In honor of his 78th birthday, I thought it was only fair to provide a list of Bob Dylan’s top ten tracks.
Dylan is widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of his time, and for good reason. As a prolific musician, his discography includes over 300 songs, a good number of which have charted.
Throughout his career, he has had unvaried success, but what makes him a great songwriter is the ever-relevant messages of his songs and how they powerfully resonate with a worldwide audience.
Here’s my list of Bob Dylan’s top ten tracks (it was difficult to whittle down).
10. Make You Feel My Love
There are many songs that I could have justified placing at number ten. I chose this one for its simplicity. Bob Dylan songs are often shrouded in mystery with complicated, drawn-out metaphors. Sometimes his songs come off as too designed to be genuine. After all, how many os us speak in riddles when we’re truly passionate about something?
For this reason, ‘Make You Feel My Love’ is something of an anomaly in Dylan’s repertoire. As a romantic ballad, you just can’t beat it. It’s straightforward, it’s direct, and for that reason, it’s vulnerable. Here we see Dylan as he is. Not hidden behind intellectualism and obscure references, we see Dylan as a human, we see Dylan as one of us rather than some rock god. It’s perhaps the closest he’s every gotten to his audience.
9. Girl from the North Country
This one made the list mostly for the personal sentimental value. This was one of the first Bob Dylan songs I listened to and it’s still one of my all-time favorites.
The song was inspired by ‘Scarborough Fair,’ with its roots in traditional folk music. This was before Dylan went electric and it’s one of my favorite songs from this period.
8. All Along the Watchtower
This song is perhaps more widely known for Jimi Hendrix’s performance, but it was in fact originally a Bob Dylan song.
Dylan has performed this song live more often than any of his other songs.
The structure of the song is misleadingly simple with only three verses and a basic rhyme scheme, but in his lyrics, Dylan explores the greatest questions posed by life: What is the point? Is there any meaning at all?
The real power in this song lies in the frustration of the common man. “There’s too much confusion / I can’t get no relief.” This frustration is intensified by a sense of urgency “The hour is getting late.” Finally, all meaning breaks down into utter chaos when the wind itself speaks incoherently, “The wind began to howl.”
This song shows the height of Dylan’s ability. At once the song is both simple and so packed with meaning, earning it a definitive placement on this list.
7. Subterranean Homesick Blues
If this were a list of the best Bob Dylan songs to sing, this one would’ve ranked much higher. Fast-paced and rebellious, full of awesome one-liners (“You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows,”) and undeniably fun to sing.
8. Idiot Wind
If this were a list of the best Bob Dylan songs to sing, this too would’ve ranked much higher. This is a favorite among my brothers and I to yell out when we’re driving around, due to the palpable rage alone.
This is one of Dylan’s more zestful songs. It’s got an energy even the Pogues would be jealous of, but the lyrics shouldn’t be overlooked either. Angst is a common thread in Dylan lyrics, and this one is no exception to that rule. Here Dylan expresses frustration at the idiocy of… well everyone pretty much (from politicians, to lovers, to himself.)
The nice little jab at politicians is a highlight for me: “Idiot wind / Blowing like a circle around my skull / From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.” Notice that shapes are particularly important here. Everything being described is circular. Maybe this is just my own interpretation of the song, but I like to think of it as a criticism of politicians: the use of circular reasoning, cyclical time-how everything seems to be moving forward, but is really always the same. Hey, maybe it’s not a coincidence that the office is an oval.
5. Like a Rolling Stone
While this isn’t up there with one of my personal favorite Dylan songs, I’ve ranked it relatively high on this list due to the reaching impact. This is a favorite among many Dylan fans; it may even be his most popular song.
That common angst thread comes through again in this song. This time the angst is aimed at a pathetic fall from grace (It’s rumored that this song was written about Edie Sedgwick, but that was never confirmed.)
With Bob Dylan’s Cheshire Cat vocals, this song is the ultimate roast.
4. Hurricane
Another great song to sing. This one made it high on this list mostly due to the historical significance. ‘Hurricane’ was written about Rubin Carter, a black boxer who was falsely incarcerated for murder.
Dylan’s song prompted Judge H. Lee Sarokin to look at the case and Carter was eventually released and cleared of all charges.
3. Ballad of a Thin Man
This was the very first Bob Dylan song I heard. My dad would play it all the time when I was little. I’m ashamed to say when I first heard it, I found Bob Dylan’s voice immensely annoying, but when I returned to it as a sixteen year-old, I was finally able to see the pure genius behind this track.
‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ was allegedly written about a reporter who once interviewed Dylan. If you couldn’t tell, Dylan was a massive fan of angsty criticisms. In this song, his subject is a pretentious and clueless bully and well… If anyone should be considered the master of scathing reports, it should be Bob Dylan.
1. Visions of Johanna
I had a tough time deciding whether to put this as number one or number two. In the end, I couldn’t decide so number one is a tie J. That harmonica, those lyrics, that classic Bob Dylan hidden meaning-convoluted metaphors shtick. There’s so much I could say about this absolute masterpiece, but whatever I could say would be doing the song an unforgivable disfavor.
My personal interpretation has always been that this is a song about success or greatness and what determines whether or not success is here.
Some of my favorite lines:
- “The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face.”
- “Little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously. He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously. And when bringing her name up, he speaks of her farewell kiss to me.”
- “Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial. Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while.”
- “The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain. And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain.”
1.Tangled Up in Blue
Again, it’s impossible to do this song justice.
‘Tangled Up in Blue’ comes from the Blood on the Tracks album. This album was a little different for Dylan at the time. It stepped away from his classic witty, sneering criticisms and focused more on personal relationships.
This song was written about two lovers separated by time, who one day meet up again.
Rudy Cathcart 