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Re: Bob Dylan
I bought his 'Greatest Hits' CD on Saturday. It was an interesting listen. Most songs are what I would call 'Quintessential Dylan.' "Rainy Day Women" is a bit of a dumb song, but a solid album opener none the less. My favourites were "Like a Rolling Stone,"(steadily emerging as an all-time favourite) "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and "Positively Fourth Street."(sums up a lot of people I've known) "Mr. Tambourine Man" was a very good song in its full version, though I still prefer the Byrds' cover.
Top 5 Dylan songs:
1. "Like a Rolling Stone"
2. "Lay, Lady, Lay"
3. "Positively Fourth Street"
4. "Tangled Up in Blue"
5. "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
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Re: Bob Dylan
I'd not seen that compilation before, although looking at the track list I think it's a pretty good summary of that epoch of Dylan's career.
Here's my approximate top ten songs in chronological order; not too worried about ranking them, as they are all classics.
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Mr Tambourine Man
Like A Rolling Stone
Tombstone Blues
Desolation Row
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Tangled Up In Blue
Idiot Wind
Hurricane
Most of the ones you cited as favourites are high up my own list. I personally really like Rainy Day Women - it is silly but it makes me laugh! It's funny because it was actually released as a single. I am trying to imagine how the lines 'everybody must get stoned' sounded on the radio back in the 1960s. :hilarious:
Lots of other great ones I could mention too of course - Don't Think Twice It's Alright, Visions of Johanna, Shelter From The Storm and others. A couple of really good ones that I think don't get enough attention are Love Minus Zero/No Limit from Bringing It All Back Home (fantastic lyrics such as 'She knows there's no success like failure, and that failure's no success at all') and One More Cup Of Coffee from Desire (love the combination of Bob's vocals with Emmylou Harris).
I'm most familiar with the 1960s electric trilogy and the two great mid-1970s albums (Blood On The Tracks and Desire). Elsewhere I generally know the famous songs but haven't explored the deeper tracks to the same extent - for instance, Knockin On' Heaven's Door is definitely one of my very favourites, but I've never listened to the rest of the soundtrack album it hails from.
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Re: Bob Dylan
Congrats to Bob Dylan for getting the Nobel Prize for Literature!!! :D He's the first singer/songwriter to be awarded it.
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Re: Bob Dylan
I heard about this around lunchtime (in the UK) today. Congratulations to Bob for an unprecedented achievement! I have no idea if this will open the way for other singer/songwriters to win this award, but Bob truly deserves this as he's on a different planet with his lyrics. As much as I love lyrics by people like Don H, Roger Waters and Neil Young I'd probably struggle to justify them getting an award like this, but no one else makes me think 'how did they come up with that?' in awe of their lyrical abilities like Bob does. I think the difference between him and others is that most of the other greats write brilliant lyrics that sound great when sung, whereas so many of Bob's songs would stand up if they were read as poems with no musical accompaniment.
One day his work will be written in down books, kind of like the ones you can get written by Italian poets in the thirteenth century. :wink:
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Re: Bob Dylan
I have mixed feelings about this. As a fan I'm very pleased. As a student of literature I am not so sure. Great though his lyrics are (or WERE) they still for the most part followed the standard verse/chorus/verse structure of the popular song. I will be interested to hear Soda's thoughts on this.
Also it must be said this award is for the 60s & the first half of the 70s. The truth is that apart from a couple of albums (Time Out Of Mind, Modern Times) his output has been erratic. I wouldn't class anything from the later albums as deserving of a Nobel Prize - and ironically his last two albums have been 'American Songbook' albums.
So yes, while Tangled Up In Blue & Desolation Row may well be included in poetry anthologies, a lot of it won't.
The New York Times thinks he shouldn't have got it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/op...imes&smtyp=cur
Britain's Daily Telegraph thinks he should:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/new...rature---of-c/
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Re: Bob Dylan
A recent, very interesting and lengthy interview with Bob Dylan!
"Bob Dylan Discusses Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Iggy Pop, Amy Winehouse & New 'Triplicate' Album In Rare Interview
Read entire interview here extensive Q&A with Bill Flanagan
http://www.bobdylan.com/news/qa-with-bill-flanagan/