His Bobness

[Lefty]

Bob Dylan is a poet, scholar and hero of the highest order. It's a privilege to live on the same planet as His Bobness.

This thread is dedicated to the incomparable one. 

Please everyone post your one most favorite song by His Bobness. 

 

Here is mine:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXGmS2-llIE

[SiamSam]

Couldn't agree with you more Mr. Lefty. I bought Bob Dylan's first album (1961) in the late sixties and have been a fan every since. I have everything he ever recorded. I have too many favourites of his to single out one. In 1972 I think I made the first rock video. I shot a super 8mm movie to the song "Desolation Row". He is a superstar and a super talented and gifted man. My all time favourite musician and composer. 

[pdogg]

http://youtu.be/hk3mAX5xdxo

[pacman]

I have seen the Bobster live 6 times. Between the fifth & sixth show, he was hospitalised with a heart condition. It wasn't his heart actually, it was the sack around it (who knew there was one?) that was swollen & inflamed & he was seriously ill.

 

He recovered & it was less than two years before he was back in Oz on another tour. At the fifth show I went with an old mate. Neither of us were impressed. Far too loud, too much screaming, many of the songs were unrecognisable until he got into them. We both decided he had his day & was now a parody of his former self.

 

I called my friend to see if he wanted to go to the sixth concert. Not interested. He was permanently burned by the previous show. I still bought a ticket, I still had faith. The difference between the two shows could not be more stark. Dylan performed like he did when he was 20yo. He sounded like the Dylan of his original recordings & performed lots of those early songs with just a guitar & his "old" voice. The fans went berserk.

 

I have a theory that he was told to clean up his act when he was ill. Did he give up taking drugs on doctor's advise? I don't know but how else can it be explained.

 

I see PDogg has posted one of his very best songs Like A Rolling Stone. I don't know how he got the original off Youtube, they aren't showing here. If he has a magic way to post original tracks I would like him to post Positively Fourth Street. As good a song as he ever wrote.

[pdogg]

Positively Fourth Street

 

http://youtu.be/A1yO8mLycew

[SiamSam]

Yeah I tried to find the original of "Desolation Row" on youtube but to no avail. 

[SiamSam]

Ok, Mr. Dogg you gotta majority share in youtube or what?

[Jimslim]

Yep seems a lot of the great mans stuff is copy righted on You Tube .

 

My favourite song is A Simple Twist Of Fate but couldn't find it but I could picks dozens really .

 

I love this .

 

http://youtu.be/jd5UkWHnQhA

[Quinn]

Positively 4th Street. Marvellous. Sat with Wife number 3 and a friend listening to it and not knowing "friend" was having affair with said wife. The Bastard.

First saw Dylan with Wife Number 1 around 1965 - wonderful. We went to his concert a couple of years later when he'd gone electric. Wife went in on her own - I sold my ticket (stupid or what) and went off to meet girlfriend.

Now happily living here in Thailand. Pic is of recent LBGF wearing TShirt with "Just Like a Woman" lyrics on it. She didn't understand it. She's gone. New LBGF now has the TShirt. She likes it - but not wearing it in the pic.!

[SiamSam]

Positively 4th Street. Marvellous. Sat with Wife number 3 and a friend listening to it and not knowing "friend" was having affair with said wife. The Bastard.

First saw Dylan with Wife Number 1 around 1965 - wonderful. We went to his concert a couple of years later when he'd gone electric. Wife went in on her own - I sold my ticket (stupid or what) and went off to meet girlfriend.

Now happily living here in Thailand. Pic is of recent LBGF wearing TShirt with "Just Like a Woman" lyrics on it. She didn't understand it. She's gone. New LBGF now has the TShirt. She likes it - but not wearing it in the pic.!

 

And I assume your favourite Dylan song is: "The Mighty Quinn".

[Quinn]

Mighty Quinn indeed ? Not sure if this link will work - but here goes. Duquesne Whistle - or something like that.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/video/2012/aug/29/bob-dylan-duquesne-whistle?INTCMP=SRCH

[seven]

Been trying to post on this topic , but i can't pick any of his masterpieces.

To me, Dylan is the greatest of all time, living or dead, and to be able to see him on his Neverending tour almost every year is a bliss even though the last decade his concerts have been pretty much the same. 

Nothing revolutionary, but i don't care, i take every opportunity to see him. 

I can't name one song, there are too many. I always go back to watch the Royal Albert hall stuff from mid 60´s, backed by the Band doing songs from his legendary triple Bringing it all back home, Highway 61 revisted and Blonde on blonde. It doesn't get any better than that , imo.

[SiamSam]

Absolutely Seven, You're right on the money!

[williethepimp]

I swear ,I aint trolling,but I always thought Dylan was overated......whereas Leonard Cohen(a far greater talent imo) was underated.

Tell me to stfu if ya like,dont mean to feck the thread ,but surely I'm not the only one!

[SiamSam]

Willie, Willie, Willie!! I am shocked. 

 

Leonard is indeed a tremendous talent but not with the same variety and versatility as his Jewish brethren, Mr. Zimmerman. 

[JaiDee]

  I have never been a big fan of Dylan and don't really know anything by him outside of his radio 'hits' over the years, but if you want to see a great story about a similar songwriter/poet who never got anywhere near Dylan's fame watch this documentary;

 

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125608/?ref_=sr_1

 

  Highly recommended

[xrayspecs]

http://youtu.be/hk3mAX5xdxo

I'd have to agree with this choice, I was having a discussion about my favourite songs last night and this one came up.

[Hefe]

Dylan, seems like he was born fully formed & could see further out than most of us. He is so head & shoulders above his nearest artist brethren that I think it must be a lonely road for the man to always be ten steps ahead.  His "Chronicles" book is a good read & more proof of his writing acumen, highly recommended for fans.

 

seven correctly named the best 3 albums,but there are so many others...

 

For reasons I can't fathom I didn't see Dylan in concert till this century, made up for it by seeing him several times since 2000, but I honestly can't recommend his shows to the casual listener: old songs are repurposed & unrecognizable & his voice is now a croak that is almost monotone, hard to listen to. His bands are very good, very tight. Says he made s deal with God to keep touring until he's dead!

But nobody can touch his body of work.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx4pRyEtit4

[pacman]

Dylan, seems like he was born fully formed & could see further out than most of us. He is so head & shoulders above his nearest artist brethren that I think it must be a lonely road for the man to always be ten steps ahead.  

 

Agreed. He writes wonderful poetry. I have been listening to a compilation CD of his earlier classics & have been struck by just how fresh his lyrics are & how they still stand up to any comparison.

 

By way of example, here's the lyrics of Mr Tambourine Man. I know of no artist today writing anything this good. And combined with his unique singing style where he sings counterpoint to the music, he is one of a kind.

 

"Mr. Tambourine Man"

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me

In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand

Vanished from my hand

Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping

My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet

I have no one to meet

And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.

 

 Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to 

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me

In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship

My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip

My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels

To be wanderin'

I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade

Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way

I promise to go under it.

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me.... {CHORUS}

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin' swingin' madly across the sun

It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run

And but for the sky there are no fences facin'

And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme

To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind

I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're

Seein' that he's chasing.

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me....  {CHORUS}

 

Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind

Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves

The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me....   {CHORUS}

 

It's funny how time gives perspective. When The Byrds cashed in with their cover version of this song, I tended to dismiss it as Dylan-lite. Now it's a joy when I'm driving & it comes around on the CD & I can warble along with it. I don't mind the funny looks from other motorists, they don't know what they are missing.

[Hefe]

Way beyond anybody else's idea of what song lyrics could be at the time...
 
For any other music nerds here is the actual Mr. Tambourine Man: Bruce Langhorne. I noticed back in the day he was on all the good early folkies' albums as a guitarist, IIRC he is even on his own song with Dylan, but it was only years later I found out he was the actual namesake.

He has a website, sells hotsauce!   :)

[Lefty]

I swear ,I aint trolling,but I always thought Dylan was overated......whereas Leonard Cohen(a far greater talent imo) was underated.

Tell me to stfu if ya like,dont mean to feck the thread ,but surely I'm not the only one!

I love His Bobness, obviously since I started the thread, but Leonard Cohen is at the very least just as great. I love Cohen just as much. 

Some say Cohen is the Canadian version of Dylan but I don't buy it. There are each equally great in their own ways. 

[Hefe]

There are several others that are best in class to me & Leonard Cohen is the first name I come up with too, Tom Waits as well. The thing is nobody can really categorize the real artists, they just are.....   and the music is their life, not just their product.

 

Ok, a few others near the top imho: Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Joni Mitchell (till the muse passed), Stephen Sondheim....  jeez I can't come up with anybody under 55 yo?  That can't be right...  I guess I can't grok hip-hop or rap & pass over most modern music as a product. Maybe music in these times is just product & doesn't mean what it used to except for a sliver of stubborn cultists? Like literature has faded in recent years. 

 

Maybe thats it, in the culture of twitter, email & videogames language arts are just a fading notion? Who has the time or interest to stop & just listen to something for 3 minutes?

[KenW]

Coincidentally last evening's Paddy's Day drink at my local bar in Saigon turned, among 4 or 5 of us, into a Dylan memory lane chat. Don't know why; somebody just mentioned him and it got going. All oldish or seriously old, we could each come up with some bits of info on songs, albumn titles, dates, tours, when we saw him, who he played with, etc. Everybody in the discussion a fan.

 

Dylan has been my favourite pop star for 40 odd years. Can't sing, but boy as others have said, can he write. Pacman's posting of the Mr T words an example. Last night in Heineken talk I raved on about classics such as Shelter from the Storm, Chimes of Freedom Flashing, Buckets of Rain, others went on about other tracks. I don't think there's been a pop star like him, so uniquely creative, with such depth of feeling to the words.

 

As I said, he couldn't sing, but so what. Someone in a post above generously stated that he sang counterpoint. No. He sang off key and often flat. With nothing but a nasal snarl for a voice. Bing Crosby sang counterpoint, And he had a voice. Poor old Bob had to make do with being a creator of fashion. By virtue of great words and his inimitable style.

 

He has already been awarded a special Pulitzer award (they virtually created a new category for him). By what I'm hearing, he has also been nominated a couple/few times for a Nobel Literature Prize. Hopefully the future will bring that.

[pacman]

As I said, he couldn't sing, but so what. Someone in a post above generously stated that he sang counterpoint. No. He sang off key and often flat. With nothing but a nasal snarl for a voice. Bing Crosby sang counterpoint, And he had a voice. Poor old Bob had to make do with being a creator of fashion. By virtue of great words and his inimitable style.

 

It wasn't just that he couldn't sing, I don't think he cared to. Some tracks he positively snarls the lyrics, others he wails in his flat voice with little regard to holding a melody. He does not possess a great range in his voice.

 

I posted he sang counterpoint. I wasn't completely certain whether I used the right expression & after googling it, I think I should have described his singing as polyphonic. It's the vocal version of counterpoint where the singer sings against the meiody. Dylan isn't aiming to be so much tuneful as much as he wants to break the rhythm by singing over it. Not on every track but I hope those familiar with his work understand what I mean.

 

All I can add is he is unique. He was the first I know of to sing like he did & write like he did. He has left the world with many gifts & in the future will be held in the same regard as Mozart or Beethoven are today. IMO.

[seven]

This could've ended really bad. Seeing him in June. Hope he'll be ok.