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

I'm delinquent with my attention to this thread, almost purposely because I wanted to take a shot at guessing your top 10 with due attention.  Alas time slips away, so I'll just wing it knowing I might list songs already chosen.

In no particular order: 

  1. Like a Rolling Stone - didn't this song usher in the electri Dylan at Newport?
  2. Positively 4th Street 
  3. Girl from the North Country 
  4. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again - makes my top 10
  5. Just Like Tom Thumb Blues - not positively my #1, but it might be
  6. Visions of Johanna
  7. Hurricane - not in my top 10, but do I recollect that you have expressed great fondness of this song?
  8. It's All Over Now Baby Blue
  9. The Times They are a Changin' - not in my top 10 but I don't think it's significance escaped you and your top 10.
  10. It's Alright, Ma (I'm only Bleeding)
I know you'll have a few surprises up your sleeve, but I probably nailed a few.

 
I'll take a stab:

Like A Rolling Stone
Tangled Up In Blue
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Visions Of Johanna
Desolation Row
Blowin' In The Wind

 
Bonzai said:
I'll take a stab:

Like A Rolling Stone
Tangled Up In Blue
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Visions Of Johanna
Desolation Row
Blowin' In The Wind
Click to expand...
Damn, totally whiffed on including Blowin' in the Wind.  I think I had this song in mind when I listed The Times They Are a Changin'.  

Apostrophe Rock :headbang:

 
I figure if I wait to submit a top ten until you get down around pick 12-13, I'll improve my odds.

 
42. “Sign on the Window” (1970, from New Morning) 

https://vimeo.com/300583038

Continuing my love for early 70s Dylan on piano. This is lovely tune and he is wistful about the future: 

Build me a cabin in Utah 

Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout 

Have a bunch of kids who call me “Pa”

That must be what it’s all about! 

Covers 70s singer Jennifer Warnes (“Right Time of the Night”, “Up Where We Belong” with Joe Cocker) was sort of a poor girl’s Linda Ronstadt, But she did a fine, ernest cover here:

https://youtu.be/dlQG1ctPypU

 
41. “Time Passes Slowly” (1970, New Morning) 

Don’t have a good link for this. It’s one my very favorite Dylan songs, particularly the guitar solo, which is said to be by an uncredited George Harrison. But I also love the lyrics:

Once I had a sweetheart, she was fine and good looking

We sat in her kitchen while her mama was cookin’ 

Just love that. Love the bridge, love the way the vocals rise on the final verse, just a tremendous rock song all the way through. 

Covers I generally like Judy Collins. She has done some great covers in her life, notably “Both Sides Now”, “Suzanne”, “Someday Soon”, “Last Thing On My Mind”, and “Send In The Clowns”- Love all that. But she is also the only notable artist to cover “Time Passes Slowly” and she just murders it, not in a good way. She simply destroys everything that is great about this song. It is the worst Dylan cover by a major performer I have ever heard and so I won’t link it here. Ugh. 

 
40. “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited) 

https://youtu.be/PRu3uG4U6VY

Gotta love those blues. And Dylan was certainly one of the best composers of blues songs in the 20th Century. This is one of his best efforts. 

Covers Like  every song on this album there are dozens of covers by major artists. I’ve tried to sample as many as dive could before choosing the best but I’ve probably missed a few. Because of the blues nature of the tune I’m going to go with the great Taj Mahal, who rarely disappoints: 

https://youtu.be/V0yfzRZZvaY

 
timschochet said:
44. “Simple Twist of Fate” (1975, from Blood on the Tracks) 

https://youtu.be/sGnhyoP_DSc

OK remember when I wrote that there were nearly 50 Dylan songs in my top 10? It starts now. I have no idea how this song ended up at 44, there’s simply too many classics: 

People tell me it’s a sin 

To know and feel too much within 

I still believe she was my twin, but I lost the ring 

She was born in spring, but I was born too late 

Blame it on a simple twist of fate

Can lyrics get much better than this? Amazingly enough they can and do. 

Covers Brian Ferry, who has spent a good deal of his solo career covering Dylan, delivers an excellent upbeat version here: 

https://youtu.be/D8NCSx31gws
Click to expand...
Such a great song. Possibly best about a one-night stand.

 
39. “If Not For You” (1970, from New Morning)

https://youtu.be/yyouhbgAiCA

OK I promise this is the last song from New Morning. But what a great song it is, a pop love song with excellent lyrics and melody, and I especially love the catchy harmonica solo following each bridge. Dylan does an excellent job singing here as well. Just an outstanding effort all around. 

Covers There’s really only one choice here: George Harrison and his famous “Apple Jam” band from All Things Must Pass. Not quite as great as the original IMO but still excellent: 

https://youtu.be/pJsfzu_B464

 
timschochet said:
39. “If Not For You” (1970, from New Morning)

https://youtu.be/yyouhbgAiCA

OK I promise this is the last song from New Morning. But what a great song it is, a pop love song with excellent lyrics and melody, and I especially love the catchy harmonica solo following each bridge. Dylan does an excellent job singing here as well. Just an outstanding effort all around. 

Covers There’s really only one choice here: George Harrison and his famous “Apple Jam” band from All Things Must Pass. Not quite as great as the original IMO but still excellent: 

https://youtu.be/pJsfzu_B464
Click to expand...
I love both, but George's version is better.

 
Top Ten guesses...

Blowin' in the Wind

Just Like Tom Thumb's blues (32)

Like a Rolling Stone

Positively 4th Street (28)

Tangled Up in Blue

Visions of Johanna (18)

Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts (54)

Mr Tambourine Man (12)

Shelter from the Storm (24)

My Back Pages (17)

 
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Galileo said:
Top Ten guesses...

Blowin' in the Wind

Just Like Tom Thumb's blues

Like a Rolling Stone

Positively 4th Street

Tangled Up in Blue

Visions of Johanna

Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts

Mr Tambourine Man

Shelter from the Storm

My Back Pages
Click to expand...
Came in at #54

 
38. "Precious Angel" (1979, from Slow Train Coming)

I don't have a good link to the studio version, only a live version from a year later and it's too fast (and also missing the lead guitar by Mark Knopfler, which is a big part of this song's greatness.)

Dylan's magnum opus of Christianity is anthem like, epic, uplifting, perhaps the best religious song I have ever heard. The lyrics at times are not pleasant; this is not a happy set of beliefs that Dylan has adopted but a strict Calvinist ethos with doom for the unbelievers:

My so-called friends have fallen under a spell

They look me squarely in the eye and they say All is well

Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high

When men will beg God to kill them and they won't be able to die?

Damn Bob. Later in the song he manages to rip some of the world's other major religions:

You were telling him about Buddha,

You were telling him about Mohammed in the same breath.

You never mentioned one time the Man who came and died a criminal's death.

I'm betting no other Christian song writer would even include Buddha and Mohammad in his her lyrics; that's gotta be a first. All the while Mark Knopfler keeps the tune moving with a terrific guitar line. And yet, for all the hellfire that the new born again Bob unleashes, the song IS uplifting as I wrote. And in its way its a love song:

You're the queen of my flesh, girl, you're my woman, you're my delight,

You're the lamp of my soul girl and you torch up the night

Dylan urges the Lord to shine His light, but it's Dylan himself who is shining here.

Covers A few Christian bands tried; none succeeded.

 
37. “From a Buick 6” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited) 

https://youtu.be/qBRK9KIx8SM

Well this sure doesn’t sound like folk music does it? Mike Bloomfield cranks up the electric guitar and we get a different Bob Dylan, louder even than “Maggie’s Farm”, maybe as loud as he ever got. But don’t worry, if something happens he’ll end up with a blanket on his bed. 

Covers Seems like just about every rock and blues guitarist has tried their hand at this one at one time or another. I really like this version by Robbie McIntosh, the former guitarist for the Pretenders: 

https://robbiemcintosh.bandcamp.com/track/from-a-buick-6

 
36. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (1967/1969; released in 1975/1971)

https://youtu.be/zuuJ_6xGHeo

This song has a weird history: it was originally written and recorded in 1967 with The Band during The Basement Tapes sessions; that version was released in 1975. But Dylan then recorded a 2nd version of the song in 1969, also with The Band, that version was released in 1971 on Greatest Hits Vol. II. In between the two versions, the Byrds had a hit with the tune on their country album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, in which Roger McGuinn screwed up the lyrics. This annoyed Dylan so much that in the 1969 version he rewrote the first verse so that he could add “McGuinn” after he sang the line correctly (and then added words to rhyme with McGunn; “Gunga Din”, etc. The above link is to the second version. 

Covers The Ken Burns documentary Country Music describes how The Byrds, a Los Angeles based folk rock band (with a history of interpreting Dylan tunes) added Gram Parsons in 1967 and then went to Nashville and basically created country rock by recording Sweetheart of the Radio. They performed the album’s songs live at the Grand Ol Oprey, the first rock band ever to take that stage, where they were met mostly with silence. Nonetheless “You Ain’t Goin’  Nowhere” became a hit twice on country music charts: first with the Byrds, and then later with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman.) Here is the Byrds version: 

https://youtu.be/s2JnDKvuNzw

 
35. “Forever Young” (slow version) (1973, from Planet Waves) 

https://youtu.be/Frj2CLGldC4

There are two versions on the album. I don’t like the fast version: Dylan’s vocals annoy me. It was used as the opening song for a very good show recently, Parenthood, and every time I heard it I cringed. 

Anyhow, this a love song to Dylan’s son Jesse, reminiscent of John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” and it’s very very sweet. The Band is his accompaniment here. 

Covers If it wasn’t for William Shatner (we’ll get to him later maybe) Howard Cosell’s spoken word recitation of the lyrics of this song, in praise of Muhammad Ali, might be the most embarrassing moment associated with a Dylan song ever. The Rod Stewart song from 1988, which I like, is not the same song- it was close enough in lyrics that he had to share songwriting credit with Dylan, but it’s a completely different melody. So I am going here with another artist my daughter made me aware of: X-Factor winner Louisa Johnson who recently scored big with her version: 

https://youtu.be/8Z9BE2Pz_VA

 
timschochet said:
36. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (1967/1969; released in 1975/1971)

https://youtu.be/zuuJ_6xGHeo

This song has a weird history: it was originally written and recorded in 1967 with The Band during The Basement Tapes sessions; that version was released in 1975. But Dylan then recorded a 2nd version of the song in 1969, also with The Band, that version was released in 1971 on Greatest Hits Vol. II. In between the two versions, the Byrds had a hit with the tune on their country album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, in which Roger McGuinn screwed up the lyrics. This annoyed Dylan so much that in the 1969 version he rewrote the first verse so that he could add “McGuinn” after he sang the line correctly (and then added words to rhyme with McGunn; “Gunga Din”, etc. The above link is to the second version. 

Covers The Ken Burns documentary Country Music describes how The Byrds, a Los Angeles based folk rock band (with a history of interpreting Dylan tunes) added Gram Parsons in 1967 and then went to Nashville and basically created country rock by recording Sweetheart of the Radio. They performed the album’s songs live at the Grand Ol Oprey, the first rock band ever to take that stage, where they were met mostly with silence. Nonetheless “You Ain’t Goin’  Nowhere” became a hit twice on country music charts: first with the Byrds, and then later with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman.) Here is the Byrds version: 

https://youtu.be/s2JnDKvuNzw
Click to expand...
The version with Rosanne Cash, Shawn Colvin, and Mary Chapin Carpenter from the 30th Anniversary concert is a good one.

 
34. “Tombstone Blues” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited)

https://youtu.be/ag-Esuy44ks

Despite the title this isn’t really a blues song like “From a Buick 6”; its more straight up rock and roll, and like so many of Dylan’s greatest recordings during this period, it contains lyrics which are both mystifying and incredibly poetic, including these lines towards the end of the song which are among the most famous he ever wrote: 

I wish I could write you a melody so plain 

That could hold you, dear lady, from going insane 

That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain 

of your useless and pointless knowledge 

No idea what he’s singing about here. Sounds depressing though.

Covers So many of these and they’re all pretty similar. I guess there’s no point in messing with what is near perfection. Sheryl Crow did a nice live version with Eric Clapton on guitar: 

https://youtu.be/qQNQdVG5DMY

 
33. “Gates of Eden” (1965, from Bringing It All Back Home”) 

https://youtu.be/BnDmA7WnSHY

Miltonesque vision of doom here- Dylan’s poetic brilliance is on display but the tone is not a happy one: 

The lamppost stands with folded arms, it’s iron claws attached 

to curb ‘neath holes where babies wail though it shadows metal badge 

all in all can only fall with crashing but meaningless blow 

no sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden 

And so on. 9 verses, all dark, none cheerful. But such lyrics! The mid 60s, and perhaps this album in particular, represent the height of Dylan’s lyrical power, and he is the greatest musical lyricist in history. 

Covers Surprisingly only a few folk singers have even attempted this. Perhaps the lyrics are simply too difficult? I enjoy Arlo Guthrie’s version from the early 70s because he manages to make the song a little more melodic than the original: 

https://youtu.be/-y8cFEwdZ8o

 
32. “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited) 

https://youtu.be/CcRNSHqiH7A

It’s a bit funny to me that, while several of the songs chosen in this top 100 are blues songs, that does NOT include any of the songs with “blues” in the title, including this one. 

Bob is lost in Juarez, meets a prostitute, gets loaded on liquor and drugs, probably gets an STD, and ends up in trouble with the law before he flees back to New York. Just another day for him in the mid sixties. 

Covers So many great artists have performed this song, but for me the most distinctive version is by Nina Simone: although she has an incredibly powerful voice she deliberately uses a soft tone in this which is perfect: 

https://youtu.be/ij1UDMr3B-E

 
My guesses for Tim’s Top 10:

1. A Hard Rains A Gonna Fall

2. Tangled up in Blue

3. Like a Rolling Stone

4. Girl From North Country

5. Visions of Johanna

6. Positively 4th Street

7. The Man In Me

8. Idiot Wind

9. Shelter From the Storm

10. Jokerman

 
Last edited by a moderator:
timschochet said:
34. “Tombstone Blues” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited)

33. “Gates of Eden” (1965, from Bringing It All Back Home”)

32. “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited)
Click to expand...
Right in my '65 wheelhouse.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
timschochet said:
32. “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited) 

https://youtu.be/CcRNSHqiH7A

It’s a bit funny to me that, while several of the songs chosen in this top 100 are blues songs, that does NOT include any of the songs with “blues” in the title, including this one. 

Bob is lost in Juarez, meets a prostitute, gets loaded on liquor and drugs, probably gets an STD, and ends up in trouble with the law before he flees back to New York. Just another day for him in the mid sixties. 

Covers So many great artists have performed this song, but for me the most distinctive version is by Nina Simone: although she has an incredibly powerful voice she deliberately uses a soft tone in this which is perfect: 

https://youtu.be/ij1UDMr3B-E
Click to expand...
Love this tune. Great choice on the cover as well. Neil Young also does a great version.

 
Dr. Octopus said:
My guesses for Tim’s Top 10:

1. A Hard Rains A Gonna Fall

2. Tangled up in Blue

3. Like a Rolling Stone

4. Girl From North Country

5. Visions of Johanna

6. Positively 4th Street

7. The Man In Me

8. Idiot Wind

9. Shelter From the Storm

10. Jokerman
Click to expand...
Man in Me 84, Jokerman 83

 
31. “Mississippi” (2001, from Love and Theft”) 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ow88ZWfZfwc

It’s truly amazing that Dylan could write a song this great in his fifth decade of songwriting. Unheard of. This epic, which is a return in some ways to the theme of “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again”, is sung with a gravelly voice, knowing and wise; it is his most effective singing effort in years. And it’s chalk full of lyrical goodness, such as 

I was raised in the country, I’ve been workin’ in the town 

I been in trouble ever since I put my suitcase down 

and 

I was thinkin’ bout the things that Rosie said

I was dreamin’ I was sleepin’ in Rosie’s bed

and 

But my heart is not weary, it’s light and it’s free 

I’ve got nothing but affection for all those who’ve sailed with me 

and most of all 

Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow 

Things should start to get interesting right about now 

A true classic. 

Covers So there’s two notable covers of this song: Sheryl Crow, whom Dylan gave the song to prior to recording it himself, and the Dixie Chicks, who made it a concert staple. Both are good covers and more upbeat, but neither are nearly as awesome as Dylan’s version IMO. I went with Sheryl Crow: 

https://youtu.be/NiGMqbXb8J8

 
30. “Queen Jane Approximately” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited) 

https://youtu.be/5-ZmD3sCFcE

As we climb up the rankings it’s getting more and more difficult for me to comment on these songs. What can I possibly write that hasn’t been written hundreds of times before? Almost all of the selections remaining are generally considered among the most highly regarded songs ever written, this one being no exception. 

This is generally thought to be a rebuke of Joan Baez, “Queen Jane” being a sly reference to the fact that at one time Dylan and Baez were collectively known as the “king and queen of folk music.” However, back in the 1960s Dylan supposedly told Nora Ephron that “Queen Jane was a man” which has led to some speculation that Dylan was involved in a gay relationship at the time? 

Covers This is one of several Dylan songs that the Grateful Dead loved to perform in concert. Apparently it was Bob Weir’s favorite and he liked to experiment. From 1989: 

https://youtu.be/0xA-_51DCKM

 
Last edited by a moderator:
timschochet said:
32. “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (1965, from Highway 61 Revisited) 

https://youtu.be/CcRNSHqiH7A

It’s a bit funny to me that, while several of the songs chosen in this top 100 are blues songs, that does NOT include any of the songs with “blues” in the title, including this one. 

Bob is lost in Juarez, meets a prostitute, gets loaded on liquor and drugs, probably gets an STD, and ends up in trouble with the law before he flees back to New York. Just another day for him in the mid sixties. 

Covers So many great artists have performed this song, but for me the most distinctive version is by Nina Simone: although she has an incredibly powerful voice she deliberately uses a soft tone in this which is perfect: 

https://youtu.be/ij1UDMr3B-E
Click to expand...
gosh darnit Tim!

ETA: g***** language filter

 
Last edited by a moderator:
29. Chimes of Freedom (1964, from Another Side of Bob Dylan) 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LVIWA9VTiN8

The final words to this anthem are as meaningful today as they were when it was written: 

Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed 

For the countless confused, accused, misused strung out ones and worse 

And for every hung up person in the whole live universe 

And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’. 

Amen. 

Covers There are two great covers to this song: The Byrds and Bruce Springsteen. Both are great. I’m going with the Byrds because of that Rickenbacker, that three part harmony, and especially because of the “da dee dee dum” they add to the end of the verse. Just too good: 

https://youtu.be/F2nKFmXlY38

 
28. “Positively 4th Street” (1965, released as a single)

https://youtu.be/aehwEu8SBSo

Probably the second most cutting of all Dylan songs (the clear #1 in this category is coming up later.) Bob is apparently bitter that this person didn’t support him when he abandoned folk for rock and roll (supposedly it’s all the folks in Greenwich Village) and so he lashes out. There’s no subtlety here; it’s a straight up attack. 

Musically this song kind of reminds me of Neil Young’s “Harvest” in that there’s no bridge, chorus, or progression; it’s just the same couple of lines over and over. Yet somehow it works. 

Covers Lots of faithful renditions of this, lots of unfaithful ones too, and some of these don’t work (the Violent Femmes, for example, a band I used to love, just destroy this song). I really like Lucinda Williams’ version. (Lucinda is an artist I think I would enjoy more except for how she tries to sound drunk all the time- or maybe she is?) 

https://youtu.be/ea6R-sALVlA

 
27. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965, from Bringing It All Back Home) 

https://youtu.be/MGxjIBEZvx0

The link is to the the “video” that appears at the beginning of the film Don’t Look Back, and it is just as iconic as the song. Obviously this song includes some of Dylan’s most famous lines, especially the immortal 

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

along with my personal favorite

Don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters 

Decades before Public Enemy, Bob Dylan was willing to fight the power. 

Covers Gotta go with the Red Hot Chili Peppers here. Explosive: 

https://youtu.be/LLeMY__L3Sw

 
26. “The Girl from the North Country” (1963, from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) 

https://youtu.be/IJCmgKRszYM

This lovely, wistful ballad  was first recorded for his second album, and later on he re-recorded it as a duet with Johnny Cash on Nashville Skyline. I like the original better; simply beautiful. 

Covers Mark Oliver Everett, known as “E” of the band Eels does a live version on piano which is the best I’ve ever heard: 

https://youtu.be/WJEnngXJggA

 
25. “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (1973, from Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) 

https://youtu.be/rm9coqlk8fY

This song sounds like southern rock to me; it could have been written by the Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd (though the latter would have made it a 7 minute song, most of it guitar solo, and that would have been just fine too.) The lyrics are rather simple for Bob and the chorus is repetitive but so what? It’s pretty splendid. 

Covers So Eric Clapton has a cover, Warren Zevon (on his last album, which is pretty poignant), even Wyclef Jean. But in the end there was only really one choice here. From the album Use Your Illusion, Guns ‘N Roses: 

https://youtu.be/f8OHybVhQwc 

 
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