What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs- 1. Like a Rolling Stone 2. Tangled Up in Blue, Congratulations to Bonzai, winner of the contest (1 Viewer)

timschochet

Footballguy
1. Like a Rolling Stone

2. Tangled Up in Blue 

3. Its Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) 

4. Just Like a Woman 

5. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right 

6. Idiot Wind 

7. Stuck Inside of Mobile (With the Memphis Blues Again)

8. Make You Feel My Love 

9. Desolation Row 

10. The Times, They are A-Changin’ 

11. Blowin’ In the Wind

12. Mr. Tambourine Man 

13. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

14. Love Minus Zero (No Limit) 

15. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

16. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands 

17. My Back Pages 

18. Visions of Johanna

19. All Along the Watchtower

20. Ballad of a Thin Man 

21. I Shall Be Released 

22. Lay, Lady Lay 

23. It Ain’t Me Babe 

24. Shelter from the Storm 

25. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door 

26. Girl from the North County 

27. Subterranean Homesick Blues 

28. Positively 4th Street 

29. Chimes of Freedom

30. Queen Jane Approximately 

31. Mississippi 

32. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues 

33. Gates of Eden 

34. Tombstone Blues 

35. Forever Young 

36. You Ain’t Going Nowhere 

37. From a Buick 6 

38. Precious Angel 

39. If Not for You 

40. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry 

41. Time Passes Slowly 

42. Sign on the Window 

43. Day of the Locusts 

44. Simple Twist of Fate 

45. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You 

46. Hurricane 

47. Went to See the Gypsy 

48. When the Ship Comes In 

49. Workingman’s Blues #2

50. You’re a Big Girl Now 

51. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

52. One Too Many Mornings 

53. I Want You 

54. Lily, Rosemary, and the Queen of Hearts 

55. With God on Our Side 

56. Quinn the Eskimo 

57. Fourth Time Around 

58. You Angel You 

59. She Belongs to Me 

60. Not Dark Yet 

61. Pressing On 

62. If You See Her, Say Hello 

63. One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) 

64. Percy’s Song 

65. Oh Sister 

66. Only a Pawn in Their Game 

67. Huck’s Tune 

68. Most of the Time

69. Dear Landlord

70. Dignity 

71. All I Really Want to Do 

72. Maggie’s Farm 

73. Boots of Spanish Leather 

74. Corrina, Corrina 

75. Tomorrow Is a Long Time 

76. Million Dollar Bash 

77. Absolutely Sweet Marie

78. Spanish Harlem Incident 

79. Masters of War

80. Highway 61 Revisited 

81. When I Paint My Masterpiece 

82. I’ll Keep It With Mine

83. Jokerman 

84. The Man In Me 

85. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine 

86. Buckets of Rain 

87. You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go 

88. Meet Me in the Morning 

89. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest 

90. Ring Them Bells 

91. Oxford Town 

92. Outlaw Blues 

93. Someday Baby 

94. Isis

95. Peggy Day 

96. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

97. Sweetheart Like You 

98. One More Cup of Coffee 

99. Only a Hobo 

100. Restless Farewell 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
100. “Restless Farewell” (1964, from The Times They Are a Changin’) 

https://youtu.be/fxwiVwF0ImA

Early in his career Bob would “borrow” traditional folk tunes and add his own lyrics. This is a good example; the tune was originally from a Scottish song called “The Parting Glass”. It’s just Bob on guitar by himself, as with all songs from this album. It’s a gorgeous love song. 

Covers: Joan Baez performed a well known cover in the 60s, but probably the best version is by Mark Knopfler in 2012 from a Dylan tribute album; he returns the song to its Scottish roots: 

https://youtu.be/3fKszPYmj7s

 
Last edited by a moderator:
99. “Only a Hobo” (1961- unreleased except on Bootleg collections) 

https://youtu.be/-6W9o_tqoV0

The song is officially copyrighted in 1963 but he was performing it as early as 1961; in fact it was one of the first original songs he ever performed. However, his producers did not believe it was good enough to go on any of his first 3 albums and I’m really not sure why. It’s a classic early Dylan song, lyrically brilliant, very much in the style of his hero Woody Guthrie. 

Covers For this song there’s really only one famous cover, which is Rod Stewart from his second album Gasoline Alley. Arranged by Ron Wood, Stewart turns this song into a classic acoustic rock number emblematic of his extraordinary first 3 albums: 

https://youtu.be/Du0EsLz0IyUa

 
Last edited by a moderator:
98. “One More Cup of Coffee” (1976, from Desire)

https://youtu.be/95cufW4h-gA

The female vocalist here is, of course, the amazing Emmylou Harris, who may very well be the best duet singer in the history of popular music. This tune has a decidedly middle eastern feel to it which makes it sound almost unique in the Dylan catalogue. 

Covers: Like so many of the songs on this list, there are literally dozens of cover versions to sample, from the White Stripes to Roger McGuinn and Calexico, But I’ll go with Robert Plant, a singer who has always loved middle eastern styles: 

https://youtu.be/Mect3euIvOQ

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Every Bob Dylan album, even the worst ones, has at least one astonishingly good song on it.  Because the albums are sometimes forgettable, these great ones get lost pretty easily.  I look forward to the list, in hopes you include some of those obscure songs.  I have a few in my mind right now and I'll keep checking in to see if they make the cut.

 
For this thread, as no Dylan aficionado nor one for whom any of his songs represent benchmarks in my life, I'll be playing "Bobby Beats Cover". As a listener, the major value in Dylan lies in providing songs for others to improve upon. Let's see how that actually shakes out:

Bobby beats cover (2):

Restless Farewell

One More Cup of Coffee (beats Bobby Planet cover, doesn't beat White Stripes cover)

Sweetheart Like You

Rainy Day Women

Isis (giving him this sans competition because it has so many Dylan vocal flourishes that i can't imagine someone topping it)

Ring Them Bells

Ballad of Frankie Lee & Judas Priest

You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome

Cover beats Bobby (1):

Only a Hobo

I Threw It All Away (Declan AND Maddy Peroux, who i love, both thrash Bobby's opera voice)

Outlaw Blues

Oxford Town

Meet Me in the Morning

Bobby stompin dey #### so far!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
My favorite cover of "One More Cup of Coffee" is Sertab's, from the Masked & Anonymous soundtrack -- it is a bit more string-based.  The movie is terrible (or so I've heard), but some really good Dylan covers on the soundtrack.

 
97. “Sweetheart Like You” (1983, from Infidels) 

https://youtu.be/PpRKstHl7Y0

One of the comments on the YouTube page has it right: “for almost any other artist this would be their greatest effort; for Dylan it’s just another good song.” Several of my favorites on this list have a classic closing line to each verse (often the title of the song) which is Dylan’s style; this is one of those. 

Covers This one has been performed by all sorts of different styles of artists, from Judy Collins to Rod Stewart to Craig Finn to World Party. But I’m going to go with country music singer Jimmy LaFave. I enjoy his vocals (in general) and I think he puts a nice touch on the song: 

https://youtu.be/Oe5IWPKqzrY

 
Last edited by a moderator:
For this thread, as no Dylan aficionado nor one for whom any of his songs represent benchmarks in my life, I'll be playing "Bobby Beats Cover". As a listener, the major value in Dylan lies in providing songs for others to improve upon. Let's see how that actually shakes out:

Bobby beats cover (2):

Restless Farewell

One More Cup of Coffee (beats Bobby Planet cover, doesn't beat White Stripes cover)

Cover beats Bobby (1):

Only a Hobo
With Bobby's voice being a rather acquired taste, I suspect "cover beats Bobby" opinions would be plentiful among the masses.   It will be interesting to see how your list goes.

 
96. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (1966, from Blonde on Blonde

https://youtu.be/fm-po_FUmvM

I may take a little flack for ranking this song, one of his most famous, so low on my top 100. Of course it’s all relative; to even make the list I have to really like the song. And I do, but it’s really a novelty tune and a one joke novelty tune at that. What was shocking in 1966 seems rather passé now (and maybe even then- while Dylan was being cute with pot references, Lou Reed was singing straight up about heroin and being a junkie.) I’m not so much in love with the brass either. 

Covers This time the long list includes Joan Osborne, Sammy Hagar, Jessi Colter, Lenny Kravitz. I like the live version by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- it was a staple for them for years in concert. And no brass: 

https://youtu.be/D3AVt-aopiA

 
Last edited by a moderator:
96. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (1966, from Blonde on Blonde

https://youtu.be/fm-po_FUmvM

I may take a little flack for ranking this song, one of his most famous, so low on my top 100. Of course it’s all relative; to even make the list I have to really like the song. And I do, but it’s really a novelty tune and a one joke novelty tune at that. What was shocking in 1966 seems rather passé now (and maybe even then- while Dylan was being cute with pot references, Lou Reed was singing straight up about heroin and being a junkie.) I’m not so much in love with the brass either. 

Covers This time the long list includes Joan Osborne, Sammy Hagar, Jessi Colter, Lenny Kravitz. I like the live version by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- it was a staple for them for years in concert. And no brass: 

https://youtu.be/D3AVt-aopiA
I may be wrong, but while there is of course a :wink: :wink: at the double meaning of "stoned", I always thought it was referencing figuratively being stoned (as in having rocks throw at you) verbally by your woman constantly #####ing at you. 

 
I may be wrong, but while there is of course a :wink: 😉 at the double meaning of "stoned", I always thought it was referencing figuratively being stoned (as in having rocks throw at you) verbally by your woman constantly #####ing at you. 
Yeah I don’t know what the hell the song is about but when I first heard it on the Gump soundtrack in middle school, I was only thinking of one meaning.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
96. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (1966, from Blonde on Blonde

https://youtu.be/fm-po_FUmvM

I may take a little flack for ranking this song, one of his most famous, so low on my top 100. Of course it’s all relative; to even make the list I have to really like the song. And I do, but it’s really a novelty tune and a one joke novelty tune at that. What was shocking in 1966 seems rather passé now (and maybe even then- while Dylan was being cute with pot references, Lou Reed was singing straight up about heroin and being a junkie.) I’m not so much in love with the brass either. 

Covers This time the long list includes Joan Osborne, Sammy Hagar, Jessi Colter, Lenny Kravitz. I like the live version by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- it was a staple for them for years in concert. And no brass: 

https://youtu.be/D3AVt-aopiA
I remember in 1977, a kid discovered this song and for a couple days at school everyone was singing "Everybody must get stoned" !

 
I thought it was a double entendre for whatever you wanted to do with plausible deniability, both reading and meaning straight up, since I can remember. There's a rueful laugh there in them hills. You sing about the travails of the religious as a metaphor reenactment about modern women and couch it in the words of the modern. That's how I hear it. Let her go, Bob!  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I know this will seem sacrilegious, but I actually had the chance to see Dylan 30 years ago for free, went for awhile, and didn't stay for the whole show. The show was at Toad's Place in New Haven, and our college radio station (of which I was a DJ and production manager) always got tickets for shows at Toad's.

I am not a huge Dylan fan as something about his voice doesn't do it for me. Great song writer, but not a great singer IMO. IIRC, I stayed for the first two sets . . . but he ended up playing for 5 hours.

Set 1:
Walk a Mile in My Shoes (Joe South cover)
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Trouble No More (Muddy Waters cover) (live debut)
Been All Around This World (live debut)
Political World (live debut)
Where Teardrops Fall (live debut)
Tears of Rage (The Band cover)
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
Everybody's Movin' (Glen Glenn cover)

Set 2:
Watching the River Flow
What Was It You Wanted (live debut)
Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten cover - live debut)
Lenny Bruce
I Believe in You
Man of Peace
Across the Borderline (Ry Cooder cover)
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
All Along the Watchtower

Set 3:
Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love) (live debut)
Political World
What Good Am I?
Wiggle Wiggle (live debut)
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
Paid the Price (Moon Martin cover)
Help Me Make It Through the Night (Kris Kristofferson cover)
Man in the Long Black Coat
Congratulations (Traveling Wilburys cover)
Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover - live debut)
(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle (Hank Williams cover)
Confidential (Sonny Knight cover)
In the Garden
Everything Is Broken

Set 4:
So Long, Good Luck and Goodbye (Weldon Rogers cover)
Where Teardrops Fall
Political World
Peggy-O
I'll Remember You
Key to the Highway (Charles Segar cover - live debut)
Joey
Lay Lady Lay
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
When Did You Leave Heaven? (Johnny “Guitar” Watson cover)
Maggie's Farm
Been All Around This World
In the Pines
Highway 61 Revisited
Precious Memories (John Wright cover)
Like a Rolling Stone

 
I know this will seem sacrilegious, but I actually had the chance to see Dylan 30 years ago for free, went for awhile, and didn't stay for the whole show. The show was at Toad's Place in New Haven, and our college radio station (of which I was a DJ and production manager) always got tickets for shows at Toad's.

I am not a huge Dylan fan as something about his voice doesn't do it for me. Great song writer, but not a great singer IMO. IIRC, I stayed for the first two sets . . . but he ended up playing for 5 hours.

Set 1:
Walk a Mile in My Shoes (Joe South cover)
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Trouble No More (Muddy Waters cover) (live debut)
Been All Around This World (live debut)
Political World (live debut)
Where Teardrops Fall (live debut)
Tears of Rage (The Band cover)
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
Everybody's Movin' (Glen Glenn cover)

Set 2:
Watching the River Flow
What Was It You Wanted (live debut)
Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten cover - live debut)
Lenny Bruce
I Believe in You
Man of Peace
Across the Borderline (Ry Cooder cover)
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
All Along the Watchtower

Set 3:
Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love) (live debut)
Political World
What Good Am I?
Wiggle Wiggle (live debut)
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
Paid the Price (Moon Martin cover)
Help Me Make It Through the Night (Kris Kristofferson cover)
Man in the Long Black Coat
Congratulations (Traveling Wilburys cover)
Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover - live debut)
(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle (Hank Williams cover)
Confidential (Sonny Knight cover)
In the Garden
Everything Is Broken

Set 4:
So Long, Good Luck and Goodbye (Weldon Rogers cover)
Where Teardrops Fall
Political World
Peggy-O
I'll Remember You
Key to the Highway (Charles Segar cover - live debut)
Joey
Lay Lady Lay
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
When Did You Leave Heaven? (Johnny “Guitar” Watson cover)
Maggie's Farm
Been All Around This World
In the Pines
Highway 61 Revisited
Precious Memories (John Wright cover)
Like a Rolling Stone
That is a hell of a set list to have passed up on!  With regard to the bolded, this is what I was referring to earlier about his voice being an acquired taste.  It is sort of like drinking scotch.  When you first experience it, it is rough, harsh, and hard to swallow.  Many people will choose not to go back to it again.  But if you keep revisiting it, eventually you (or at least I) find a certain level of appreciation for it...a relaxing, pleasurable comfort.  But clearly many never reach that point.

 
That is a hell of a set list to have passed up on!  With regard to the bolded, this is what I was referring to earlier about his voice being an acquired taste.  It is sort of like drinking scotch.  When you first experience it, it is rough, harsh, and hard to swallow.  Many people will choose not to go back to it again.  But if you keep revisiting it, eventually you (or at least I) find a certain level of appreciation for it...a relaxing, pleasurable comfort.  But clearly many never reach that point.
I went with a music buddy of mine, and to be honest, after 20 songs we thought the show was winding down, maybe we might miss an encore, and that was going to be it. It’s not like they announced he would be playing 30 more songs. Toad’s Place is a club. There are no seats. You have to stand the entire show. It only holds around 750 people. Most well established artists played shorter shows, not the equivalent of three shows. 

 
95. “I Threw It All Away” (1969, from Nashville Skyline

https://youtu.be/8iruzIEQsL4

Gorgeous love song from Bob Dylan’s country album. Johnny Cash is credited in certain places as a co-writer on this song but not according to Wiki. 

Dylan’s vocals sound so different on this album, so sweet actually. It might compete with Blood on the Tracks and the underrated New Morning for his best singing effort. 

Covers Starting in the mid 80s Elvis Costello became a great interpreter of country music. He recorded “I Threw It All Away” in 1995, and here is a live version a few years later: 

https://youtu.be/4TzbEODSo8U

There is also a beautiful version by jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux, who sings everything well. 

 
Dylan’s vocals sound so different on this album, so sweet actually. It might compete with Blood on the Tracks and the underrated New Morning for his best singing effort.
Blood on the Tracks is Dylan at his vocal peak.  His voice is markedly better, stronger yet more supple than on his 60s records.  He toned down the upper register stuff from Nashville Skyline but elements of that crooning style remain. 

His pipes hung in for another two decades of abuse and made a miraculous comeback around 2013 but I'd be hard pressed to think of a record where Dylan sings better than on Blood on the Tracks.

 
96. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (1966, from Blonde on Blonde

https://youtu.be/fm-po_FUmvM

I may take a little flack for ranking this song, one of his most famous, so low on my top 100. Of course it’s all relative; to even make the list I have to really like the song. And I do, but it’s really a novelty tune and a one joke novelty tune at that. What was shocking in 1966 seems rather passé now (and maybe even then- while Dylan was being cute with pot references, Lou Reed was singing straight up about heroin and being a junkie.) I’m not so much in love with the brass either. 

Covers This time the long list includes Joan Osborne, Sammy Hagar, Jessi Colter, Lenny Kravitz. I like the live version by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- it was a staple for them for years in concert. And no brass: 

https://youtu.be/D3AVt-aopiA
You're also gonna get flack for including it at all. From me.

 
94. “Isis” (1976, from Desire

https://youtu.be/INilAY6aJTc

Dylan’s magnum opus about marriage from the underrated Desire (I think this album suffers in some ratings because it followed Blood on the Tracks, and so it gets compared to perfection. Also because it’s  connected to that dreadful film Renaldo and Clara. However, Rolling Stone magazine regards it as one of Dylan’s best.) 

Covers This is one of those rare songs on this this for which there are no significant covers from other artists that I am aware of (if anyone is please let us know.) However Dylan himself has had live versions of “Isis” that are more upbeat than the original, the most famous of these is from his Rolling Thunder Review tour, also in 1976, and first released on one of his bootleg albums. It was actually this live version that first really attracted me to the song; I had sort of ignored it before. 

https://youtu.be/Ojyk0g0bijM

 
timschochet said:
98. “One More Cup of Coffee” (1976, from Desire)

https://youtu.be/95cufW4h-gA

The female vocalist here is, of course, the amazing Emmylou Harris, who may very well be the best duet singer in the history of popular music. This tune has a decidedly middle eastern feel to it which makes it sound almost unique in the Dylan catalogue. 

Covers: Like so many of the songs on this list, there are literally dozens of cover versions to sample, from the White Stripes to Roger McGuinn and Calexico, But I’ll go with Robert Plant, a singer who has always loved middle eastern styles: 

https://youtu.be/Mect3euIvOQ
I remember watching an interview with Emmylou in it, and she was talking about making the Desire album. She said that Bob was one of her biggest influences, and she had never met him until she walked into the studio to do some songs on Desire with him. She said she would rehearse the song, and later learned he recorded everything on the first take. There were no second takes. She felt she was off pitch in some areas, and she didn't think he would use any of the songs she did with him. He ended up using several of them. She said he works fast, and she wasn't use to phrasing with him, so she just watched his mouth like she did with Gram, and jumped in when she thought she should. When she would be watching his mouth, she would hum some, and he kept that humming in the songs. She again said she didn't think he was going to use any of the songs she was on, and one night she was in her car, and Romance in Durango came on, and she couldn't believe it. It was her and Bob Dylan singing together on A.M Radio. She said it was the first song he had given to her, and it was in Spanish. She said she didn't speak Spanish, but she gave it a go, and he evidentally liked it. She said that him going with the first takes, even though it mortified her, showed just how brilliant he was.

 
94. “Isis” (1976, from Desire

https://youtu.be/INilAY6aJTc

Dylan’s magnum opus about marriage from the underrated Desire (I think this album suffers in some ratings because it followed Blood on the Tracks, and so it gets compared to perfection. Also because it’s  connected to that dreadful film Renaldo and Clara. However, Rolling Stone magazine regards it as one of Dylan’s best.) 

Covers This is one of those rare songs on this this for which there are no significant covers from other artists that I am aware of (if anyone is please let us know.) However Dylan himself has had live versions of “Isis” that are more upbeat than the original, the most famous of these is from his Rolling Thunder Review tour, also in 1976, and first released on one of his bootleg albums. It was actually this live version that first really attracted me to the song; I had sort of ignored it before. 

https://youtu.be/Ojyk0g0bijM
As a "tribute" to this thread I listened to Desire on my drive home last night - I've always flipped flopped on which album I liked the best Desire or Blood on the Tracks. Maybe I'll stream Blood on the way home tonight.

"Isis" was my college girlfriend's favorite Dylan song and she sang it really sexy and quite well.

 
Lived in Minnesota nearly 6 years, never had a Dylan sighting.  My first night in Palenque hanging out around a fire, listening to a guy named Jaime playing his guitar, a guy next to me passes a joint.  It was Bob Dylan.  I don't think we said ten words that night, he was engaged in conversation with others and I left him his space and listened.  I did give him a cold one, a rare commodity in that area at that time.

 
94. “Isis” (1976, from Desire

https://youtu.be/INilAY6aJTc

Dylan’s magnum opus about marriage from the underrated Desire (I think this album suffers in some ratings because it followed Blood on the Tracks, and so it gets compared to perfection. Also because it’s  connected to that dreadful film Renaldo and Clara. However, Rolling Stone magazine regards it as one of Dylan’s best.) 

Covers This is one of those rare songs on this this for which there are no significant covers from other artists that I am aware of (if anyone is please let us know.) However Dylan himself has had live versions of “Isis” that are more upbeat than the original, the most famous of these is from his Rolling Thunder Review tour, also in 1976, and first released on one of his bootleg albums. It was actually this live version that first really attracted me to the song; I had sort of ignored it before. 

https://youtu.be/Ojyk0g0bijM
Way too low.

 
I rate the strength of his songs not on musicianship nor voice, but on whether the lyrics sustained me or brought me up short and changed me.  How others would base their ratings I do not know and cannot say.

 
I rate the strength of his songs not on musicianship nor voice, but on whether the lyrics sustained me or brought me up short and changed me.  How others would base their ratings I do not know and cannot say.
While I put his vocal phrasings/decisions/melodies up with anybody, of course I agree. 

 
He's an all time great songwriter.  :thumbup:

But when Rolling Stone had him listed as one of the top 50 best singers of all time, I immediately put that issue in the recycle barrel.  :excited:

 
93. “Someday Baby” (2006, from Modern Times)

https://vimeo.com/286977855

Along with one other song from this same album, this will be the newest selection on this list. Actually, only the lyrics are new; the music is basically taken from a traditional blues standard, also called “Someday Baby”- which was covered by RL Burnside, John Lee Hooker, Lightning Hopkins, and dozens of others. As he has done several times in his career (and again and again upcoming on this list)  Dylan borrowed the melody and added his own imprint. His vocals on this song fascinate me. 

Covers I’m not aware of any covers of the Dylan version of this song. 

 
92. “Outlaw Blues” (1965, from Bringing It All Back Home”

I don’t have a good link for this since I’m not willing to pay extra for YouTube’s premium service. This is one of those songs, along with some others coming up a little later on this list, which so angered the folkie crowd that loved Bob on an acoustic guitar and hated rock and roll (there is a terrific book on this subject, Dylan Goes Electric- highly recommended. Dylan turns the amplifier way up here and any resemblance to Pete Seeger or the New Christy Minstrels is long gone. 

Covers Outlaw Blues is a straight up hard rocking blues tune so it got covered a lot. My favorite is probably Dave Edmunds with Rockpile: 

https://youtu.be/PxSrVa8FCkU

 
Eephus said:
Blood on the Tracks is Dylan at his vocal peak.  His voice is markedly better, stronger yet more supple than on his 60s records.  He toned down the upper register stuff from Nashville Skyline but elements of that crooning style remain. 

His pipes hung in for another two decades of abuse and made a miraculous comeback around 2013 but I'd be hard pressed to think of a record where Dylan sings better than on Blood on the Tracks.
Not counting Nashville Skyline, right?   :)

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top