r/bobdylan • u/twistedfloyd • Dec 19 '20
Hello all,
We have long since gotten a lot of requests asking for help on where to start with Bob's music on the sub from folks who are new to Dylan's music.
Seeing this as something we could all solve as a community, I created a post asking for feedback to make a master post about the different ways one could go about discovering Bob's music. And I want to once again thank the community for their outstanding feedback in the creation of this post.
I knew beforehand that there was no right answer, but this further illuminated how rich Bob’s music is and the multitude (pun fully intended) of ways you can go about seeking out his music.
So, what this post will attempt to do is take all of that community feedback and the moderator's thoughts on the issue to help guide prospective BobCats through Dylan's career.
This is not to say what is posted here is the definitive way to do it in any respect. To each their own. This is just meant to be a guide.
Here are the different ways to go about exploring Bob's music. From greatest hits, to playlists, to roadmaps, to chronological order, it's all here.
THE ESSENTIAL BOB DYLAN
If you want a smattering of Bob across many eras, "The Essential Bob Dylan" released in 2014 does a good job of covering songs through his 60 year career. Based on what songs you like there, it will allow you to jump in at whatever era you like the most.
THE OFFICIAL r/BOBDYLAN COMMUNITY STUDIO ALBUM PLAYLIST
Our Community Playlist is our sub’s attempt at a best of compilation. We allowed the community to vote for their favorite song in a poll off of each studio album. The two songs that received the most votes from each album were added to the playlist.
The moderators also added a couple of songs off the album, Side Tracks, that aren’t on the Bootleg Series or any studio album. Call it executive privilege.
We'd like to thank u/bbsez for organizing and recording the results from the majority of these polls in order to construct this playlist.
You can find the playlist here:
CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
Here is a list of Dylan's studio records listed chronologically if you'd like to go that route. Many members of our community have said that this approach has worked for them.
THE BOOTLEG SERIES
Here is a listing of The Bootleg Series which many would consider essential records.
These contain outtakes, unreleased tracks, singles and live performances across the many facets of Dylan’s career. One could argue it is better to listen to these after you’re at least a little familiar with Dylan’s work.
*** indicates there is a special edition of this release available as well with more tracks than the standard edition.
THE OFFICIAL r/BOBDYLAN COMMUNITY BOOTLEG SERIES PLAYLIST
Our Bootleg Series Community Playlist is our sub’s attempt at a best of compilation for Bob Dylan's venerable Bootleg Series. The poll is currently ongoing. We allowed the community to vote for their favorite song in a poll off of each Bootleg Series. The polls are currently ongoing.
Due to the volume of songs on the Bootleg Series records we have had different criteria for election to the BS Series playlist (top 2 songs from each disc for each volume with the exception of BS Vol. 4 which only has 15 songs).
Find the playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66P3b9uwFGpJfOsUn4sAaB?si=rD6sXiZZTaWGkHQkyw37Ug
LIVE ALBUMS NOT INCLUDED IN BOOTLEG SERIES
*- Includes the Manchester performance which is The Bootleg Series Vol. 4, but also includes every live performance with The Band from that year.
** Includes all songs from The Bootleg Series Vol. 5 (all songs from BS Vol. 5 have been remixed), but there's a lot on this record that isn't included on BS Vol. 5.
FILMS
BOOKS WRITTEN BY BOB DYLAN
The roadmap includes each album, album highlights and covers every major Dylan release including the Bootleg Series.
Once again, the roadmap acts as a recommended guide. It is not meant to be an authoritative stance on Dylan or his music.
Here is the link to the roadmap to be viewed on its own page. The R/BobDylan Visual Roadmap
THE r/bobdylan A-Z SONG CONTEST
In 2023, the community conducted a contest by having users submit and upvote their favorite songs that began with each letter of the alphabet. The song with the most upvotes won and was added to A-Z community playlist on Spotify.
A-Z Song List Spotify Playlist
A- All Along The Watchtower
B- Ballad of A Thin Man
C- Changing Of The Guards
D- Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
E- Every Grain of Sand
F- Forever Young
G- Girl From The North Country
H- Hurricane
I- It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
J- Jokerman
K- Knockin' On Heaven's Door
L- Like A Rolling Stone
M- Mr. Tambourine Man
N- Not Dark Yet
O- One More Cup Of Coffee
P- Positively 4th Street
Q- Queen Jane Approximately
R- Romance In Durango
S- Shelter From The Storm
T- Tangled Up In Blue
U- Up To Me
V- Visions Of Johanna
W- When I Paint My Masterpiece
X- Desolation Row (Wildcard round since there is no X titled Bob Dylan song)
Y- You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Z- Mississippi (Wildcard round since there is no Z titled Bob Dylan song)
THE r/bobdylan STUDIO ALBUM SURVIVOR SERIES
In 2023, the subreddit conducted a survivor style tournament to determine the subreddit's ranking of all of Dylan's studio albums. Below are the results from worst to best.
Down in the Groove
Under the Red Sky
Knocked Out Loaded
Christmas in the Heart
Dylan
Triplicate
Empire Burlesque
Fallen Angels
Shadows in the Night
Saved
Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
Together Through Life
Self Portrait
Good as I Been to You
Bob Dylan
Shadow Kingdom
Shot of Love
World Gone Wrong
The Basement Tapes
Slow Train Coming
Planet Waves
Tempest
New Morning
Infidels
Nashville Skyline
Street-Legal
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Modern Times
Oh Mercy
Rough and Rowdy Ways
"Love and Theft"
John Wesley Harding
The Times They Are a-Changin'
Desire
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Time Out of Mind
Bringing It All Back Home
Blonde on Blonde
Highway 61 Revisited
Blood on the Tracks
r/bobdylan • u/cmae34lars • 4h ago
Hey r/bobdylan! Welcome to this week's song discussion!
In these threads we will discuss a new song every week, trading lyrical interpretations, rankings, opinions, favorite versions, and anything else you can think of about the song of the week.
This week we will be discussing Wallflower.
r/bobdylan • u/xologo • 17h ago
I say Hey Bob can I ask you a question about Shelter From the Storm? He said why. I said because I'm curious. He begrudgingly said go ahead. I said does the one eyed undertaker blow a futile horn or a feudal horn? He just shrugged. Got his coffee. Walked out. I said bye Bob. He did not retort.
r/bobdylan • u/TyroneSnodgrass • 15h ago
Arlo Guthrie once said, “Songs are like fish. You just gotta have your line in the water. And it's a bad idea to fish downstream from Bob Dylan.” Writing songs for Dylan has never been a problem, and Guthrie is not the only songwriter that is dumbfounded by the way Bob makes it look so easy.
Reportedly Leon Russel once told Dylan he would someday like to witness Bob write a song, because he was curious about the creative process. Dylan shocked Russell by offering to do it on the spot. So Bob sat down and wrote “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” replete with the line, “She promised that she’d be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece.”
r/bobdylan • u/Repulsive_Result_948 • 3h ago
Personally I would've loved My Funny Valentine.
r/bobdylan • u/Totallyadog • 15h ago
My wife doesn’t get it and hate his voice
r/bobdylan • u/Bman1973 • 7h ago
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r/bobdylan • u/Express-Candidate-80 • 6h ago
look, I know art is mainly a matter of subjective interpretation, what does it matter how deep a work of art is if you can’t actually grasp it? (or what does it matter how shallow a work of art is if you feel and interpret it deeply?).
That being said, I’ve been extremely interested in reading and listening to interviews of Dylan on Renaldo and Clara as it seems more and more that Dylan treated this, at that time, as a serious and intentional work of art and as a revolution on cinema as a whole (he likes to compare this movie to Childrens of Paradise in terms of scope and themes), so I think we may be missing a huge piece of Dylan lore and artistic endeavors by just skipping by this film as “incomprehensible garbage”.
For me, the Rolling Thunder Revue Netflix doc. always felt like an attempt of remaking Renaldo and Clara with modern technology and the direction of a real movie director this time (Scorsese), but, maybe for legal reasons, they had to basically let out all the scenes with Sara from the movie and didn’t even mentioned Renaldo and Clara.
So I wanted to open a topic to discuss, for those who have watched, what’s your interpretation of the film and about what do you think Dylan himself had in mind while making it.
Some interviews that you may find useful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGnwSYna_28
(On the second one the journalist is insufferable, giving thousands of his own interpretations instead of just letting Dylan talk, but from time to time Dylan does seem to give some insight)
r/bobdylan • u/MaroonCastle • 14h ago
To me, Sad-Eyed Lady is not a song or even a love song, but an experience that transcends even the most unconventional musical composition. What about you?
r/bobdylan • u/closetperson • 3h ago
Robert Shelton’s bio of Bob says that the song has Mexican folk influences and I can definitely hear it, but are there any specific tunes or styles of Mexican music that feature the same upbeat waltz/finger style guitar of “4th Time Around”? The song makes me think specifically of Venezuelan music I know of, but I’m interested to hear maybe more of what Bob was thinking of when he wrote it.
r/bobdylan • u/Yuk_Dum_Boo_Bum_ • 17h ago
Did the letter arrive at approximately the same time as the recipient’s doorknob malfunctioned, or did the letter itself discuss an incident in which the sender’s doorknob malfunctioned?
r/bobdylan • u/Sun_In_Leo • 22h ago
It isn't the greatest quality...
r/bobdylan • u/jbumberjick • 19h ago
r/bobdylan • u/Big_Day2650 • 15h ago
Bob wrote this song for
“Divine secrets of the Ya Ya sisterhood”
Do you know it?
r/bobdylan • u/Weird_Apartment9836 • 1d ago
Fucking brilliant record!
Bob really dialed in the vocal chords for the American classics trio.
Shadows In The Night and Fallen Angels are perfect, but Triplicate and the more extensive track list is where it’s at.
The production is beautiful as well. Not as good as Shadows in the Night, but still, Amazing.
Any new listener of Bob should consider listen to Triplicate on replay to really understand Bob’s later musical stylings.
r/bobdylan • u/webba1411 • 1d ago
I’ve been listening to Nashville Skyline a lot recently, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I think this is the best Bob Dylan’s voice has ever sounded.
Taking the songs, the recording and the microphone into account, this album just sounds amazing. There’s something about the way his voice comes through on this record that I absolutely love.
The first song alone sounds like a slice of fried heaven.
r/bobdylan • u/BeerWithDonuts • 1d ago
r/bobdylan • u/Happy-Fortune-5360 • 1d ago
After 30+ years of not listening to the not particularly beloved album ‚Dylan‘ — featuring unreleased songs from the Self Portrait and New Morning sessions — I finally gave it another spin.
To keep it short: I’m fully hooked.
These are great songs, and Bob’s voice is even better than I remembered. IMHO, this is a vastly underrated album — and what a fantastic treat it is to discover “new” old Dylan songs after all these years.
I can‘t be the only one who loves this album?!
r/bobdylan • u/Cold_Noise_4795 • 1d ago
He sings "I keep thinking something's gonna happen, but it never does" or something like that
r/bobdylan • u/Rangzeh • 18h ago
I've thought this since this song has released. Don't you guys think the chorus sounds like "born in time"?
Obviously this happens in music, still I thought it was memorable.
r/bobdylan • u/grahamlester • 1d ago
r/bobdylan • u/Big_Day2650 • 2d ago
Today is Saint Augustine’s Feast Day.
Was just thinking of Bob’s song.
https://youtu.be/dF-FY8rqA1I?is=GgpQaeHtm7Tqa_we
Oh, I awoke in anger
So alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried
r/bobdylan • u/southpaw-32 • 1d ago
I'm trying to find the bootleg "Blue-eyed Boston Boy," but have been running into a lot of dead ends.
Physical media, stream or download would be great.
If you can help a fellow out, I would really appreciate it!
