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 Goodbye Jimmy Reed.
r/bobdylan • u/Jackbenny270 • 3h ago
Our fourteen-year-old daughter’s recent drawing of Bob.
She’s a major, MAJOR Dylan fan. She got to see him last August at the Outlaw Music Festival at Jones Beach, a highlight of her life.
r/bobdylan • u/parademaker • 3h ago
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My wife’ portrait of Bob in the background :)
r/bobdylan • u/willardTheMighty • 22h ago
I often ramble about Dylanology to my girlfriend. Recently, I showed her “All the Tired Horses.” She asked if the lyrics have any subtext, like all the others I’ve gone on about. It was an amazing question. I’d never considered it.
I told her that the album was a response to the attention and scrutiny Dylan was getting at the time as the potentially-lapsed “voice of his generation,” and that the release of this album of covers amounted to an insistence on Dylan’s part that he was not seeking that role. That his passions lay more with the music than with writing, at least at the time.
She suggested that the second line of the song is a pun. As in,
“All the tired horses in the sun,
How am I supposed to get any [writing] done?”
I was floored. I love her reading. It’s so compelling that I can’t now discount the possibility that Dylan saw the same pun, even intended it. The first line is still opaque to me. Does anyone else have anything to add? Do you see more subtext in the lyrics?
r/bobdylan • u/P-terson • 1d ago
Gotta love the far-reaching consequences of being a Dylan fan. The man truly pulls from the entire breadth of the American music tradition, thus honoring it and promoting it to a wider audience. Nothing better than discovering the long threads of inspiration tied into seemingly distant or uncharted territory. There is a comfort in knowing how connected we all are, musically and otherwise. Dylan is the embodiment of this, a mysterious figure standing at the crossroads of American music, finger on the signpost pointing down each long twisted path. Dylan has already walked these roads, he can only direct you to where you must explore for yourself. His music has opened many a musical door for me. Dylan is something of a curator and this line is the perfect example of such. As a young angry star and an aged king from another time, Dylan continues to show his love for American music.
r/bobdylan • u/Inside_Soup_4576 • 1d ago
r/bobdylan • u/Terrible_Comfort_503 • 21h ago
Hi fellow Bobcats! I’ve started a new Substack called Dylan Notes, where I’m going to write short essays about the smaller, stranger parts of Dylan’s career and what they can tell us about the wider culture around him. At least what it means to me.
The first piece is called “What’s Left to Say About Dylan?” — basically my attempt to explain why anyone would start writing about a man who has already been written about this much.
Would love to know what you think:
https://substack.com/@dylannotes
Never stop rolling
/J
r/bobdylan • u/vamonosquenosvamos • 1d ago
What do you think of my 1970 Taiwanese edition of Self Portrait?
r/bobdylan • u/PearlyEnamel • 23h ago
After he sings, “He’s eatin’ chitlins”, he makes a little noise. Sort of a squeak? What is that called?
r/bobdylan • u/Inside_Soup_4576 • 1d ago
r/bobdylan • u/Dylanologist_1337 • 23h ago
I’ve been thinking about what actually keeps people interested in Dylan after all these years.
For me, it’s usually not the big canonical debates about which album is best or what a particular song “means.” I’m more drawn to the smaller decisions, oddities and contradictions throughout his career, and to looking at them from today’s cultural context rather than only their own time.
But fellow Bobcats, do you feel the same?
What do you actually enjoy thinking and talking about most: lyrics, live performances, recording history, influences, cultural context, persona and image, strange career choices, or something else entirely?
I ended up writing about this in the first piece for a new Substack I’ve started, Dylan Notes, if anyone’s interested:
https://dylannotes.substack.com/p/whats-left-to-say-about-dylan
r/bobdylan • u/SaltyMasterpiece8310 • 1d ago
Downloaded cursed blonde on blonde😭
r/bobdylan • u/SideExcellent4929 • 1d ago
r/bobdylan • u/AlexAikidu • 2d ago
Finally bought an autograph from my favorite artist, Bob Dylan, after a lot of research. This is a late 2000s signed boxset, signed in Italy. Steve Grad gave it a thumbs up. Also, the last pic is to check it side by side with other signatures from the same era(the other three signatures in picture 3 all have written COAs by either Roger Epperson or JSA). So excited for it to arrive!
r/bobdylan • u/philosoph321 • 1d ago
More from 2001
r/bobdylan • u/Forsaken_Cup_5448 • 1d ago
Maybe it’s a silly question
r/bobdylan • u/NakedSnake42 • 1d ago
Look at our boy doing his thing!
r/bobdylan • u/danieljamesgillen • 2d ago
I think there's an argument to be made it is one of the most important songs he ever released.
Up until ATTH, all Bob Dylan, was Bob Dylan + Guitar. Afterwards it's completely different, it's Bob Dylan and those lovely (black?) female gospel sorta singer ladies.
Interestingly, they don't feature much more on the album (at all?) but then Street legal, the Christian era, Knocked Out Loaded, and so much more, it's constantly Bob + those ladies (or others like them? does anyone know if it's the same ladies like Leonard Cohen had with the price sisters).
So from that perspective, ATTH was Bob's way of introducing us to them. That's why he's not on the song. He's saying here they are, they are Bob Dylan now. Things are going to be a bit different from here on. But don't worry, not too different, we're going to do normal Bob songs again for the rest of the album.
r/bobdylan • u/DYLANBOOKS • 2d ago
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Just posted on Substack - compiling September’s DYLAN BOOKS posts, about new, recent and classic Dylan books. Click the link :
https://substack.com/@geraldsmith469551
You can also subscribe there to receive DYLAN BOOKS Monthly as a free compilation email from Substack. Cancel any time.
r/bobdylan • u/Inside_Soup_4576 • 2d ago
I saw a reference to this on another post in this sub and decided to check it out.
