Excited as I am by the new Bob Dylan songs, I've gone and made a list of my favourite Bob Dylan studio albums in order from Top to Bottom. Completely subjective. No attempt at objectivity.
I've obviously listened to the ones near the top an awful lot more than the ones at the bottom, so the last week has involved listening to all the bad Bob Dylan albums, which has been quite fun.
Have included the official "The Basement Tapes" and 'Dylan'.
I've also considered, if you put together compilations of the best Dylan songs which are not on albums, where they would sit. (not tempting fate, I've left the two recent songs, Murder Most Foul and I Contain Multitudes, out of that.
In some cases, I've written a few words but not many.
Start at the top, no surprises:
1. Blood on the Tracks
I used to think that this album wasn't quite as perfect as some other great albums, like Blue and Astral Weeks. But the only two tracks I was a bit down on, Buckets of Rain and Meet Me in the Morning, sound great to me now, really evocative, and they bookend Side 2 really nicely. There are other great songs Dylan wrote at the time like Up to Me, but it is arguable whether their inclusion would have improved or unbalanced the album.
And as for the other 8 tracks, it is true to say I have been enthralled and obsessed with every single one of them, in its own right, at some point. I'm not sure I can say that about any other album, by anyone.
2. The Times They are A-Changin'
This is, in some ways, the definitive Bob Dylan album, though some people don't love it, saying it's too preachy. Recorded the month before Kennedy's assassination, Dylan was never the same again.
This album is so austere, so humourless, so committed to protest and civil rights and the plight of black people in America - the selfish, joking, wildfire Dylan is barely there.
Yet I still find this album completely wonderful - Hattie Carroll, is to me, one of the truly great works of art of all time, the perfect story in a song, Boots of Spanish Leather, the album's one "love song" is so subtle, such a wolf in sheep's clothing, a heartbreaker disguised as an exercise in balladry. Even the title track, which I went off for a long time, has regained its power for me.
3. Blonde on Blonde
Would probably be most people's favourite, but it's not just Rainy Day Women, there are a few other songs it could do without, in my opinion. Minor quibbles, I guess. So many amazing songs on this.
4. John Wesley Harding
Some people are a bit sniffy about JWH, but I love it, it's so entirely of itself, so odd, so biblical and mythical. There's nothing I'd change about it.
5. Another Side of Bob Dylan
I love that this is basically just a drunk recording session and people don't call it one of his best albums, but it's got some of the all-time great songs, and you can just hear everything that's coming.
6. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Well, this is wonderful. I can't even say why this isn't higher. I overlistened to it when I was young, I guess.
7. Modern Times
I think maybe this is my favourite of the late Dylan - there are really lovely songs all the way through. I put it above Time Out of Mind because of how much I love Workingman Blues.
8. Time out of Mind
Probably a greater album than Modern Times, and always worth remembering Dylan was considered pretty much a busted flush at this point. I bought it on cassette at John Menzies on South Street in St Andrews in my first weeks at university. Not Dark Yet is such a definitive song in the history of rock'n'roll. The first great "getting old" song for the swinging sixties generation.
9. Bringing it All Back Home
I think, simply, I didn't come to this as an album, I'd listened to most of the songs separately before I owned the whole thing, so I never loved it like some of the others.
10. Desire
Would be higher, but Joey is really not good at all. A thought I had with this one, where there's a live version of Isis which is literally my favourite thing ever, is how common for "alternative" versions of Dylan songs to be the preferred version. It can happen with other artists, but I think the space for improvement he leaves in recorded versions makes that a rather wonderful thing.
11. Highway 61 Revisited
Whereas here, in this "Greatest Albums of All Time' book I bought in 1995 or so, this was Number 2, so when I got it, I just found it a bit … not everything. Depends how much one loves Desolation Row, which for me is not a great deal.
12. "Love and Theft"
It's a really brilliant album. I think I just always hope there's one more stately ballad on it.
13. Oh Mercy
Aah, if it had Series of Dreams ...
14. Shadows in the Night
I love this, the first of Dylan's Sinatra covers album. His singing is such a revelation, as is the production. I think the idea that Dylan is not a great musician is so ludicrous, when you think that he produces and arranges and reinvents and dictates and rules everything he does, and he's used so many many different palettes through the decades.
15. Street-Legal
Street-Legal's pretty great. I mean, really. Gets a raw deal. He's still singing great, the song's are memorable and soulful. This one is the most in need of reassessment, I think.
16. Nashville Skyline
Starts brilliantly, but gets a little throwaway, like he couldn't quite go through with the idea.
17. The Basement Tapes
I have included this as an official album - it would have been cool if they'd one day, gone into a studio and done these songs properly. Maybe it would.
18. Slow Train Coming
It's pretty rockin'. He's still singing Gotta Serve Somebody in concert.
19. Tempest
I quite like Tempest. I grew to love it more when I thought it was the last original material Dylan would ever release. Roll On John and the title track are just not super great though. His long songs are pretty hit and miss, all the way back to Desolation Row.
20. Christmas in the Heart
I mean, who doesn't love this? Who?
21. Bob Dylan
There's an impatience to the singing and the listening. But a lot of it is great to listen to.
22. New Morning
New Morning and Planet Waves are both … quite good, aren't they? They're the most quite good albums Dylan ever made.
23. Planet Waves
Quite good.
24. Together Through Life
It feels almost throwaway now, this album, but it's pretty good.
25. Fallen Angels
Second Sinatra covers album. Not much need to listen more than twice, but it's good.
26. Saved
Solid Rock is a phenomenal song.
27. Infidels
Infidels is pretty solid, but it doesn't have any real standouts on it.
28. Shot of Love
Whereas Shot of Love is pretty dodgy, but has Every Grain of Sand.
29. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
It's funny that Knockin' on Heaven's Door is a Bob Dylan song.
30. Down in the Groove
Funnily enough, though this is often seen as the complete low point, I have found this quite enjoyable to listen to. Some of the others of the 80s are more generally excruciating.
31. World Gone Wrong
There are two covers albums of folk songs in the early 90s which are seen as a point where Dylan got back in touch with his roots. They're both, honestly, pretty boring, but I like this one better than Good as I Been to You.
32. Under the Red Sky
There are a couple of very decent songs on this.
33. Triplicate
This album, to be fair, sounds much much better than these other ones near the bottom, it's just a bit unnecessary.
34. Empire Burlesque
Dark Eyes is good.
35. Dylan
This is quite enjoyable to listen to, in its own stupid way. I was pleasantly surprised.
36. Knocked Out Loaded
You know, even this, it's got some decent stuff on it. Brownsville Girl.
37. Self Portrait
There have been recent attempt to rehabilitate Self Portrait, but it's just not as much fun as it could possibly be.
38. Good As I Been to You.
OK. so what would be the best "non-album tracks" album. I've included non-album singles and other assorted outtakes.
Here's the First:
Blind Willie McTell
Positively Fourth Street
Series of Dreams
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
I Shall Be Released
She's Your Lover Now
Up to Me
Angelina
Moonshiner (cover)
Red River Shore
That would be amongst the 10 Greatest Albums Ever Released.
Here's the Second:
Percy's Song
Paths of Victory
Mama, You Been on My Mind
Love is Just a Four Letter Word
Dignity
Things Have Changed
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window
Who Killed Davey Moore
Abandoned Love
He Was a Friend of Mine
Tomorrow is a Long Time
If You Gotta Go, Go Now
This would be in the Top 10 Dylan albums.
Here's the third:
Let Me Die on My Footsteps
I'm Not There
I'll Keep It With Mine
Walls of Red Wings
Mixed Up Confusion
Caribbean Wind
Baby I'm in the Mood For You
Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
Only a Hobo
Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie
This would probably sit just outside the Top 10.
I may have missed something, but still. Pretty good.
No comments:
Post a Comment