What would be on your 18-track Dylan Essential Album?

[Brian Cronin]

So they just announced the 18 tracks on the single disc Dylan "essential" album.

While not awful, it is not too good, either.

1. Blowin' In The Wind
2. The Times They Are A-Changin'
3. Subterranean Homesick Blues
4. Mr. Tambourine Man
5. Like A Rolling Stone
6. Maggie's Farm
7. Positively 4th Street
8. Just Like A Woman
9. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
10. All Along The Watchtower
11. Lay, Lady, Lay
12. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
13. Tangled Up In Blue
14. Hurricane
15. Make You Feel My Love
16. Things Have Changed
17. Someday Baby
18. Forever Young

Make You Feel My Love and Someday Baby are a joke on the album, and I think Maggie's Farm does not belong (all three songs are good, especially Maggie's Farm, which rules, but they just don't stand up to other songs), plus I would argue All Along the Watchtower probably doesn't belong on an Essential Dylan album, either.

(The three disc version is, somehow, actually WORSE, as they have a lot more room, yet more room just means more questionable picks, apparently).

So what would YOUR 18 tracks be, if you had to pick 18 Essential Dylan tracks?

18 "Desert Island" Dylan tracks, as it were.

-Brian

[Chiasm]

Can I cheat and put stuff by Jakob Dylan aka the Wallflowers since you just said Dylan? :p

[Brian Cronin]

No!

The album is called Dylan, that's why I said Dylan. :)

-Brian

[Gingold]

Ooo. Fun list!

1. Like a Rolling Stone
2. Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
3. Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You
4. Tangled Up in Blue
5. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
6. Just Like a Woman
7. Every Grain of Sand
8. Things Have Changed
9. Mississippi
10. Wallflower
11. Subterranean Homesick Blues
12. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
13. Black Diamond Bay
14. Shelter From the Storm
15. Mr. Tambourine Man
16. Tombstone Blues
17. Desolation Row
18. Tell Me That It Isn't True

[Patrick Zircher]

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[sgt pepper]

Everything from Bringing it all Back Home and nothing else.

[Patrick Zircher]

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[sgt pepper]

Can I cheat and put stuff by Jakob Dylan aka the Wallflowers since you just said Dylan? :p

The fact that you'd even consider asking that proves you incapable of creating this list. If that was a serious question, please don't make a Dylan list or share an opinion about music with anyone again. Ever.

[Brian Cronin]

The fact that you'd even consider asking that proves you incapable of creating this list. If that was a serious question, please don't make a Dylan list or share an opinion about music with anyone again. Ever.

He was just joshing, sgt pepper, so don't get too anfry. :)

-Brian

[Brian Cronin]

Well, my picks would really fail to be representative. An essential Dylan compilation has to have Blowin' in the Wind, Like a Rolling Stone, Lay Lady Lay, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Tangled Up in Blue, etc. Great, great songs but heard so often as to sometimes have that only-half-listened-to effect on the ears.

It's hard to argue that most of the songs they selected don't belong. It's mostly a basic, introductory set (and probably a better choice for starters than one of his old greatest hits records). Really, you need 80 tracks to highlight Dylan.


I'll go with these eighteen-- just cause I like 'em;

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
I Threw It All Away
Every Grain of Sand
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Girl From the North Country (with Cash or without)
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
Boots of Spanish Leather
Just Like A Woman
Man in Me (love the way they used it in the Big Lebowski)
Dear Landlord
Down Along the Cove
Buckets of Rain
Everything is Broken
Gotta Serve Somebody
Down in the Flood

Fond of the laid-back, apolitical alt-country Dylan.
And I like your list, Gingold.

Oh yeah, it's basically impossible to REALLY do an 18-track "essential" Dylan album, but if you WERE given such a task, what would you go with?

Like you say, you'd most likely have to include stuff like Blowin' in the Wind even if it is not really your cuppa.

It's a real tough choice.

-Brian

[Brian Cronin]

Ooo. Fun list!

1. Like a Rolling Stone
2. Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
3. Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You
4. Tangled Up in Blue
5. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
6. Just Like a Woman
7. Every Grain of Sand
8. Things Have Changed
9. Mississippi
10. Wallflower
11. Subterranean Homesick Blues
12. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
13. Black Diamond Bay
14. Shelter From the Storm
15. Mr. Tambourine Man
16. Tombstone Blues
17. Desolation Row
18. Tell Me That It Isn't True

Dear lord, Dan! You have managed to nail, like, FOUR of my all-time favorite Dylan obscure-y songs!!!

Tonight I'll Be Staying and Sad-Eyed are not REALLY obscure, but as for "All-Time Dylan Tracks," they sure are.

But Mississippi AND Black Diamond Bay? I don't think I've ever seen anyone else name Black Diamond Bay as a top choice before! Sweet!

-Brian

[stealthwise]

A thread on CSBG about Bob DYLAN?

Keep it to the bathhouses, hippie.

;)

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

I'd have:

Subterranean Home Sick Blues
Rainy Day Woman
Tambourine Man
That song where he sings 'I'd do anything in this god almighty world, if you'd just let me come home with you'.
Ballad Of A Thin Man.

Then I'd get bored with the idea and just go listen to a Kinks album or something.

That said, I was on a date with a girl (the first) and we were drunk and picked up a book off some street corner 'poet', who we later brought some weed from, which was apparently about Dylan, but was mostly about him, and was possibly the weirdest thing I'd ever read - it was self-published like a zine.
Unfortunately a few months later the girl and I stopped seeing each other, and it's at her place somewhere, and I haven't seen that guy about for a while.
Otherwise I'd totally send you a copy Brian, it'd blow your mind.

[Brian Cronin]

That reminds me of this "mini-comic" a homeless dude gave to me when I was doing some "feeding the homeless on the street" thing in high school.

Damn, I wish I still had it. It would blow everyone's mind! :)

-Brian

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

That reminds me of this "mini-comic" a homeless dude gave to me when I was doing some "feeding the homeless on the street" thing in high school.

Hatcher needs to take his class out to see that guy.

"This is what happens if you keep cartooning instead of paying attention in your other classes!"

Damn, I wish I still had it. It would blow everyone's mind! :)

This Dylan booklet was so good we kept reading it for weeks.
All you had to do was flick to a random page and read out loud, and laughs were guaranteed.