Bob Dylan - General Appreciation Thread

No, there's too many polls here.

 

That why they call him The Bard from Minnesota. I'm from Minnesota and so proud we produced someone of that caliber.

 

Don't forget F. Scott Fitzgerald of St. Paul -- I've been through all of his books.

 

Yes, Hominy, you're very well read. It's well known.

 

His cult of personality has more interest to me than his songs. I can't get enough of reading books about him but at least half his albums I find nothing to like about.

 

Which one?

Well, they cover him endlessly.

Pray name me one who isn't.

 

The first Dylan album I bought at release was Good As I Been To You - Johnnie Walker played Sitting On Top Of The World on his Saturday afternoon BBC Radio 1 show and it hooked me in.

But for me, seeing Bob live is at least as important as listening to his studio work.

I first saw Bob live on his 1995 Euro tour and it blew me away. Tears Of Rage, Shelter From The Storm, Boots Of Spanish Leather et al. I knew I had seen something special even if I didn't know all the songs at the time.

That was 20 years ago and his music has been a constant since then.

I've seen him in concert 12 times and only been disappointed once, in 2009. My last show was 2013 and it was sensational.

But my favourite experience was seeing him at the 1900 capacity Glasgow Barrowlands in 2004. A true once in a lifetime event. 'Like Picasso painting your living room' said one review...

 

I guess I'll start with this.

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright still rings as true today, as it did when it came out. And oddly enough, it sounds contemporary now.

That says a lot, right there.

 

Oh yeah - he's in my blood (somehow...)

My top 9 albums

1. Time Out Of Mind (I was 16 when this came out and it changed my life)
2. The Bootleg Series 1-3 (I was probably about 14 or 15 when I heard this. It gave me my first insight into the idea of outtakes, demoes, etc. and I found it fascinating)
3. Desire (Ah, so vivid, sprawling, exotic and horny. My favourite Dylan period.)
4. Blood On The Tracks (Some of Dylan's best songs and singing performances.)
5. Love And Theft (It took me a long time to warm to the entire record. I was disappointed when it first came out but I've come to rank it as one of Dylan's best in recent years.)
6. Blonde On Blonde (The production has always niggled me slightly with this - sharp and occasionally harsh, but the material is just incredible. Also, for a long time I was put off by this in the same way with The Beatles White Album where I felt I could hear the drugs...)
7. Together Through Life (Massively under appreciated I think. This is Dylan's version of a vintage Chess/Sun record and he executes it really well. It's ridiculously derivative, but it's a real hoot.)
8. Oh Mercy (The first Dylan album proper that first 'grabbed' me at 15. These days I don't care for the production so much, which sounds thin with way too much reverb and reasonably dated, but it's still a fine record.)
9. Shot Of Love (Angry, passionate and literate Dylan - woo!)

 

Is it me, or is there not much love for Planet Waves? I really dig the songwriting in that album.

 

Planet waves only problem is it's proximity to other giants of the decade.

Subterranean homesick blues

It's true And Nina Simone gave him a lot of legitimacy in those circles.

That's true I forgot to say that Dylan is a mysterious poser

 

I mentioned Planet Waves in my post on the first page. It is one of my very favorite Dylans, and the one that really got me hooked on him.

 

I have a soft spot for the 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid' soundtrack. Its a fun listen. I like that early 70's period and I think the recent 'Another Self Portrait' box set has made people revisit that part of Bob's catalogue. I love the version of 'New Morning' on that box set.

It's not my own personal favourite but I would class Highway 61 as the single greatest album ever made (Just ahead of Kind of Blue and Veeden Fleece).

 

I really hope the next Bootleg Series set is Blood On the Tracks . . I bet there are some real gems in that vault that we don't know anything about . . .

 

What a shame Elvis never recorded an album of Dylan covers.

 

One of my favourite Dylan covers is Presley's bluesy, brooding rendition of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time".

 

Yes, a fantastic version. Too bad that it was buried in his bad soundtrack era. It shows what Elvis could have been during that time...

 

I don't even know what album it was originally released on. I've got it on the Essential '60's Masters Box. The first time I heard it, I thought it was one of the most haunting, beautiful songs I'd ever heard. I thought, "great lyrics...who wrote this?" Then I check the credits..."Oh wow...Bob".

 

Blind Boy Grunt's my man.

 

Dylan once said that Presley's cover of the song was "the one recording I treasure the most" according to Ernst Jorgensen (per a quick look on Wikipedia )

 

That's very cool.

 

Well now, Dylan was my first musical obssession. I love his work more than I can say! Him and Van are tied as the best songwriters ever in my books!

I love the electric albums the best, because I also love poetry and especially the symbolists among other things, the sort of stuff that Bob was influenced by. Of course the music is fantastic as well, just amazing! I generally like everything up to Blood on the Tracks though, the rest just because I haven't got into it yet. I am only 20, so I figure I'll relate more to the hip 60s Bob at this point. Ive got two big posters of his Bobness in my room.

 

Some appreciation ... from 7:15.

 

Just a random question:
Does anyone else prefer the alternate takes of Tangled Up In Blue and Idiot Wind from the The Bootleg Series set to the actual album versions? As much as I like the album versions, I have to say those alternate takes come across as more powerful and haunting to me.

 

I do. I also love the alternates of "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" better in its acoustic rendition, as well as "Meet Me In the Morning." In fact, one could create a reasonably decent all-acoustic album of BOTT with these outtakes.

I wonder how it would appear, any takers can create a trackless of acoustic alternates?