One of the Brit papers played off this week’s broadcast debut of No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (the DVD has been out for about a week) by asking various celebrities to name their favorite Dylan songs. Some of the replies were unsurprising (Patti Smith loves "Like A Rolling Stone"); one was a cheat, albeit a fun one (Tom Waits names all of The Basement Tapes); one was unexpected (Respect MP George Galloway is keen on "Tangled Up In Blue"). I guess that’s one of the defining misfortunes of being famous: people think nothing of calling you out of the blue and asking you questions like, "What’s your favorite Bob Dylan song?".
But if some reporter comes knocking on my door one of these days, I’ll have my answer locked and loaded: depending on my mood, either "Visions Of Johanna" (off the incomparable Blonde On Blonde) or "Every Grain Of Sand" (from the underrated Shot Of Love). In the universe of great songs Dylan has created, those are the two stars that shine the brightest for me.
"Visions Of Johanna" is, among other things, a treasury of great lines, starting right from the opening: "Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re trying to be so quiet?". Intriguing, puzzling and inviting, it makes the listener hold his breath and listen as the song sketches in a finely observed, somewhat rundown apartment in a closely-packed building ("Lights flicker from the opposite loft/ In this room the heat pipes just cough"). If I were writing a novel and hit upon that kind of opening line, I’d be torn between knocking off for rest of the night, or crashing forward for another few hours in the hopes of capturing its mate.
A seemingly tossed-off phrase ("Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial") generates a stream of lines that creates, in the viewer’s mind, a veritable museum of absurdist imagery ("When the jelly-faced women all sneeze . . . Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule"). But it always comes back to a vision of someone who isn’t there -– someone the singer longs to see.
It could be romantic longing, but the writing doesn’t support that. Indeed, the song’s most famous line –- "The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face" –- is hardly warm praise. I think Johanna is a muse, a reminder of what the singer should be working toward, instead of wasting his time at a dull party.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Lono
it is always changing. however, with the addition of new soundtrack... I'd say it's
Just like Tom Thumb's Blues
2 - J.P.
Interesting thoughts...
My favorite Dylan song is often overlooked when viewing his opinions of the media. I think "Restless Farewell" off of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" has done more in a few verses of describing Dylan's often adversarial view of the outside world than have numerous other writers from the outside looking in. It's a sweeping autobiography and a great campfire song all at the same time, and there aren't many songs written that can do both.
3 - John Owen
I know it's probably heresy of me to skip right past all Dylan's great stuff from back in the day, but depending on my mood my favorite Dylan song is either "Things Have Changed" or "Not Dark Yet." The late 1990s are where it's at for me.
What can I say? I'm a dang philistine.
4 - troll
Visions of Johanna as performed by the Dead
troll
5 - Mark Yackley
For me it also changes constantly.. But right now it would have to be "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" off of Biograph and heard at the end of the No Direction Home DVD during the end credits. Mark.
6 - jones violet
Right now it's "Like A Rolling Stone", but it changes between "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Masters of War" and "Mr. Tambourine Man".
I hope we can pick more than one!
7 - DJRadiohead
My favorite changes often as well. I will go new school for the moment: "Not Dark Yet" and "Things Have Changed" have been getting it done for me.
"Not Dark Yet" is a masterpiece.
8 - godoggo
I remember listening to Pete Seeger's recording of "One Grain of Sand" when I was a toddler, which, ahem, predates that Dylan album.
Googling the title, the first hit is "One Grain of Sand : A Lullaby: Books by Pete Seeger,Linda Wingerter."
Didn't look closely at the other hits on the page, but no mention of Dylan.
9 - Bob A. Booey
I'm predictable too and not a Dylan fan necessarily, so it's "Like a Rolling Stone" for me.
I must say that I loved Scorsese's documentary last night and will definitely tune in tonight. I might give Dylan another chance based on it despite the fact that the documentary confirmed many of the things I've always thought about him. Nonetheless, he's a fascinating character and is actually quite well-spoken: an ambitious, opportunistic, self-interested, apolitical yet current chameleon of an artist who wasn't afraid to borrow from others liberally to find the source material for his own unique force of character and will. Scorsese is brilliant and you forget what an akward, geeky, chubby kid Dylan was coming up and finding himself. We have the image of the fake Picasso mustachioed, skinny artist/living legend in our heads now, but you really got a sense of how hungry he was to invent his own identity, ignore his real past, and present a fake one ("I grew up in New Mexico learning the cowboy songs") so he could become a mysterious icon rather than plain old Bobby Zimmerman from Minnesota.
I kinda like "Masters at War" too even though I always got the sense that Dylan's poetic politics were more about the words than any concrete stands.
That is all.
10 - godoggo
I love Dylan, but my knowledge is kind of limited. Musically, I very much prefer the acoustic stuff, largely because of the vocals, which were unpolished but still musical. I think it was when he went electric that his singing really started to get ugly, and also sort of abitrary, as he often seemed to be just hollering the songs with much passion but little apparent attention to the words. Also, I wasn't nuts about his bands, maybe with the exception of Subterranean Homesick-type stuff, where they were effective enough. For me the interest on the electric stuff is overwhelmingly the lyrics, which had continued developing, whereas his acoustic songs usually work for me as unified pieces.
11 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Steve, thats some great analysis, musing, whatever with regards two of my own favourite Dylan songs also. The stuff about how Visions Of Johanna is about what you should be doing when you're doing something else, i never thought of that.
Let's see, favourite Dylan... i think, possibly, "Spanish Harlem Incident", although that record (Another Side Of...) has two others that could easily make it depending on the mood, To Ramona and Ballad In Plain D.
I adore the version of Desolation Row to be found on the Bootleg Series release of the Free Trade Hall concert. also, Mamma You Been On My Mind is just beautiful.
Too many, far too damn many. One Too Many Mornings has often captured the mood i been in, unfortunately, but it's all good, on account of the song's beautiful. And this is without mentionin I Threw It All Away or Gates Of Eden or If You See Her, Say Hello, which i find impossible to listen to sometimes, much like Buckets Of Rain, the poigniancy in that just slices the flesh off a my damn spine.
Too many, i already went well past the One i was allowed. I dunno if i could ever answer such a question.
And Jokerman, too, lest we forget.
And Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues.
again, great stuff, man.
And Idiot Wind.
And Cold Irons Bound.
12 - godoggo
Incidentally, I've been listening to, bootleg series, um, let me look, vol. 2, and in many cases I prefer these presumably earlier interpretations (if not the lyrics) to the takes that were released, because he sticks closer to the melodies.
Seems to me that in a way he is going for a jazz thing in all this improvising (I understand that Billie Holliday was an influence), but that requires a minimal amount of chops.
I really like this profoundly screwed-up couplet:
"He looked for work and money and he walked a ragged mile/ Oh your children are so hungry that they don't know how to smile."
13 - Mark Schannon
You, sir, are asking the impossible.
--Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands: Haunting and hypnotic.
--Desolation Row: Takes you places you don't want to go.
--Don't Think Twice
--One Too Many Mornings
--Girl From the North Country
--One More Night
--Visions of Johanna
--One of us Must Know
--Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
--Ballad of a Thin Man
--In my Time of Dyin'
--Song to Woddy
--See That My Grave is Kept Clean
--When the Ship Comes In
--Baby You Been on my Mind
--With God on Our Side
--Only a Pawn in their Game
--When the Ship Comes In
And that's off the top of my head.
In Jamesons Veritas
14 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
damn it to hell, i forgot when the ship comes in. my favourite version is on the bootleg series (the box one, wi 1-3, i think it's vol.1 technically that the track is on) where he does it with piano.
15 - Lono
oh, also 'Seven Curses' from the very first Bootleg series
16 - elsa
Brownsville Girl...
17 - MT
Simple Twist of Fate - Don't Think Twice - Mr. Tambourine Man - Like A Rolling Stone - Blowin' In The Wind
18 - sonny
godogo,
the dylan song is called 'EVERY grain of sand'
lots of great ones already picked. i'll add "it's alright ma (i'm only bleeding)"
the original version on BIABH
sonny
19 - godoggo
I knew that!!!
Uh, bye.
20 - Mark Saleski
ok, i thought it over. it's:
Forever Young
21 - DJRadiohead
Duke, good call on "Cold Irons Bound."
I just thought of a few more... "It's All Right, Don't Think Twice" and "Every Grain of Sand" are nearly perfect. "Desolation Row" - I can't believe I got to see him do that one live in Nashville!
It's too damn hard to choose one.
22 - Bob A. Booey
The second part of the documentary wasn't as good as the first, but still interesting stuff, especially the whole brouhaha at the Newport Folk Festival.
The footage of old press conferences in the UK showed what silly questions stiff, formal journalists at the time would ask and showed an akward but playful Dylan in his younger years.
"Hard Rain" is also a great song. There are some songs Dylan sings which are just painfully affected and difficult to listen to, however.
That is all.
23 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
I love "Every Grain of Sand" -- but by far the best version is by Emmylou Harris. Dylan's lost years were mostly a decline in performance, not songwriting. Oh Mercy, for instance -- a good, but hardly great album -- turns out to have included mediocre performances of truly great songs. When Bob revisited "Shooting Star" on Unplugged, it became a gem. "Man in the Long Black Coat" was pretty dull on Oh Mercy, but Joan Osborne demonstrated that it was in fact a stunning piece of songwriting.
Favorite Dylan song? Maybe "To Ramona" from Another Side of. Or "Tomorrow is a Long Time" -- which appears only on Greatest Hits Volume 2.
24 - Al Barger
Brother Hart, this was a particularly choice turn of phrase, describing "Gotta Serve Somebody": "the singer is eyeballing you through a slot in the church door, and odds are you haven’t got the right password." Sweet- but still one of my top Dylan songs. I have a Dylan mix CD that I conjured up, titled "Bob Dylan's Finger of Judgement." Wagging the finger in your face is one of Dylan's more effective artistic strategies. Hey this is starting to sound like a new post...
Then again, "Every Grain of Sand" is considerably better. Religious issues aside, that's just a particularly choice melody.
Likewise in the range of "nice" Dylan Christian songs, "I Believe in You" rates right up there. Have you ever heard Sinead O'Connor's version? Holy crap, it's good.
Anway, looking for a slightly less than obvious favorite Dylan, I'll emphasize his underappreciated humor. I'm going with "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream."
Favorite part, he goes to the bank looking for a loan to bail his friends out of jail. "They asked me for some collateral, so I pulled down my pants."
Second best, "I said,'you know they refused Jesus too,' and he said, 'You're not him.'"
25 - steve
lay lady lay