Top 10 Dylan Songs (by Mark Love)
No, you’re not going to get a competent Best of Dylan list from me. So I’ve turned to my friend Mark Love, who teaches at Rochester College and is their Director of the Resource Center for Missional Leadership.
If you’ve never checked out his blog, “All That to Say This…,”, you should. It’s a goldmine for information on music, baseball, and missional living.
See what you think (and offer your own suggestions):
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I agreed to write a post on the top ten Bob Dylan songs before I stopped to think what a daunting task it might be. I quickly googled other top 10 Dylan lists (there were lots of them), and this relieved my fears a bit. They vary widely. This is in part due to the massive catalog of songs to choose from, but it also depends on your criteria. This list is the top ten Dylan songs I can’t do without. Partly favorites, partly essentials. Some of them for the lyrics, some for the music, some of them for what they have meant and continue to mean culturally, and some for what they mean to me personally. So, knowing that your list would be different, here goes:
10. Lay, Lady Lay. This song wouldn’t have made my top 10 based only on the original version. But I heard Dylan sing this a few years ago live. It works better for me now with his retrograde pipes and smokin’ band. And it’s a great lyric.
Stay, lady, stay. Stay with your man awhile…
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
And you’re the best thing he’s ever seen.
9. Cold Irons Bound. This song stands in for a lot of Dylan’s most recent stuff. Hard to choose one and harder to list them all. Love Sick, Spirit on the Water, Workingman’s Blues, Beyond Here Lies Nothing. All great songs from his recent catalog. But if I had to choose, I’d go with Cold Irons Bound. You can almost smell the nicotine.
8. Ballad of a Thin Man. This song scratches an itch for me. It’s the perfect song about that guy who is missing his feedback loop. You know the one. The one who thinks he’s on top of it all, but hasn’t got a clue about what is really going on. More than anything else, I don’t want to be that guy. One of the great characters ever developed in a Dylan song. (And another song that sounds great with his new band).
Something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?
7. Masters of War. This should probably be rated higher. But you can’t listen to this song that often, it’s so powerful and raw. It’s just as relevant today as it was when Dylan first performed it in the 60’s. Others have covered this with some effect (Pearl Jam, for instance), but Dylan’s howl of this song is without comparison.
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.
6. Make You Feel My Love. Probably one of Dylan’s most covered songs recently. Garth Brooks made it big and currently Adele has a pretty great version of it. But it’s a Dylan song, and in my opinion best delivered with some of the pretty knocked off of it. Definitely higher on the list if this is just a list of my favorites. Definitely, my favorite love song lyrics.
I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue
I’d go crawling down the avenue
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love
5. Things Have Changed. This song doesn’t show up on many top 10 lists, but its one of my favorites. Such a great groove. This is classic Dylan. Tongue in check critique. A little personal apocalypticism. I’m down with this.
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
4. Just Like a Woman. I’m not saying that Dylan understands women, but a few of my female friends who listen to Dylan mention this song as one of their favorites. Dylan’s vocal, the melody, the lyrics—they all come together on this one.
3. Most of the Time. You can’t be a great artist unless you have a great post-breakup song, and this is the best of all-time. I found it on the High Fidelity soundtrack (my favorite movie) and then later on Dylan’s album, Oh, Mercy (my favorite Dylan album). Some people you just never get over.
Most of the time…
I can smile in the face of mankind
Don’t even remember what her lips feel like on mine
Most of the time
2. The Times They are a Changin’. If you believe in the Kingdom of God, you have to like this song. I’ve always said that the one thing that ties all of Dylan’s work together is an apocalyptic thread. The current world is doomed and a new age is emerging. You can’t be a part of the old and participate in the new. That’s gospel. And it was the anthem for a very important generation. Huge song.
1. Like a Rolling Stone. Part of the soundtrack of the 60’s. And here’s the thing that makes this the quintessential Dylan song. Lots and lots of Dylan songs get covered, and often times we know the cover better than the Dylan version—All Along the Watchtower, Blowin’ in the Wind, Make You Feel My Love, Knocking on Heaven’s Door—you get the idea. Others have covered this song as well, but Dylan’s version is the definitive one. You don’t think of anyone else when you hear this song. It’s Dylan’s, and it’s a classic.
How does it feeee-ul?
I’ve got to go with “Shelter from the Storm.”
Regarding “To Make You Feel My Love,” have you ever heard the Billy Joel cover? It’s far less polished than the Garth Brooks and Adele renditions.
Probably every week I would list a different Dylan song. Many of them are in my rotation of favorites. Currently, I’m loving the Saved album and “In the Garden”. As I typed that I almost changed it to “Pressing On”.
Argh, I can’t stop choosing “a” song.
“Just Like a Woman.”
For sure.
I’m a bit Dylan deficient, so I’ll consider this a primer. Hadn’t ever seen Mark’s blog, but I just spent a little time there and intend to go back. Thanks.
By the way, if we list covers of Dylan songs, doesn’t William Shatner’s rendition of “Mr. Tambourine Man” have to make the list? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hTtsqiFCc
Here’s why I couldn’t even begin to do this list:
I would have listed “Forever Young” (more because of my devotion to Zeek Braverman than to anything Dylan) and “Mr. Tambourine Man” because it was blaring at least a couple times a week in the Neosho High School caferia, 1971-74.
If you spend much time on Mark’s blog, you’ll get a picture of what can happen when a good theologian interacts with good music.
I like ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ – Nicole Nordeman did a cover of it too.
Just shows the cultural difference. Between the two lists, you have listed 20 songs I have never heard that I know of.
How could anyone leave off “Tangled up in Blue”? Also, a really good one is “Everything is Broken” from Oh Mercy. “I Shall be Released” is a great song with the better version being by The Band. Speaking of The Band and Dylan, listen to “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)” live from The Last Waltz. Love it.
My favorite Dylan lyrics are from “You’ve Got a Lot A Nerve” :
I wish that for just one time,
You could stand inside my shoes,
And just for that one moment I could be you.
Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes,
You’d know what a drag it is to see you.
Mr Love –
I’m impressed not only that you are writing here but also that a recent post was devoted to your success (Love Wins).
In your honor here are my top ten Dylan songs:
10. Love Sick
9. Shot of Love
8. Love Henry
7. Make You Feel My Love
6. Love Minus Zero
5. Is Your Love in Vain?
4. Abandoned Love
3. Til I Feel in Love With You
2. True Love Tends to Forget
1. Train of Love
Bob
Thanks, Bob, for the list in my honor. I’d like to think that my little blog on Sundays has kept your career propped up.
David, that’s one of my favorite lyrics as well.
GT, you are proving how difficult a Dylan top ten is to pull together. Surprisingly, Tangled is not in many of the other lists that I looked at. Oh, Mercy has several candidates for this list for me. I like What Good Am I and What Was It You Wanted in addition to Most of the Time and Everything is Broken. And that leaves out Ring Them Bells, Man in the Long Black Coat, Political World. It’s just a great album.
Thanks for taking over my brain today. Haven’t been able to think about anything else but Dylan’s top ten since reading the blog post this morning. Got to reply with my list so that I can go back to pondering important things like world peace and what’s for dinner.
10. Subterranean Homesick Blues (check out the video).
9. Things Have Changed.
8. Lonesome Day Blues.
7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat.
6. Gonna’ Change My Way of Thinkin’ (duet with Mavis Staples).
5. Highway 61 Revisited (Johnny Winter has a decent cover).
4. Everything’s Broken.
3. Summer Days.
2. Jokerman.
1. Thunder on the Mountain.
All lists are unacceptable without Desolation Row.
Aside from the Allman Brothers Band thingy…until we get around to Rush, Yes, and Jethro Tull, qb simply cannot relate. Keep him posted, tho.
qb
What Bob Dylan recorded song (on a studio album) was written by a church of Christ member? There may be more then one but this one sounds like so many others.
@QB any Yes list will start with “Heart of the Sunrise”
It is brave and bold to select 10 favorite Dylan songs. He awakened me to folk, protest, and rock songs as a youth and now as one who feels he is one of the greatest poets of our era. My list (not in any order): 1. Blowing in the Wind, 2. Masters of War, 3. The Times They are a-Changing, 4. Mr. Tambourine Man, 5. Like a Rolling Stone, 6. Just like a Woman, 7. Lay Lady Lay, 8. Tangled Up in Blue, 9.Ye Shall be Changed, 10.The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. So many more!
Happy – Thanks to a nice hint, it’s Albert Brumley of “I’ll Fly Away” fame. But tell us more . . . .
“Gonna’ Change My Way of Thinkin’” gets moved up to 1(b) because of its use in Dylan’s recent Beijing concert. Read about it here: http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/religion-bob-dylan-protests-china-his-own-way.
Personally, I think Hendrix’s version of “Like a Rolling Stone” was even better.