Poll: Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' - your favourite track?

Voted for Hattie Carroll but the version of North Country Blues from the Carnegie Hall is one of my favourite live Dylan performances of all time.

This album is a work of genius, particularly remarkable given Dylan's age when it was released.

 

Voted for North Country Blues just ahead of Boots. Hattie Carroll lower down

 

The president's death delayed the album's release and of course made sure, that overnight, the forces of conservatism the album seemed to reject were given a huge boost. Freewheelin' and this should both have been released months earlier than they were.

 

Hattie
Then the title track

 

For me, definitely "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". Even though Dylan took some license with the facts, his portrayal of the crime (quickly dispenses with it in the first verse) and the background of the social situation (slowly, and with increasingly fine detail) is masterful. Also, the rather odd but poignant chorus aptly points the finger at white, liberal guilt and the judicial system instead of "pawns in the game" like William Zantzinger.

Flawless live performance in May 1965:


Unfortunately, Dylan -- for whatever reasons only he understands -- chose not to put an equally great song, "Lay Down Your Weary Tune", onto The Times. Then again, he had so many great songs circa 1962 to 1967, he could afford to let a bunch of classics fall onto the studio floor.

 

I want to vote for more than one song. I can't vote for just one song.

This album is perfect. The songwriting is perfect, the melodies are perfect,
the voice and guitar are perfect, the ideas and associations and meanings
and symbolism are perfect, and the whole thing is white hot brilliant. It
has atmosphere and authenticity and conveys a sense of a wise old mind
emanating through a young skull. He should have won the Pulitzer and
the Nobel in 1964 for this album alone.

 

'When the Ship Comes In' - just trying to imagine how he was inspired to write this after being insulted by a hotel clerk intrigues me.

I love 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll' and 'Boots of Spanish Leather' too. It's very close between those three songs for me.

 

Thanks for reminding me of this video. I agree it's flawless, and inspired.

 

I voted for Lonesome although One Too Many Mornings is one of my favourite Dylan songs and also a stupendous performance on the Times album. There is wonderful version of the Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll from Wembley 1987.

 

I wish the voice and mind of The Times They Are A-Changin' had
stayed with us longer. A couple more years.

 

Boots of Spanish leather.
I witnessed the 1995 live version in Utrecht. It made me hold my breath for at least 4 minutes.

 

"One Too Many Mornings"

This is my favorite Dylan album. #2 would be Blood On The Tracks

 

I saw him perform this in Manchester in 1995. The most incredibly intimate performance.

 

According to the Dylan site, he’s played this live exactly 300 times.

 

Times They Are A Changin

An all time classic!

 

I ultimately voted for Boots of Spanish Leather, because I think it's the most timeless due to subject matter and has more enduring emotional impact to me but I am very sympathetic to With God on Our Side and the title track as they both hit home with my "pissed off political" persona that defined me when I was a bit younger.

I know a lot of people dislike the early protest era Dylan albums, but this is really one of my favorites. Yes, it is in some ways a bit dated, but this and Freewheelin' are probably my two favorites in his catalog, I just love this period and the simplicity of the man with his guitar (and harmonica).

 

"Boots." I'm a sucker for the narrative style and the heartfelt vocals.

 

Just about every track is a masterpiece

Restless Farewell got my vote.

Hattie Carroll is stunning
Time are a Changin was just about world changing.
Hollis Brown and North Country Blues both devastating
With God on our side and Only a pawn in their game are both sharp observational exhortations...
Boots of Spanish leather is beautiful.....

This is among my favourite albums, and always levels me out, when I'm down.

 

The title track is much more than a song . It’s one of the few anthems that deserve to be called an artifact of significant cultural importance .

 

Several people have used the word, "stunning" to describe my pick for best song, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll - that's the word that jumps to my mind too.
Just stunning.

 

Ballad of Hollis Brown. As stark as they come.

 

I went with With God on Our Side.

 

"times" gets my vote from that lp. but prefer "masters of war" from the subsequent "freewheelin'" lp.

"I just want you to know I can see through your masks You that never done nothin' But build to destroy. You play with my world. Like it's your little toy."

still a song for our times.

here's a bit of OT dylan arcana. dylan's very first interview conducted by my pop in 1961.

 

I voted over three years ago and it's interesting that Boots of Spanish Leather is in the lead but by a slim margin. I've long been struck by how similar Boots of Spanish Leather is to Girl from the North Country; harmonically, melodically and in Bob's phrasing. Girl from the North Country ranks third in the Freewheelin' poll, which probably speaks more to the strength of A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall and Don't Think Twice than anything else. Both Boots of Spanish Leather and Girl from the North Country are about loss, but Girl from the North Country is much more reminiscing about the past, while Boots of Spanish Leather is the sudden realization of loss, which makes it far more immediate to me.

Anyway, blah...etc. Two great tracks. But, to re-iterate a point I made three years ago, Seven Curses probably would have been my favorite track on this LP had it been included.

 

This was a hard poll.

I voted "Boots of Spanish Leather", and am very unseasy about this vote because so many of the other tracks are equally deserving and justifiable. "Boots" got the vote because of the narrative, but that applies to many of the other tracks, and many other tracks make powerful statements as only Dylan can do.

"With God on Our Side"could have got my vote when I was 20yrs old, but I'm thinking that Dylan should have shared songwriting credits with Dominic Behan for his adaptation of the tradition song that became "The Patriot Game".