Most recent truly great Bob Dylan song?

"Cross the Green Mountain" dates from 2003; therefore, it fails to meet your own criterion for a recent song.

 

Well, it's a quatrain rather than a couplet, but other than that, I'm right there with you.

 

I like this one as well.

 

I agree about the song, but man he looks spooky in that video

 

"Political World" and "Roll On John"

 

Do you have any more information on this? What are the revisions?

 

Thunder of the Mountain sounds like it could have been written a century ago. At least until he name drops Alicia Keys.

 

Also a pretty great little movie (Wonder Boys), for anyone who hasn't seen it.

 

Things Have Changed
Not Dark Yet
Mississippi
High Water..
Cross the Green Mountain
Long and Wasted Years
Pay in Blood

These are all songs that I find truly great. There are many from the last 15-20 years that I think are fantastic as well, but these are at the top of my list.

 

Wasn't Mississippi written for Sheryl Crow? And "Make You Feel My Love" for Garth Brooks?
I thought I read this somewhere a while back....

 

Tell Old Bill

 

Dylan's alternate version of Workingman Blues no 2

Well, I'm sailin' on back, gettin' ready for the long haul
I'm leaving everythin' behind
If I stay here I could lose it all, the bandits'll rob me blind
I'm tryin' to feed my soul with thought
I'm gonna sleep off the rest of the day
Sometime nobody want what you got
Sometime you can't give it away
I woke up this morning
And I sprung to my feet
And I went into town on a whim
I saw my father in the street
At least I think it was him
In the dark I hear a song bird call
You know the hills are rugged and steep
But I'll sleep in the kitchen with my feet in the hall
If I told you my whole story you'd weep

...

Well, they burned my barn, they stole my horse
I can't save a dime
It's a long way down, I don't want to be forced
Into a life of continual crime
I can see for myself that the sun is sinkin'
Over the deep blue sea
Tell me now, am I wrong in thinkin'
That you have forgotten me?

Now, they worry and they hurry, they fuss and they fret
They waste your nights and days
Them I will forget
But you I'll remember always
It's a cold black night, and it's midsummer's eve
And the stars are spinnin' around
I'm still finding it so hard to believe
Someone would kick me when I'm down

...

I'll be back home in a month or two
When the frost is on the vine
I’m gonna punch my spear right straight through
Half-ways down his spine
Then I’ll lift my arms to the star-lit skies
And I’ll pray the fugitive prayer
I’m guessin' tomorrow the sun will rise
I hope the final end's been spared

Now the battle is over, up in the hills
And the mist is settlin' in
Look at me with all my spoils
What did I ever win?
I got a brand new suit and a brand new wife
I can live on rice and beans
Some people never work a day in their life
They don't know what work even means

17 April 2014, Nagoya, Japan

 

Couldn't agree more - I've tried about a dozen times and can't get into either of those songs, or Tin Angel for that matter.
Glad other people like them though

 

Those alternate Workingman's Blues #2 lyrics from Nagoya give me a very strong feel of The Odyssey...

 

It's definitely a very different song with a stronger sense of narrative, and that he keeps returning to it suggest that he has a strong affinity for it.

 

Really interesting, thanks.

 

No. Dylan tried to record "Mississippi" for Time Out of Mind in 1997, didn't like any of the versions they did for the album, and then gave the song to Crow whose version came out in 1998. Garth Brooks' "Make You Feel My Love" also came out on a soundtrack the year following Dylan's recording.

 

I thought it was the Dixie Chicks who first recorded Mississippi.

Glad Dylan waited on his version. While I like the alt takes he has released, the "true" studio version is the best of the lot, by a long shot.

 

No, Dixie Chicks covered the Sheryl Crow version. I agree with Dylan than the Lanois produced verison from TOOM weren't making it. But I also happen to love the Stuck Inside of Mobile/Absolutely Sweet Marie kind of take Sheryl Crow delivers on the song.

 

Most recent? Would have to go with "Pay In Blood"

 

There are so few weak tracks on his last four lps of original material I can't choose.

Originally I hated the Bootleg Series with the alternates of Mississippi, but I gave it a spin the other day and now it sounds as interesting and nearly as good as the
"official" version.

 

you made my week with this link, thank you very much!

 

Amazing. M&A got such bad reviews, but this is insanely good. Dylan either avoids the camera altogether for years, then stick his face in it. GREAT clip.

 

Well, having seen Masked & Anonymous, I must say it probably earned the bad reviews. But the band sequences are great.

 

I agree. They are definitely the two weakest tracks on the album and I sometimes skip this side of the LP set. Of course I admire the sentiment of "Roll On John," but it sure sounds as if it was thrown together in no time at all. There's a rushed feeling to the lyrics so that they don't flow very smoothly. I like the lyrics to the title track, but the melody does get a little monotonous. I keep waiting for a harmonica break. That would have helped!