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Bob Dylan's Top Ten Albums Of All TimeMay 11 '07 (Updated Oct 17 '07) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Buy at least the first five of these if you want to learn more about Dylan and enjoy yourself in the process.
Bob Dylan is the greatest songwriter of all-time. No doubt about this. Hard to argue with this. So, when I started ranking his best albums of all time, it was easy – start with the 60s and throw in a few albums from later decades. Heck, I could have just put most of his albums before his motorcycle accident and left it at that. All were breathtakingly great. However, Bob didn’t just pack up his harmonica and stop writing in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 21st Century, so not all of those releases can make this list. He’s released way more than 10 great albums, so not everything is on this list. He’s also released a few stinkers among the 50 that he and or his record companies have released since his first back in 1962, the self-titled Bob Dylan, so many were easy to eliminate. So, here goes. If I’ve written a review about it, I link to it. 1. Blonde on Blonde (1965) When I reviewed this on Epinions (http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-37C9-1EFA5223-39E95B95-prod3) way back in 2000, I called it Dylan’s Best – Period!. Nothing has occurred in the intervening six-plus years to change my mind. Visions of Johanna and Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands are worth the price of admission by themselves. One, an ode to a lost love, Joan Baez, and the other, a tribute to his first wife, Sara, who is the mother of his several children, including the Wallflowers’ lead singer, Jacob. Add 12 more gems, including I Want You, Just Like a Woman, Temporarily Like Achilles and Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again and you have a masterpiece. Every song on this record is fantastic. 2. Bootleg Series, Volume 6: Live 1964 at Carnegie Hall (2004) (http://www.epinions.com/content_135581765252) How this sat in a vault for 40 years, I have no idea. This is a fantastic, all acoustic look at a young Bob Dylan just about to take off and become a superstar. He was already big here, as he’d written several anthems, including Blowing in the Wind, A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall and The Times They Are a Changing, but on this night, he played some songs that were new at the time, including a mind-blowing version of It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding, so new at the time that Dylan introduced it as “It’s Alright Ma, It’s Life and Life Only.” This is a rare look at Dylan, who is so at ease on stage it’s amazing. He banters with the audience, talks between songs and has a great time on stage. Then, his girlfriend at the time, Joan Baez, joins him on stage for a few songs. This is Dylan when his fans loved him and had yet to boo him for going electric. It’s the best of the live albums that he has released. 3. Bringing It All Back Home (1965) The first of the triumvirate that rank among his best ever, this was Dylan’s first move into rock and roll. It includes such masterpieces as Subterranean Homesick Blues (the song that was the basis for the first music video, which Dylan holding placards with song lyrics), Love Minus Zero, No Limit, It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding, Gates of Eden and Dylan’s message to his fans about going electric, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. There are no bad songs on this one and some are flat out amazing. The cover is also fun, with Dylan in the foreground and a mystery woman in the back. 4. Highway 61 Revisited 1965 How he released two albums like these in the same year, I have no idea. But this one is also amazing. It includes Dylan’s first rock and roll hit song, Like a Rolling Stone and also includes my personal favorite title It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry plus the title song, Ballad of a Thin Man, a scathing indictment of a Time Magazine reporter, and Desolation Row. Absolutely fantastic. 5. Infidels 1983. http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-C95-1EFE9808-39E96685-prod3 Dylan’s only great album of the 80s, this followed several weak efforts. Dylan pairs up with Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame and creates a gem. Rocking songs, great lyrics, excellent result in one of the best sounding albums that Dylan has released. My favorite songs on this album include Dylan’s ode to Israel, Neighborhood Bully, Sweetheart Like You, I and I and Jokerman. 6. Blood on the Tracks1975. An album about his divorce from his wife, this record has pain written all over it, and titles that go along with it. Songs include Tangled up in Blue, Buckets of Rain, If You See Her Say Hello, Idiot Wind, Shelter from the Storm and You’re a Big Girl Now, which includes one of Dylan’s most painful lyrics ever: I got a pain that stops and starts Like a corkscrew to my heart Ever since we’ve been apart. 7. Street Legal 1978. Musically, this album is one of Dylan’s most interesting, with lush horns and female background singers, it offers some of Dylan’s best sounding music. The songs are pretty good, too, including Is Your Love in Vain?, No Time to Think, Baby, Stop Crying, Senor, and True Love Tends to Forget. 8. Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3 1991. There’s a lot of great Dylan material lying around in vaults. At least there was, before Columbia started releasing gems like this, the other Bootleg series and No Direction Home, which features alternate versions of many Dylan songs. As the first installment of the Bootleg series, this three CD set includes some absolutely brilliant songs that somehow never made it on to Dylan’s albums. There are alternate takes of songs here, but the ones that absolutely blew me away are Every Grain of Sand and Blind Willie McTell two fantastic songs. Beyond that, this collection of songs primarily from the 㣠s is a must for any true Dylan fan. 9. Modern Times 2006. Dylan’s first great studio album in quite some time (Time Out of Mind is also very good, but it just missed this list), this album features some great arrangements, Dylan’s more mellow 60-something voice, and great lyrics. In the first song, Thunder on the Mountain he muses about where Alicia Keys could be in the second stanza. Why? Who knows. But this very listenable collection of tunes also includes Someday Baby, Workingman’s Blues #2, The Levee’s Gonna Break and Ain’t Talkin’ 10. Oh Mercy 1989. This is one of Dylan’s most underrated albums. Almost every song on this collection is great and while mainly introspective, it features Dylan at his best. It was a very heartening release, as its predecessors, Knocked Out Loaded and Under the Red Sky where among Dylan’s weakest ever. Oh Mercy features Political World, Everything is Broken, Most of the Time, What Good Am I? and Shooting Star, excellent songs all.  |
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