Forever Sung: Dylan in 50 Songs, 60 Years

Let's be fair: I have been putting the cart before the horse, and have possibly even sold the horse for cart money. Writing about Bob Dylan, for me, is a thoroughly exciting experience; I never know what exactly I'll end up discussing when I begin, but it is a constant process of discovery as I traverse his vast cultural output. I trip over myself, but that can be forgiven to an extent. Dylan sings, "How does it feeeel?" in "Like a Rolling Stone," and "it" feels pretty good if we're talking about talking about him.

Still, I want to do my best to welcome folks into the conversation, into their own private concert halls. With my "One More Cup of Bobby Series" I am making a holistic effort to discuss material that is typically extraneous (Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric, Tarantula, etc.) and conceptual in nature (the relationship of poetry to music, that wily Dylan voice, the importance of his continuing bardic endeavors). But the bottom line is the songs are the bread and butter. He's a musician. He is, naturally, so many other things, but he is a musician foremost. What do the songs say for themselves? What character does one encounter in the songs that has elicited such a strong reaction (attested at least by my own labored, nonstop listening of 9 months) for 6 whole decades?

Narrowing down a catalogue over 500 songs (accounting for covers and other songs), sifting through 39 albums for only 50 songs -- unsurprisingly, this presents challenges. In brief, my criteria for narrowing down a selection of 50 songs were as follows:

1) Despite many compelling albums wherein Dylan covers traditional songs, I did not want to include any non-Dylan songs in the list. This was done to highlight his capacity for creating and performatively interpreting his own material.

1) Occasionally I have chosen a live version or outtake over the album version itself of a given song, both to show the development process and to highlight a performance that, in some way, refreshes our view of that "set-in-stone" album version.

3) While Dylan does a fine job of displaying his flexibility in terms of genre and vocal delivery, I wanted to find an equilibrium between songs that flow steady and songs that urgently pound at the gates.

The list is not exhaustive, and if you're interested by anything here, there is absolutely a great deal more you can follow up on. Below is a complete list corresponding to the Spotify playlist linked after alongside a comparable YouTube playlist. There will, inevitably, be some differences between the two playlists (and the two media; you can witness some excellent Dylan content on YouTube as well as compare differences). Differences (and, thus, suggestions to cross playlists) will be marked off with an asterisk (*). For the sake of simplicity, the albums comprised of outtakes, unreleased songs, and performances (known as The Bootleg Series) will be abbreviated "TBS," its volume number, and the relevant year of performance. May you enjoy, may these songs stay forever sung. And without further ado:

1) "Song to Woody," Bob Dylan (1962)

2) "Blowin' in the Wind," The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

3) "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)*

4) "The Times They Are A-Changin," The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964)

5) "My Back Pages," Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)

6) "Subterranean Homesick Blues," Bringing It All Back Home, (1965)*

7) "Mr. Tambourine Man," Bringing It All Back Home (1965)*

8) "Like a Rolling Stone," Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

9) "Tombstone Blues," Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

10) "Visions of Johanna - Live at the Royal Albert Hall," Side Tracks, (1966)

11) "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again," Blonde on Blonde (1966)

12) "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," Blonde on Blonde (1966)

13) "All Along the Watchtower," John Wesley Harding (1967)*

14) "As I Went Out One Morning," John Wesley Harding (1967)*

15) "Girl from the North Country," [w/ Johnny Cash] Nashville Skyline (1969)

16) "When I Paint My Masterpiece," Side Tracks (1971)*

17) "Day of the Locusts," New Morning (1970)

18) "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)

19) "Forever Young - Slow Version," Planet Waves (1974)

20) "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," The Basement Tapes (1975)*

21) "Tangled up in Blue," Blood on the Tracks (1975)

22) "You're a Big Girl Now," Blood on the Tracks (1975)

23) "Hurricane," Desire (1976)

24) "Sara," Desire (1976)

25) "Changing of the Guards," Street-Legal (1978)

26) "Gotta Serve Somebody," Slow Train Coming (1979)

27) "Covenant Woman," Saved (1980)*

28) "In the Summertime," Shot of Love (1981)*

29) "Jokerman," Infidels (1983)*

30) "I and I," Infidels (1983)*

31) "Blind Willie McTell," TBS vol. 1-3 (1983)

32) "Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)," Empire Burlesque (1985)*

33) "Brownsville Girl," Knocked Out Loaded (1986)*

34) "Political World," Oh Mercy (1989)*

35) "Man in the Long Black Coat," Oh Mercy (1989)

36) "Most of the Time - Alternate Version #2," TBS vol. 8 (1989)**

37) "Wiggle Wiggle," Under the Red Sky (1990)*

38) "Love Sick," Time Out of Mind (1997)*

39) "Can't Wait - Alternate Version #2," TBS vol. 8 (1997)*

40) "Things Have Changed," Soundtrack from Wonder Boys (2000)*^

41) "Mississippi," "Love and Theft" (2001)*

42) "Po' Boy," "Love and Theft," (2001)*

43) "Workingman's Blues #2," Modern Times (2006)*

44) "Nettie Moore," Modern Times (2006)*

45) "Forgetful Heart," Together Through Life (2009)*

46) "Duquesne Whistle," Tempest (2012)*

47) "Early Roman Kings," Tempest (2012)*

48) "I Contain Multitudes," Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)

49) "My Own Version of You," Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)

50) "Murder Most Foul," Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40K1Su51Tkqw2GyiQ5tLr8?si=98cce1b56afa447c

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLat0dIjQpGoJg_4Y0-WcrTl-Xe7HpsFnf

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** I choose the "Most of the Time - Alternate Version #2" from Spotify but only found "Most of the Time - Alternate Version [#1]" on YouTube. Both versions complement the album from Oh Mercy rather well in my opinion.

*^ While a music video for "Things Have Changed" is available on search, the YouTube playlist features his performance of the song live at the 73rd Academy Awards, because, on principle, this performance is cooler than the other side of the pillow.

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Image: Bob Dylan in the video to "Subterranean Homesick Blues," 1965, colorized