Many people only know Bob Dylan as that guy with the whiny voice who inspires them to push the button on the radio every time his music is played. Furthermore, Dylan's iconic status has transcended the actual music. So, here's an entry point to his music. For those who think they know him and don't, for those who think they hate him but might be enlightened.
BLOWIN' IN THE WIND
The initial, eponymous Bob Dylan album was released in 1962. It was mostly covers, it was not a big smash, it got most of its attention after the fact, in retrospect. "Freewheelin'," the second LP was the breakthrough.
Would Bob Dylan have made it if he wasn't managed by Albert Grossman? That's a good question, and I'm leaning towards Bob not being that big. Grossman got his other client Peter, Paul & Mary to cover Bob's songs, make them standards, and people started to know who he was. Peter, Paul & Mary's cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" was sweeter, but hewed to the Bob Dylan original, which was not the case with so many covers thereafter.
MASTERS OF WAR
It was 1963. The folk scene was still dominant, this was a year before the Beatles hit America. It was also an era of hopes and dreams and protest for even more. Kennedy had not been shot, but there was a fight for equal rights and... It was the exact opposite of today. The oldsters were asleep, and the youngsters were pushing the envelope to the left. Today, the oldsters are awake, and they're pushing the envelope to the right. Sure, the youngsters are agitating on the left, but unlike in '63, all young people are not Democrats, and identity issues oftentimes outweigh political issues. Then again, the personal is political. "Masters of War" was not a hit single, bit it resonated with the audience. And Dylan played it in 1991 at the Grammys, many people might not have recognized it, but believers certainly did.
A HARD RAIN'S A-GONNA FALL
Maybe more famous via its covers, from everyone from Pete Seeger to Leon Russell to my favorite, Bryan Ferry.
DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT
Made famous by Peter, Paul & Mary, this was a personal song sandwiched in amongst the political ones, written in reference to Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend, who is on the cover of "Freewheelin'," who unfortunately is no longer with us.
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'
The title cut which opened Dylan's third album, it's become a standard, a rallying cry, repurposed for change in subsequent times, but always by the left, the right don't want times to change.
This is the key verse:
"Come mothers and fathers
And don't criticize
Throughout the land
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'"
This was the generation gap, before most Americans realized there was one. It wasn't until maybe '66 that most people in the country woke up to the youthquake. Too many people today are stuck in the old decaying road and the new one is not being built.
ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO
"Another Side of Bob Dylan," Dylan's fourth album was his second of 1964. It's the blueprint for the covers breakthrough. Although one could argue strongly it began with the Byrds' cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man" from the subsequent LP, but it was "Another Side" which was mined for hit singles thereafter. There are two legendary covers of "All I Really Want to Do." Most think of the Byrds', which is very palatable, but I always preferred Cher's, the follow up to "I Got You Babe." I vividly remember her singing it to Sonny on one of those black and white lip-synch shows that soon started to appear all over the TV, and "Hullabaloo" was in color!
MY BACK PAGES
Dylan yodeled in "All I Really Want to Do," this was a dirge on "Another Side," but the Byrds' version was mellifluous and unlike Dylan's was a hit single. The Byrds' take worked irrelevant of the lyrics, but the key lines burst through speakers loud and clear:
"Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now"
As a teenager, I didn't understand these words, but they started to ring true a couple of decades back. When I was young I thought I knew everything, the older I get the less I know...oh, I know more, but I know what I don't know. The elders have wisdom, but they're ignored. Then again, too many elders are stuck in their ways.
IT AIN'T ME BABE
It broke the Turtles, most people had no idea it was written by Bob Dylan. Youngsters cannot comprehend the breadth of the impact of this track, it was a gigantic hit when we all listened to the same radio stations and knew the same songs...the Turtles version, of course, most people never heard Dylan's original, in fact no one even talks about "Another Side" anymore, it's never mentioned.
SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES
Conventional wisdom is "Blonde on Blonde" is Dylan's best album. And if not that, its predecessor, "Highway 61 Revisited," but 1965's "Bringing It All Back Home" is my absolute favorite, and most people did not know "Subterranean Homesick Blues" back then, but today seemingly everyone does, which is contrary to the usual arc. It's due to the video, from the D.A. Pennabaker documentary, which was rarely seen back then, but is legendary today. The clip has been imitated/ripped-off multiple times in the music video era, if you've got no idea what I'm talking about, check it out here: bit.ly/364m05e "Subterranean Homesick Blues" has permeated the culture to the point many people who quote its lyrics have never even heard it. Here are a few:
"You don't need a weatherman
To know which way the wind blows"
The inspiration for the name of the Weather Underground.
"Don't follow leaders
Watch the parking meters"
"Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
"The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles"
MAGGIE'S FARM
Working for the oppressive man, that's what working on Maggie's Farm represents today, once again people use the term and have never even heard the song.
MR. TAMBOURINE MAN
The Byrds' cover was so ubiquitous that the original ultimately surfaced, people needed more, they sought it out when music was scarce, when you had to make an effort, before the history of recorded music was at your fingertips.
IT'S ALRIGHT, MA (I'M ONLY BLEEDING)
To this day most people know this song via Jim/Roger McGuinn's cover for the "Easy Rider" soundtrack, but the original has more gravitas, and is a fount of wisdom that has not been superseded by Dylan, or any other contemporary songwriter.
"That he not busy being born
Is busy dying"
It's part of the culture now, the vernacular, but here's where it originated and most people have no idea Dylan wrote the words, never mind that they're in this song.
"While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred"
A conundrum, the people who want peace, no dissension, no argument, are the enemy, you can't have progress if everybody's a cheery buddy holding back their truth for fear of alienating someone.
"While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked"
Here Dylan takes down religion and education but the reason this verse is so famous is because of the last two lines, which became so poignant after Watergate, when Dylan sang these words at his 1974 comeback concerts with the Band, people stood up and cheered, you can hear it on the live album.
"Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you"
Ain't that America. That's why advertisers don't want to appeal to older demos, they've seen the trick, they won't be fooled again. America is a string of endless falsehoods trying to entice you to part with your money or go down the path in pursuit of fulfillment that they can never deliver. And today's musicians are...con artists, they're the brand, they're the enemy, they're the ones trying to sell you stuff, they emulate the dreaded corporations and their advertising.
"For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Do what they do just to be
Nothing more than something they invest in"
This is the sixties. You played the game to get good grades to get into good a college only to end up as a cog in the system, probably not waking up until it's too late. Today there is no lifetime employment. But authority is on the rise everywhere, not only in your high school, and people don't only despise their white collar jobs, but seemingly every service job out there. Then again, back then you yearned to be free, today everybody yearns to sell out.
"While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in"
This is the essence of internet hate, I may use these lyrics more than any other in this modern age. Everybody's got a voice, and if they didn't rise above, they're going to tear down those who did, irrelevant of the validity of the success of a person, today everyone's on guard for fear of being pulled down. And this is different from cancellation, which is another problem.
"For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes must get lonely"
Summer Redstone thought he would live forever, but he didn't. Everybody is human, everybody is susceptible to cancer and disease but many don't acknowledge it until they're on their deathbed, if they acknowledge it at all. They think they're different, immune, but they're not.
IT'S ALL OVER NOW BABY BLUE
Most people know this via covers, whether it be Them, the Byrds, Joan Baez... Have they heard the original? I would think not.
LIKE A ROLLING STONE
Do I think it's the best rock single ever? No, off the top of my head I'd say "Satisfaction," then again...this was Dylan's first radio hit, six minutes long and played incessantly on AM radio. Never underestimate the power of Al Kooper's organ, adding a new texture to the sound, it's iconic, you've heard it, I like it, but not as much as its follow-up...
IT TAKES A LOT TO LAUGH, IT TAKES A TRAIN TO CRY
Seemingly a minor cut, but the covers are legendary! First and foremost the opening cut on the second side of "Super Session," totally reworked, with Stephen Stills wailing, Mike Bloomfield gets all the credit for his first side contribution, but I always preferred the second, after all it contains the most legendary cut, the eleven minute reworking of Donovan's "Season of the Witch." Second, Leon Russell's from his first solo album, the one with "Delta Lady"...
BALLAD OF A THIN MAN
"Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you Mr. Jones"
HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED
The title cut of the album, which starts with "Like a Rolling Stone" above. The thing is when you go to Minnesota...it won't be long before you're going somewhere on Highway 61. This was Johnny Winter's signature song. But I believe the definitive cover is by Bruce Springsteen with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, it was a Napster favorite but now it is available legally, it's fantastic, you need to listen to it.
POSITIVELY 4TH STREET
I always preferred it to "Like a Rolling Stone," it was made legendary by the following lyrics:
"Yes I wish for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is
To see you"
The ultimate put-down song. Only artists seem to be able to speak the truth, at least out in the open instead of behind closed doors. "Positively 4th Street" was a single release only, between "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde."
RAINY DAY WOMEN NO. 12 & 35
Was he singing about getting stoned as in marijuana or metaphorically, that was the debate back then, when cannabis was still underground. It never would have been a hit if Dylan wasn't on a streak of hits, then again the carny sound added to its appeal.
VISIONS OF JOHANNA
It was the dawn of the album era, as in people bought them, not just the single, so songs that were not radio hits could be cultural hits, like this.
I WANT YOU
A mild radio hit. If you were paying attention you knew it.
STUCK INSIDE OF MOBILE WITH THE MEMPHIS BLUES AGAIN
Dylan was now part of the firmament, he did not need covers to make his bones, people bought his albums just to listen to him. And the title of this song is quoted constantly by boomers...
JUST LIKE A WOMAN
Now a standard, but not via Dylan's original take, but the covers. First in the U.K. by Manfred Mann and ultimately, ubiquitously by Joe Cocker, and...
SAD-EYED LAD OF THE LOWLANDS
Important for no other reason than it took up the entire fourth side. It's well-known that it's about Sara...Dylan's first wife.
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
From the "John Wesley Harding" LP, after the motorcycle accident. More famous in its Hendrix iteration, but the original, quieter version is actually superior. All of "John Wesley Harding" sounds like it was performed on a midnight ride through the countryside, the feel is palpable.
DEAR LANDLORD
The most famous version is the cover on the second side of Joe Cocker's second album, but that's fast and the words go by so quickly and...the original is almost a waltz, the words resonate, and there are these lines that didn't penetrate me until I was well into my life:
"Now each of us has his own special gift
And you know that was meant to be true
And if you don't underestimate me
I won't underestimate you"
Everybody's equal. Everybody shines. Everybody's a star. You might think you're better because of your highfalutin' degree or your bank account, but the people you denigrate are superior to you in certain areas, I guarantee it. Think about it.
THE WICKED MESSENGER
Most people don't know the definitive cover that has so much power it trumps Dylan's excellent original. I'm speaking of the Small Faces' cover on their first album with Rod Stewart, which was ultimately re-released under the moniker "Faces." This was when Rod was still in ascension, before he lost so much of his credibility.
GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
Dylan goes country, when country was not hip, long before the cowboy hats and guitars, when country was earthy and authentic. Here Bob duets on a song from "Freewheelin'."
LAY, LADY, LAY
All over the radio in the summer of '69 when nothing else on the AM band sounded anything like it. People were used to the edgy Dylan, "Nashville Skyline" was accepted by more people than any of his work previously. Dylan had reinvented himself.
I THREW IT ALL AWAY
A revered album cut.
TONIGHT I'LL BE STAYING HERE WITH YOU
Yes, Bob Dylan could be warm and cuddly. He was not just an edgy spewer of a slew of words, he was human. And ultimately, relationships are all that count:
"Throw my ticket out the window
Throw my suitcase out there too
Throw my troubles out the door
I don't need them anymore
'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you"
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