Are you kidding me???? Any list of Dylan's greatest songs without Desolation Row is not a "Dylan's greatest songs" list. Knowing the historical context behind the 1st verse makes it even that much more poignant. "The song opens with a report that "they're selling postcards of the hanging", and notes "the circus is in town". Polizzotti, and other critics, have connected this song with the lynching of three black men in Duluth. The men were employed by a travelling circus and had been accused of raping a white woman. On the night of June 15, 1920, they were removed from custody and hanged on the corner of First Street and Second Avenue East. Photos of the lynching were sold as postcards.[15] Duluth was Bob Dylan’s birthplace; at the time of the lynching, Dylan’s father, Abram Zimmerman, was eight years old, and lived two blocks from the scene of the lynchings. Abram Zimmerman passed the story on to his son." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desolation_Row
^ Not to mention "Like a Rolling Stone", "All Along the Watchtower", "Tangled Up in Blue", "Blowin' in the Wind", "Hurricane", "Just Like a Woman", "Knocking on Heaven's Door", etc. Which shows a couple of things: 1) That Dylan was such a great songwriter that it is laughable to limit his songbook to just 10 songs 2) That the threadstarter either has no clue or is trolling - I am guessing it is both.
I haven't read that yet, but I thought about putting Gates of Eden on there, which I much prefer, so there's that.
I omitted those songs because everyone knows them and because of you. You. What you wish you were. You. I did it for you, all right, I did it because of you.
Highway 61 is one of those I would call a perfect album or near perfection. You start with Like A Rolling Stone, arguably his most popular song and the one that Dylan himself considers his best song. Then you end with Desolation Row, the most imaginative and one of the most poignant songs he's written, the perfect ending. Tombstone Blues, Ballad of a Thin Man, Highway 61, and Tom Thumb's Blues are among his best in terms of all-time greats, and the rest- Queen Jane, Train..to Cry, and Buick 6 are excellent. You replace Train or Buick with Positively 4th Street, which he never put on any of his studio CDs, and you absolutely have the perfect CD.
I was being too kind. You know zero about music, and I suspect you're the kind who refuses to learn. Sorry if that sounds harsh, it most certainly is, and if I'm wrong, you should open up for a second, because I'm wiling to admit my pigheadedness. I might be wrong, but I doubt it.
Didn't mean to be rude, man- I just really hold Desolation Row up as one of the best songs ever written in the history of popular music. And it's not just the crazy-good lyrics- even his singing is different in this one- in a good way, and the guitar playing is so ethereal- I can't say enough about how great that song is.
This is absolutely correct. Dylan is one of the few artists that make it impossible for there to be a favorite or greatest or best. The way he puts the music together and his lack of heavy radio airplay prevent even a grudging popular consensus as to best/greatest. I love the righteous anger in Hurricane and could listen to it over and over, but I would never say it's the best because there is no best with Dylan. It is all just... Dylan.
My first thought after reading the title: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z9lg6HqJeY0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
What I wish I was? All I wish is to be a better person today than I was the day before. I get it - you have an axe to grind with me for whatever reason. Well, you keep posting your vitriol and I'll keep posting what I want. I've been here before you and will still be posting after you are long gone.
There was a time when I would have responded to this post with an incendiary one but that is just giving you what you want. Dylan is too obvious; I would be more "impressed" if you had started a thread on Neil Young songs and had included choices such as "Computer Cowboy", "Touch the Night", "Like an Inca", and "Ordinary People" among others.
strange birds on this website, here. I'm not even mad. I chose Dont Think Twice out of my options above, for it was the song that made me want to become a harmonica player. Dylan's harmonica solo is so smooth in that one. ('A' harmonica in 2nd position)
I went to the record store back in the 80's and bought a Bob Dylan greatest hits album. When I got home and put it on my turntable I found out it was a blank disk.
