Bob Dylan has just turned eighty! (And he’s still going strong—we heartily recommend Rough and Rowdy Ways, released in 2020.) One of the singular and seminal performing artists of the postwar era, we have devoted a good bit of attention to him here at Mid Century Cinema, including our enumeration of the “Dylan Rules” and our always essential and eminently contestable users’ guides to his albums and his tours. To celebrate this milestone birthday, we’ve got another list to offer: eighty transcendent songs from his Bobness. Note that this is not a list of his “greatest” songs. Indeed, there are easily three dozen outstanding tunes – including some of our favorite Bobs – that are simply not eligible for this particular compilation. Rather than a “best of” set, this is a list of “great and profoundly moving” performances. Note further that this arrives on your doorstep with a truckload of qualifiers: even this list of eighty is not exhaustive; putting it together required making some extremely hard choices, with more than thirty songs not listed here that were closely considered and could easily have made the final cut. (Yet another reminder of the timeless Andre and Wally wisdom about all such lists.) Thus another day might have produced a somewhat different final set. And there is of course (to some extent) an inescapably arbitrary aspect to any such exercise, and irreducible idiosyncrasies that reflect the vicissitudes of taste.
Nevertheless. Here they are: eighty transcendent Dylan songs, in roughly chronological order by known original recording date, with occasional references to live performances which, in our assessment, set the consummate standard for that particular song.
-No More Auction Block [Traditional] (Gaslight Cafe, 1962/Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
-Last Thoughts on Woodie Guthrie (Town Hall Concert, April 12 1963/Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
-Seven Curses (Town Hall Concert, April 12 1963/Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
-Tomorrow is a Long Time (Town Hall Concert, April 12 1963/Greatest Hits, Volume II)
-A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 1963)
-Girl from the North Country (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 1963)
-Lay Down Your Weary Tune (The Times They Are A-Changin’ sessions, 1963/Biograph)
-Percy’s Song (The Times They Are A-Changin’ sessions, 1963/Biograph)
-Boots of Spanish Leather (The Times They Are A-Changin’ 1964)
-North Country Blues (The Times They Are A-Changin’ 1964)
-One Too Many Mornings (Times They Are A-Changin’, 1964) As performed on the Never Ending Tour, 1988
-Mama You Been on My Mind (Another Side of Bob Dylan sessions, 1964/Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3))
-Chimes of Freedom (Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964)
-To Ramona (Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964)
-I’ll Keep it With Mine (Bringing it all Back Home sessions, 1965/Biograph)
-Gates of Eden (Bringing it all Back Home, 1965)
-It’s All over Now Baby Blue (Bringing it all Back Home, 1965)
-It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding (Bringing it all Back Home, 1965)
-Love Minus Zero/No Limit (Bringing it all Back Home, 1965)
-She Belongs to Me (Bringing it all Back Home, 1965)
-Desolation Row (Highway 61 Revisited, 1965)
-Highway 61 Revisited (Highway 61 Revisited, 1965)
-It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Highway 61 Revisited, 1965)
-Like a Rolling Stone (Highway 61 Revisited, 1965)
-Absolutely Sweet Marie (Blonde on Blonde, 1966) As performed on the Never Ending Tour, 1988
-Visions of Johanna (Blonde on Blonde, 1966) As performed live in 1966/Biograph
-Tears of Rage (Basement Tapes recording sessions, 1967/Basement Tapes 1975)
-All Along the Watchtower (John Wesley Harding, 1967)
-I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine (John Wesley Harding, 1967) As Performed with Joan Baez, Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings
-I Shall be Released (Basement Tapes Sessions, 1968/Bootleg Series: Basement Tapes Complete)
-I’m Not There (Basement Tapes Sessions, 1968/Bootleg Series: Basement Tapes Complete)
-Forever Young (Planet Waves, 1974)
-Going, Going, Gone (Planet Waves, 1974)
-Up to Me (Blood of the Tracks sessions, 1974/Biograph)
-Idiot Wind (Blood on the Tracks, 1975)
-If You See Her Say Hello (Blood on the Tracks, 1975)
-Met Me in the Morning (Blood on the Tracks, 1975)
-Shelter from the Storm (Blood on the Tracks, 1975)
-Simple Twist of Fate (Blood on the Tracks, 1975)
-Tangled Up in Blue (Blood on the Tracks, 1975)
-You’re a Big Girl Now (Blood on the Tracks, 1975)
-Easy and Slow [Traditional] (Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings)
-Never Let Me Go [Scott] (Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings)
-People Get Ready [Mayfield] (Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings)
-Isis (Desire, 1976) As performed live in 1975/Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings
-Oh Sister (Desire, 1976) As performed live in 1975/Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings
-One More Cup of Coffee (Desire, 1976)
-Senor (Street Legal, 1978)
-Where are You Tonight? (Street Legal, 1978)
-I Believe in You (Slow Train Coming, 1979)
-Slow Train (Slow Train Coming, 1979)
-When He Returns (Slow Train Coming, 1979)
-Pressing On (Saved, 1980) As performed live in 1980/Bootleg Series: Trouble No More
-Making a Liar Out of Me (Rehearsal, September 26, 1980/Bootleg Series: Trouble No More)
-The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Alter (Shot of Love, 1981) As performed live, with Jerry Garcia, San Francisco, November 1980
-Every Grain of Sand (Shot of Love, 1981)
-Blind Willie McTell (Infidels sessions, 1983/Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
-License to Kill (Infidels, 1983)
-When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky (Empire Burlesque, 1985)
-Man in the Long Black Coat (Oh Mercy, 1989)
-Most of the Time (Oh Mercy, 1989)
-Shooting Star (Oh Mercy, 1989)
-What was it You Wanted? (Oh Mercy, 1989)
-Series of Dreams (Oh Mercy sessions, 1989/Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3)
-Canadee-I-O [Traditional] (Good As I Been to You, 1992)
-Lone Pilgrim [White/Pace] (World Gone Wrong, 1993)
-Mary and the Soldier [Traditional] (World Gone Wrong sessions, 1993/Bootleg Series: Tell Tale Signs)
-Highlands (Time out of Mind, 1997)
-Not Dark Yet (Time out of Mind, 1997)
-Can’t Wait (Time out of Mind sessions, 1997/Bootleg Series: Tell Tale Signs)
-Red River Shore (Time out of Mind sessions, 1997/Bootleg Series: Tell Tale Signs)
-Things Have Changed (Wonder Boys Soundtrack, 2000)
-High Water (For Charley Patton) (Love and Theft, 2001)
-Lonesome Day Blues (Love and Theft, 2001)
-Po’ Boy (Love and Theft, 2001)
-Sugar Baby (Love and Theft, 2001)
-Someday Baby (Modern Times, 2006)
-Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ (Together Through Life, 2009)
-Scarlet Town (Tempest, 2012)
-Tin Angel (Tempest, 2012)
