Spaw, I have the sneaking suspicion that you're not as obtuse as you pretend to be. After all, you know "Clothes Line Saga" well enough to quote us the entire song verbatim. And you listen to Monk! A hell of an admission from someone who is trying so hard to convince us of his lack of sophistication. (Don't get angry; I hope you realize I'm teasing).

While Dylan is one of my biggest heroes, even I recognize that not all of his work is of equal quality. You could say the same about Picasso, Beethoven, Henry Ford and Muhammed Ali. But they all qualify as "great" in their respective fields. Going back to Dylan, I think it's noteworthy that some of his greatest work (said with the obligatory IMHO qualifier) is also his most abstract. I can't tell you precisely what "Visions of Johanna" means, or even "Mr. Tambourine Man," but I consider them both to be among the best songs ever written.