I was so much older then ...

Bob Dylan's got a new album out, by the way. It's great. It might well be my favourite of his late-years revival. It's funny, well-crafted, silly at times, it's got a lot of verve, the middle section is really exceptional I think, Pay in Blood and Long & Wasted Years are the stand-outs for me. He's 71 and he sounds 71, but no one who's 71 has made such vital music before I'd say.

This late-years revival began with Time Out of Mind, from 1997 - the first proper Bob Dylan that came out while I was a proper Bob Dylan fan (good timing for me) and, one whose reputation has grown over the years. The stand-out song of it is Not Dark Yet, which I remember people at the time saying was the first great song of the rock'n'roll generation aging (particularly in the light of the fact Dylan had almost died that year of some sort of lung infection). Well, 15 years have gone and he's still in the process of aging.

But then I think - well, he doesn't really sound any older now than then. And then I think, he doesn't really sound any older now than 50 years ago. Here's 'Moonshiner' from 50 years ago, a traditional song rather than a Dylan composition, but one of his great vocal performances. He's 21 here, or maybe 22.He sounds 71.
Moonshiner
That was always what made Bob Dylan a great singer, and makes him, somehow or another*, a great singer still. He inhabits the role like no one else. Although I'm not sure he could inhabit the role of a 21 year old now.
*As one nice article said, criticism of Bob Dylan these days, whether live or on record, seems to be from people who have suddenly made the discovery that he has, would you believe it, a funny voice. No shit. Honestly, all those people that still liked him hadn't noticed. Thanks for pointing it out.

But then I think something else, a bit scarier. Forget how old Bob Dylan is, how old am I? I'm as old as Bob Dylan was when he released Blood on the Tracks. The great album of break-up and despair, of middle age, of faded dreams, of a bitter, beaten man, Bob Dylan had gone through all that, he's changed the world, gone away, come back, gone away, come back again, come up with this extraordinary piece of work (definitely my favourite Dylan album). That's how old I am now. When I first heard Blood on the Tracks, I could never imagine being as old as the man who sang it, and yet, that time doesn't feel so long ago, and I really don't feel that old. I should probably feel good about that, but it mainly just makes me realise how remarkable Bob Dylan is and was.
My list of songs is
13 Bob Dylan songs where he sounds older than time

My Back Pages
Moonshiner
Every Grain of Sand
Not Dark Yet
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
I Shall Be Released
Simple Twist of Fate
With God on Our Side
Dear Landlord
I Threw It All Away
Workingman Blues
What Good Am I?
One Too Many Mornings