BobFest: 10 Worst Dylan Songs

Just for you, I celebrated Dylan's birthday by listening to what are arguably his five worst albums: Self Portrait, Saved, Down in the Groove, Knocked Out Loaded, and Under the Red Sky (no, the Xmas album doesn't count). And let me just say this about that. There are some redeemable, even fine moments on all of these albums. And even some of his really bad songs have a well-turned phrase pop up here and there. But hey, nobody bats a thousand. You can't paint your masterpiece every time.

Bob Weir was talking recently about the impossibly high standards people have for Dylan - but Dylan set those standards pretty high himself with the sustained home run streak of his first nine albums. So sure, Self Portrait was a deliberate mindfuck - it's easy to see how its embrace of the countrypolitan ethos could freak out fans of the "thin wild mercury" sound as surely as plugging in freaked out the folkies. But, you know, as Mark Twain said about Wagner, it's not as bad as it sounds.

These days Dylan says he himself is in awe of the young songwriter who penned such gems as "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," remarking that "I can do other things now. But I can't do that." And Dylan himself got a little bit fed up with his own songwriting after the batting-average slump reflected in the latter three albums listed above ("The world doesn't need any more Bob Dylan songs," he grumbled). But any songwriter his age who can point to recent compositions like "Not Dark Yet," "Things Have Changed," "Mississippi" or "Ain't Talkin'" has no reason to envy the prodigy he once was.

The breadth and scope of Dylan's back catalogue leaves plenty of room for casual, tossed off ditties and frivolities. But that said, let me close out this series with a look at a few tunes that just rub me the wrong way.

All the Tired Horses (Self Portrait, 1970)
Okay, okay, I get the joke. But forgive me if I don't shuffle it on my iPod. Complete lyrics, sung by a choir: "All the tired horses in the sun/how'm I supposed to get any writing done?"

Are You Ready? (Saved, 1980)
Dylan's very own rapture anthem, with a vengeful Yahweh smiting those who worship Him in the wrong church: "Have you decided whether you want to be/In heaven or in hell?" Um, let me get back to you on that one.

Band of the Hand (It's Hell Time Man!) (Band of the Hand Soundtrack, 1986)
What am I supposed to make of this? Hell time, indeed. As Wikipedia describes it, it's about "the ruthlessness of the vigilante justice which will be used to confront the immorality of the criminal drug world." Confront them with this movie and they'll repent their ways.

Joey (Desire, 1975)
You know, I'm ready to defend Dylan's singing voice to anyone who wants to argue. He's got a big nose, man, get over it. But more than, arguably, glorifying a gangster, it's the chorus that spoils this for repeated listening: "Jooooooooeeeeyyyyy, Jooooooeeeeyyyyyy...."

Neighborhood Bully (Infidels, 1983)
The geopolitical analysis here is enough to confirm the wisdom of his earlier abandonment of the protest-song format. Even in 1983, the idea of a helpless Israel with "no allies," who was "not supposed to fight back" was pretty ridiculous. These days, it's, in a word, "indefensible."

Night After Night (Hearts of Fire Soundtrack, 1987)
Mostly what I'm talking about here is the songwriting, not the actual performance on the recording. You could argue that he's written cheesier lyrics than these. But the cheesiness of the 80s synth arrangement certainly doesn't help matters. Kind of looks like Bob phoned this one in.

Precious Angel (Slow Train Coming, 1979)
Who was it that said "I become my enemy/in the instant that I preach"? The same guy who wrote "Now there’s spiritual warfare and flesh and blood breaking down/Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground." Okay, I hate to quibble, but isn't the word "disbelief"?

Ugliest Girl in the World (Down in the Groove, 1987)
Oh man. There is just no reason for this song to exist. Must have been what he had in mind when he swore off writing Bob Dylan songs for a few years.

Wiggle Wiggle (Under the Red Sky, 1992)
There's a lot of good stuff on this album, not necessarily recorded as well as it could have been. And then there's this number. If Bob wants to put out an album of children's songs, this might be a perfect inclusion. But as the opening number of the follow-up to Oh Mercy, one gets the impression Bob is not giving it his all.

You Wanna Ramble (Knocked Out Loaded, 1986)
You know, if Eddie Money had written this, you could call it a career highlight. But something has to settle in at the bottom of the barrel of Dylan's oeuvre:

I said "Baby, I know
where you been
Well, I know who you are
And what league you played in"

I know what league Bob Dylan played in, too, and he didn't get there by throwing out songs like this. With all due respect – which is of course, immense.

BobFest: 10 Overlooked Favorites

Happy 70th birthday to the Bard of Hibbing. I had planned to offer a list of "Bob Dylan's Worst Songs," but one, that seems a bit churlish today, and two, it takes a bit more research (I'm listening to Saved as I type this).

So I'll deliver that list tomorrow. Today I'll just mention a few favorites that may or may not be overlooked. It's such a huge and unsurpassed body of work that there are a lot of hidden corners - even if you stick to the official releases. So what follows may or may not be his "best" work - you already know that stuff - but  a few songs that stick with me for one reason or another.

Black Diamond Bay (Desire, 1975)
Possibly inspired by a Joseph Conrad story, this sprawling epic, (co-written with Jacques Levy) is full of great scenes and indelible characters. A wide-screen movie in seven and a half minutes.

Cat's in the Well (Under the Red Sky, 1992)
Dylan has enjoyed playing this enigmatic piece quite a bit during the Never-Ending Tour, and it's a sprightly number. Maybe it's an allegory about your life or his, and maybe not. Don't know why I love it so much.

Clean-Cut Kid (Empire Burlesque, 1984)
This is like a companion piece to "John Brown:" Wryer, perhaps, and less strident, but just as powerful in its antiwar sentiments. No less harrowing: "They made a killer out of him, that's what they did."

George Jackson (Masterpieces, 1971)
Like Joey Gallo, Jackson makes for a flawed antihero, but his story allows Dylan to deal with larger issues:

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
The rest of us are guards

High Water (For Charlie Patton) (Love and Theft, 2001)
Not entirely overlooked, but doesn't show up on many lists of his greatest songs. Still, it's on my lists of his greatest performances. Every time I see him do this number, he and his band absolutely slay the audience.

If Dogs Run Free (New Morning, 1971)
I can never get enough of this one.

Mixed-Up Confusion (Biograph, 1962)
Dylan didn't exactly "turn electric" in '65. He started out as a rocker in high school, and later fell in love with folk. But this outtake shows he never fell out of love with rocking out, either.

Rita May (Masterpieces, 1975)
Bob's infatuation with the great lesbian novelist Rita May Brown inspired this lighthearted romp, issued as a single around the time of Desire. Later covered by Jerry Lee Lewis.

Trouble in Mind (B-side, 1979)
This is the only one on the list that Dylan didn't write, but it's another killer performance, and one of the highlights of his Christian period. Released as the flip side of the "Gotta Serve Somebody" single, this was written by Richard M. Jones in 1924.

Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread (Basement Tapes, 1967)
Yet another goofball number from the '67 sessions that were partially released in 1975. When, oh when will they let me shell out my hard-earned dough for the complete boxed set?

Monday Random Ten #10

This is a BobFest Random Ten. I let the iPod choose from among the 167 Dylan songs I have loaded onto it:

1. Bob Dylan & The Band/I'm In the Mood For Love/The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol. 4.

2. Bob Dylan/When I Paint My Masterpiece/Greatest Hits vol. 2

3. Bob Dylan/Put My Money Down/Genuine Bootleg Series vol. 4

4. Bob Dylan/The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar/Warfield Theater 11/15/1980

5. Bob Dylan/I Threw It all Away/Yesterday

6. Bob Dylan/Beyond Here Lies Nothin'/Together Through Life

7. Bob Dylan & the Rolling Thunder Review/Romance in Durango/Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue (Bootleg Series Vol. 5)

8. Bob Dylan/The Times We've Known (Charles Aznavour cover)/From the Vaults

9. Bob Dylan and the Sir Douglas Quintet/Obviously 5 Believers/A Quintet of Sir Doug

10. Bob Dylan & the Butterfield Blues Band/Maggie's Farm/Newport Folk Festival 1965

Obviously not all of these are from official releases.....

BobFest: 15 Songs Dylan Has Covered

As anyone who's listened to his radio show knows, Bob is a top-notch musicologist. So this is a far from definitive list. There's an entire book devoted to running down all the various songs Dylan has covered over the years. A bootleg anthology (The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection) spanning just the years 1998-2000 runs to nine volumes. So what follows is an arbitrary review of what seems notable to me.

London Calling
Bob has only covered the definitive Clash number a couple of times, most recently during a stop in London. On his Theme Time Radio Hour, Bob mostly sticks with pre-1980 music, but tips his hat to punk and rap from time to time. .

Brown Sugar
I saw him do this in Phoenix a few years ago, and while it didn't sound much like the Stones version, it was definitely a crowd pleaser. Possibly a tribute to his second wife?

Accidentally Like a Martyr
One of several Warren Zevon songs Bob started playing around the time of Zevon's passing. He also recorded "Mutineer" for the Zevon tribute album  Enjoy Every Sandwich.

You Belong To Me
A lovely version of this, with one of Bob's finest recent vocals, appears on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. Okay, not all that recent.

People Get Ready
Bob has recorded three different versions of Curtis Mayfield's classic. One of them was released as a Renaldo & Clara promo disc.

Return to Me
Originally a hit for Dean Martin, Bob croons his sweet cover on the Sopranos soundtrack album, vol. 2

Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache
A truly fun track from a cool tribute album called Good Rockin' Tonight - The Legacy of Sun Records.

Broke Down Engine
In the early 90s Bob released two full albums of folk and blues covers. A highlight of the 1993 album World Gone Wrong, the original of this one was written by Blind Willie McTell.

Cocaine Blues
There are two very cool and very different versions of this, one recorded in 1962, the second in 1997. The latter is available on Tell Tale Signs.

My Blue Eyed Jane
From the 1996 album Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute.

Black Muddy River
Bob has done a number of other Grateful Dead songs (Alabama Getaway, Friend of the Devil, West LA Fadeaway) as a  tribute to his pal Jerry Garcia, and just because they're damned good songs, too. But this one's probably the best of the bunch.

Something
During the same leg of the Never Ending Tour that included the Zevon and Stones covers, Bob paid tribute to the late great George Harrison.

Wade in the Water
Detractors of Dylan's singing should listen to this gospel track from the only-in-Japan release Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances. That's a great performance.

This Old Man
Bob was known to show up at his grandchildren's preschool in Beverly Hills, guitar in hand, to toss off a few folky kids' songs. This is from the benefit album For Our Children, which is pricey to get ahold of, but you can get a 99-cent MP3 right here.

Spanish is the Loving Tongue
From the album that doesn't count, 1973's Dylan. It was released against his wishes, consisting of outtakes from Self Portrait, which as noted, was designed to be off-putting to Dylan fans. This album is even more so. But while this track is the best of a bad bunch, you probably don't need to hear it more than once.

BobFest: 11 Songs About Bob Dylan

Joan Baez, "Diamonds and Rust"
"You who are so good with words/and at keeping things vague." Whether their romance was rekindled around that time (1975), you can see genuine tension in the scenes between, Dylan, Sara and Baez in Renaldo & Clara (even though Baez seems to be the only one in that movie with any acting chops).

Syd Barrett, "Bob Dylan Blues"
Both a parody and an hommage: "My clothes and my hair's in a mess/but you know I just couldn't care less."

David Bowie, "Song for Bob Dylan"
From Hunky Dory, 1971: "Some words of truthful vengeance they could pin us to the floor"

Cat Power, "Song for Bobby"
She contributed a fine cover of "Stuck Inside of Memphis..." to the I'm Not There soundtrack. "A phone call from your New York City office/You were supposedly asking to see me"

Chumbawamba, "Give the Anarchist a Cigarette"
From their album Anarchy, riffing off an exchange between Dylan and Albert Grossman in Don't Look Back. "Nothing ever burns down by itself, every fire needs a little bit of help."

John Lennon, "Serve Yerself"
A scabrous parody of Christian Bob from Lennon's Dakota years, included on the Wonsaponatime compilation.

Well you may believe in devils and you may believe in lords
But Christ, you're gonna have to serve yourself and that's all there is to it
So get right back here it's in the bloody fridge

Dylan is of course also mentioned in the Beatles track "Yer Blues" and the Plastic Ono Band track "God."

Don McLean, "American Pie"
Not actually a song about Bob Dylan (The Jester), but about rock history from the 50s to the 70s, in which Bob of course plays a prominent part. "While the King was looking down the Jester stole his phony crown"

The Minutemen, "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs"
That's the chorus. Here's a verse:

Manifesto
On my window
And my fruit
Rotation
Admiration
Outline my root

Michael Nesmith, "St. Matthew"
Kind of obscure, but if he says it's about Dylan, who am I to argue? "Part of it is loneliness and knowing how to steal/but most of it is weariness from standing up, trying not to kneel."

Loudon Wainwright III, "Talking New Bob Dylan Blues"
Easily the funniest song ever written about Dylan. "Self Portrait/Well, it was an interesting effort"

Yeah, I got a deal and so did John Prine
Steve Forbert and Springsteen, all in a line
They were lookin' for you, signin' up others
We were new Bob Dylans, your dumb ass kid brothers

Wilco, "Bob Dylan's 49th Beard"
From the More Like the Moon EP, a bonus disc of tracks from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions. "And things got weird/And I started growing/Bob Dylan's beard"

BobFest: In My Time of Dyin'

If we're all still here tomorrow, I'll post my favorite songs about Bob Dylan. Otherwise...



See also "Death is Not the End."

BobFest: 12 Funniest Dylan Songs

This is twelve more on top of the five that Rolling Stone picked, which includes the awesome "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream." Some of Dylan's songs can be unintentionally humorous, like, say, "Sweetheart Like You." Others have humorous undertones even if the main idea is on another level; I think "4th Time Around" is pretty funny if you get right down to it. But all of these are funny on purpose, even the first one:

All The Tired Horses (Self Portrait)

This one also belongs on the list of "Bob Dylan's Worst Songs" – but just because it's terrible doesn't mean it's not a joke. There a sense in which the entire Self Portrait album is one big cruel joke - Bob has more or less copped to the fact that he made it really bad on purpose, in order to scare off some of his more rabid fans. Like that worked.

Clothes Line Saga (Basement Tapes)

Always one of my favorites, the laconic tale of a nice lad whose laundry duties are interrupted by news of the vice-president's sudden descent into madness.

It's All Good (Together Through Time)
From his most recent studio album, the cynical Elder Bob smiles through his sneer as he employs a contemporary cliche in service of his kvetching.

Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat (Blonde on Blonde)
You know, it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine.

Lo and Behold (Basement Tapes)
A lot of the Basement Tapes released so far are pretty damn goofy, but none of them are goofier than this one. Makes me wanna take my kids camping and sing it 'round the fire.

See Ya Later Allen Ginsberg (Basement Tapes outtake)

A lot of the unreleased Basement Tapes are even goofier. Dylan and the Band crack themselves up ad-libbing a takeoff on the Bill Haley chestnut "See Ya Later Alligator." Also recommended is the absurdist take on "Teenage Prayer."

Sittin on a Barbed Wire Fence (Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3)

Recorded in 1965, released in 1998. This Highway 61 outtake is ripe for a blistering cover version - even though you're gonna think this song is a cliff. 

Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues (Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3)
Now we come to the "Talkin'" songs, each funnier than the last one. In this epic tale, Bob takes the family on vacation and ends up in the middle of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Talkin' Hava Negiliah Blues (Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3)
This is just a tossed-off improv, but it's the intro that makes it: "Here's a foreign song I learned in Utah"

Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues (Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3)

Now we all agree with Hitler’s views

Although he killed six million Jews

It don’t matter too much that he was a Fascist

At least you can’t say he was a Communist!

That’s to say like if you got a cold you take a shot of malaria

Hmmm.. I wonder why they wouldn't let him perform it on the Ed Sullivan Show?

Talkin' World War III Blues (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)
Kind of like the flip side of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." Who knew the Cuban Missile Crisis was such a lark?

TV Talkin' Song (Under the Red Sky)
Dylan wanders through Hyde Park in London and hears a preacher ranting about the evils of television: "It will scramble up your head and drag your brain about/Sometimes you gotta do like Elvis did and shoot the damn thing out."

Full lyrics over at Bob's place.

BobFest: 10 Random BobLinks

Lots of Dylan fans are way more obsessive than I am. Over at the National Examiner, apparently, they're doing a 70-day countdown.  Lots of good stuff.

The Village Voice jumped the gun on all this in January, by celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dylan's arrival in New York. They, too, feature a bunch of musicians running down their favorite Dylan songs - just a lot less famous musicians than Rolling Stone got. One of them, Todd Snider, contributes a great rambling prose poem about what he would do if he ever met Dylan, along with lots of anecdotes about people who have.

Inevitably, the AARP magazine rolled out a Dylan tribute, and they, too, managed to get more famous people to return their calls than the Voice did. Seriously, lots of good stuff at either site.

About.com runs down a sampling of product being released to coincide with the date, not including the Red House album I mentioned on Monday.

There are tribute concerts all over the world, but so far nothing on the order of the 30th anniversary concert. This show in Glasgow features Josh Rouse, among others, if you're in the neighborhood.

Bob's hometown of Hibbing Minnesota celebrates their most famous son for their 10th annual Dylan Days celebration, May 26-29. Stop by and set a spell.

Here's a nice update on Bob's curating a project involving unrecorded Hank Williams lyrics, similar to what Billy Bragg and Wilco did with Woody Guthrie's archives.

Let Bob have the last word here. If you haven't seen it, misinformation about his concerts in China led him to issue a statement on his website.

Tomorrow, Bob's funniest songs.

Bobfest: 10 Duets with Dylan

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash/One Too Many Mornings
Dylan and Cash recorded together extensively in 1969, but only a fraction has been officially released. Those unofficial releases, though, are worth seeking out. This came from an album called Aces and Diamonds.

Bob Dylan and Joan Osborne/Chimes of Freedom
We've talked about this track before, and I highly recommend it if you can locate it. Try over here.

BobFest: 15 Great Dylan Covers

Eddie Vedder nails the vocal on "Masters of War."

Fifteen more, that is, besides the ones Rolling Stone picked. All of which are truly great Dylan covers, but except for the Roger McGuinn track, you've probably heard them plenty of times. But how about these?

The Roches/Clothes Line Saga
That's Suzzy and Maggie, anyway - two of the three Roche sisters – giving a typically droll reading to one of my favorite overlooked gems. It appears on the delightful folk musicians' tribute A Nod to Bob, on Greg Brown's Red House label, issued to commemorate Dylan's 60th birthday. And when I added that last link, I just found out they did a Volume 2 that's being released tomorrow. I look forward to hearing Peter Ostroushko's take on "Mozambique."

Let the BobFest Begin!

Bob Dylan turns 70 on May 24th, and the celebrations are just beginning. There will be more than a few tribute concerts, blog posts and special editions of print magazines. Rolling Stone gives it the cover treatment with "The 70 Greatest Dylan Songs," selected by a panel of journalists, academics and a few actual songwriters.

I'd been looking forward to getting my dead-tree copy, and after skimming though the selections and the sidebar lists ("Greatest Dylan Covers" and "Most Inscrutable Lyrics," my first reaction was hmmm, I bet I could squeeze a few blog posts out of this.

2001: Mind Out of Time: The Seven Ages of Bob

This was written to celebrate the release of "Love and Theft," which was issued on September 11, 2001. It appeared in In These Times magazine. As for the bit at the end, well, I never claimed to be a prophet.

On the occasion of "Love and Theft", Bob Dylan’s 30th studio album in 40 years (not counting 1973's Dylan, an unauthorized outtake collection) it seemed an appropriate time to reflect on Bob’s effect on American culture - and vice versa. Suffice it to say that the new album will give you much to chew on. The arrangements continue to reflect Bob’s estrangement from contemporary life, with nods to the 30s, 40s and 50s, while the words show a mixture of disillusionment and wisdom earned in sixty years on the planet. Bob’s voice now sounds like he’s about a hundred years old, but that seems only fair, since he sounded like he was sixty when he was twenty...

2002: Yet Another Dylan Show

It was a pretty good show. The folksinger did some interesting covers, one by Neil Young and one by the Stones and one by the soon-to-be-late Warren Zevon (who lies dying with good humor in his beloved Los Angeles). But mostly he did a lot of Bob Dylan songs, and they were tastefully chosen, not just the obvious ones but great little obscure gems like the opening combo of "Seeing the Real You at Last" and I Remember You." Later he did one of my very favorite Dylan songs, "Watching the River Flow," and my jaw dropped open and I said omigawd and when it was over I screamed like a banshee along with 20,000 other Dylan fans because it was in fact the man himself.

He was in fine form, with a crack band, and he gave us sixteen great songs, including his slightly mangled take on "Brown Sugar" which very nearly turned into a train wreck as the second verse collided with the third. But as the saying goes, it was like a dog playing chess: just the fact that he does it at all renders it moot how well it is done. And to be fair, the band was crackling with energy and Bob's vocal had a wonderfully lascivious mumble to it, a tribute perhaps to his African-American second wife.

Since he was in Arizona, he also pulled out "Tombstone Blues," another rarity (I took the liberty of checking out his recent setlists online, which robbed me of a few surprises but allowed me to do some homework researching the lyrics of a few songs not well known to me). Tombstone was dark and ominous and River was bright and rollicking and then he did "Just Like a Woman" with his latest vocal affectation, which is to end every line with a question mark, like this:

Nobody?
Feels any pain?
Tonight as I stand inside the rain?
Everybody knows?
That baby's got new clothes?

It was not the most appealing technique I have heard him employ, and it would have been irritating if it wasn't so amusing and I guess he has to do something to keep it interesting for himself. And while it did recur sporadically throughout the night, for the next number, "It's Alright Ma I'm Only Bleeding," he switched into his parody-of-myself voice, kinda of like his famous version of "Masters of War" at the 1991 Grammys. If you didn't know the words it was just one long sneering nasal whine punctuated by odd shouted phrases like "stand naked!" Personally, I loved it.

As always, he tinkered with the arrangements and key signatures and lyrics and vocals of all his songs, just to keep it interesting for himself. And the whiny voice or the question mark voice were no more consistent than the wizened croak employed on his latest effort Love and Theft. That voice is no more his true one than the Hassidic cowboy of Nashville Skyline or the sequined crooner of Dylan at Budokon. And just to prove the point, he enunciated every word of "Masters of War" (which for obvious reasons he has performed nearly every night this year) in a clear understated tone that could have come from the Bob half his age. And just to underscore that, he followed up with Neil's "Old Man."

To close the set the band kicked the hell out of his new rockabilly raveup "Summer Days," and every time you thought they couldn't possibly rock any harder, well, they did. The encores were predictible if you couldn't resist the urge to go over all his setlists beforehand. Every single night he closes with "Like a Rolling Stone" and/or "All Along the Watchtower," with either "Blowing in the Wind" or "Knocking on Heaven's Door" in between. For the past few weeks it's been Wind/Watchtower every night, so I was pleased when he came out with LARS first and then the other two. Even more pleased when he dropped the question marks halfway through and started biting off the key lines with enthusiasm. And then Wind had a lovely new vocal arrangement and then Watchtower howled appropriately, with the first verse repeated at the end, and we were left with a maelstrom amid a final shout of "what any of it is WORRRRTH!"