, is how overmatched he is by Dylan. He knows it (love his expression at 3:55), and Dylan knows it. Dylan really knows it, and he's basking in it (in a way that makes you smile, not hate him).
― clemenza, Monday, 16 April 2018 00:09 (six years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 17 April 2018 00:01 (six years ago) link
my love
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 17 April 2018 00:03 (six years ago) link
Can't argue with the results. There are at least 4 or 5 songs on here that I wouldn't argue with as a #1 though.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 17 April 2018 00:15 (six years ago) link
Voted for the favorite, but could just as easily have voted for “Outlaw Blues” as well as several others.
― Made in the Shadow Blaster (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 April 2018 00:36 (six years ago) link
Huh! For whatever reason, LMZ/NL has never really done all that much for me. I like it fine, just surprised to discover it's a consensus favorite against so many heavy-hitters.
Clearly plenty of other people have seen something in the song, even beyond the "everybody covers every Dylan song" effect. A little searching turns up versions by Buck Owens, Leon Russell, the Walker Brothers, Joan Baez, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Judy Collins, Jackson Browne, the Turtles, Nana Mouskouri, and Ricky Nelson. I thought I'd heard the last one before, but realized belatedly I was thinking of his cover of "She Belongs To Me" - guy was into this album!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWPrtfE-TBI
― explosion from DOOM courtesy of id software (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 17 April 2018 16:22 (six years ago) link
yea same
― marcos, Tuesday, 17 April 2018 16:29 (six years ago) link
it's one of my favorite Dylan melodies tbh
― droit au butt (Euler), Tuesday, 17 April 2018 16:33 (six years ago) link
heh Love Minus Zero feels like coffee shop autopilot to me, one of the least impressive tracks on the album (shrug emoji)
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 17 April 2018 21:34 (six years ago) link
Thirteenth Floor Elevators version of "It's All Over Now (Baby Blue)" is one of my all time favorite Dylan covers. That Joyce Carol Oates short story is really good too, that was a story that I got assigned in freshman lit in collage and really liked.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/joyce-carol-oates-on-dylans-its-all-over-now-baby-blue-1432045329
― earlnash, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 01:22 (six years ago) link
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, 18 April 2018 06:11 (six years ago) link
has there been a Dylan vs Rage Against the Machine “Maggie’s Farm” poll?
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 06:14 (six years ago) link
Surprised "Mr Tambourine Man" didn't get more votes. Though I voted for LMZ so I'm not complaining.
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Wednesday, 18 April 2018 07:26 (six years ago) link
that's a great cover by Nelson, Dylan probably appreciated it (iirc he has only nice things to say abt Nelson in Chronicles)
― niels, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 09:51 (six years ago) link
I'd choose She Belongs to Me over LMZ, I think Dylan does the cynical love portrait better than the sincere, also I just love the melody
both rule though
― niels, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 09:53 (six years ago) link
well, maaaybe Dylan's fondness for wordplay amphetamine gets the best of him in the 3rd verse
https://www.brainyquote.com/photos_tr/en/b/bobdylan/154487/bobdylan1-2x.jpg
― niels, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 11:05 (six years ago) link
lol that's what i think of the last verse of mr. tambourine man. but both are great
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 16:18 (six years ago) link
DAMN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofvsowhWPbc
― flappy bird, Saturday, 1 December 2018 05:20 (five years ago) link
quite faithful!
― niels, Saturday, 1 December 2018 10:39 (five years ago) link
yeah I was surprised at that for 1976
― flappy bird, Monday, 3 December 2018 05:41 (five years ago) link