Most ... Dylan song - your vote!

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 10:35 AM

"I try to pet your monkey
I get a facefull of paws
I say who's that in the fireplace
And you tell me 'Santa Claus'."

Classic line!!!!

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 10:38 AM

Favourite verse from one of my favourite Dylan songs.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more. No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more. Well, she talks to all the servants About man and God and law. Everybody says She's the brains behind pa. She's sixty-eight, but she says she's twenty-four. I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 10:39 AM

Steve, its funny.....I listened to "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" a lot and never gave it a thought. Then one day it just hit me and went right to the top of my list. Songs are like that with me sometimes.................

"Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar"

Spaw

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:02 PM

Another great line,

"I offered up my innocence, got repaid with scorn"

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:06 PM

Darn I'm no good at this!

I think I need more Dylan albums! :-(

I was checking out sound clips from Bringing It All Back Home...pretty darn cool stuff. I think I'll get that one next instead of Nashville Skyline. The songs seem to have that same bouncy jivin' feel as the original version of "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, A Train To Cry" and "Sitting On a Barber Wire Fence" from the Bootlegs.

--Matt

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:15 PM

"Shelter from the Storm".......a really great song filled with good lines!!!

Okay Matt.....Here's an easy one for you that I know you'll get:

Nothing is revealed

Spaw

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:15 PM

Matt,

Did you get Planet Waves? If so,whadda ya think?

I'd place BIABH in my top five list of Dylan Albums.

Not a big fan of Nashville Skyline, although I haven't listnened to it in twenty some odd years.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:16 PM

I like pata's Dylan song, and now feel that it has to be the most cryptic one

He hears along with do tictac of the clocks and the long walks a parrot that the negotiations, down look for it by the wharves of the coastline where they come sailers inside all. Perhaps it will choose it towards outside again, how long the necessity he waits for a simple twist once again of but.

Ah, yes, Dylan has a way with the words.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:21 PM

Am I the only one who doesn't get this "simple twist of but" thing?

And Spaw, someone already mentioned that! It's The Ballad of Frankie Lee & Judas Priest.

Here's one for you all.

"Million dollar man."

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:38 PM

Sorry Matt....I saw it had been mentioned but I didn't think that line had......look on the bright side....you got it!

"Catfish"

Spaw

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Rev
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:44 PM

Maybe you'll be able to tell from my list what my favorite Dylan album is . . . then again, maybe not.

1. Most ANGRY Dylan song: I Don't Believe You (She acts like we never have meT)

2. Most sarcastic Dylan song: Ballad of a Thin Man

3. Most ribald Dylan song: Tangled up in Blue

4. Most mystical Dylan song: Rainy Day Women

5. Most humorous Dylan song: Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Disaster Blues

6. Longest Dylan song: Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

7. Shortest Dylan song: Mozambique

8. Most brilliant Dylan lyric: The entire song "Boots of Spanish Leather"

9. Worst Dylan song of all time: Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

10. Best Dylan love song: One More Cup of Coffee

11. Most memorable Dylan song: Blowin' in the Wind

12. Happiest Dylan song: Mozambique

13. Least comprehensible Dylan song: Subterranean Homesick Blues

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:54 PM

Subterreanean Homesick Blues? Geez, haven't ANY of you read "Dylan: The Early Years"? You gotta get the scoop!

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 01:13 PM

Rev,

I'm guessing Desire. As mentioned earlier, I just got Biograph and am enjoying just about all of it, with the exception of a Live, rocked up version of Isis. Hate it, won't listen to it again. Really like the original.

Lilly, Rosemary & The Jack of Hearts the worst? One of my favourites. That's what makes horseracing, a difference of opinion.

Matt, please fill us in on what the book had to say about Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Joe Cocker did a pretty neat version of "Catfish" in the seventies.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 01:22 PM

Then there's always this one

Talkin World-Worn Flea Blues

One time I goed crazy,a dream come to me
thought I's walkin with a world-worn flea
in my dream there's nobody else around
cept an orange in a tree, hangin down
climbed up th trunk highs I could go
but the fruit was outta reach, and I told th flea so
said th flea to me "don't worry yer head
I'll climb up on the branch instead
alls I really need from you is some means of travel
a rock or a shoe or a big chunk o gravel
or anything else that you can find
see I'll sit on it and you can send me flyin"
so down goes I and I walks around
lookin for flea-fliers on th ground
then what should I kick with my stumblin feet
some body dropped their bicycle seat!
well I picked it up and on jumps th flea
and I flung him up in that citrus tree
I said "come on, boy, drop that orange down"
but the flea just laughed sayin "Ain't you a clown!"
He said "I got better things to do
than sit in th dirt eatin lunch with you"
now I don't mind sayin,it made me swear
to watch that flea puttin on airs
and as I start to stomp and steam
thats where i wake up from this crazy dream
now a very wise man once said
all them dreams is just in yer head
but my advice is of a different kind-
you give me half of yer orange, I'll give you half of mine

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 01:26 PM

Lonesome EJ,

Where did you get that?

Steve

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Marion
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 09:53 PM

1. Most ANGRY Dylan song: Masters of War

5. Most humorous Dylan song: It's Alright Ma

6. Longest Dylan song: With God on Our Side

7. Shortest Dylan song: He didn't write short songs.

8. Most brilliant Dylan lyric: "He not busy being born is busy dying."

9. Worst Dylan song of all time: Oh Sister (because it sounds to me like he's saying, "If you won't go to bed with me you're going against God's plan.")

10. Best Dylan love song: Shelter From the Storm

11. Most memorable Dylan song: Blowing in the Wind (just because it's the one that everybody seems to know, even if they're sick of it).

12. Happiest Dylan song: You Ain't Going Nowhere

13. Least comprehensible Dylan song: I Married Isis

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Rev
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 10:12 PM

Hey Steve,

I'm not sure what my issue is with Lily, Rosemary, etc... except that maybe it sounds to me sometimes like Dylan doing a parody of himself, I think there are a few songs that give me that feeling. I love that Biograph - I still have my 5 album set of vinyl that I bought from the Columbia Record and Tape club in the 80s. I think my favorites on that are "Abandoned Love" and "Visions of Johanna."

How about Most Overplayed: Mr Tamborine Man (except for the version on "Live 1966")

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 11:40 PM

Rev,

I'm still new to it, but is Abandoned Love the outtake from Blood On The Tracks.

Love the acoustic Visoions of Johanna.

'Spaw,

Missed your post somehow about "Lay Down Your Weary Tune". I find Bob and a very few others do that from time to time, you'll hear a song a bunch of times, then a line or a phrase will grab you and your're hooked. This song is not yet my favourite tune from Biograph, but it might get me yet. I do like it though.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 02:44 PM

You got it guys! "Blowin' In The Wind" is the most memorable. The trick with this song is...when you play it, give it some kind of new feel, some kind of different expression. DON'T try to sound like Peter, Paul & Mary doing an instant replay!

Matt- I don't get "simple twist of but" Explain, please.

- LH

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 03:23 PM

Hawk- I thought these were all matters of opinion. You mean there are right and wrong responses?! :>}

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 08:33 PM

Good one, LEJ! Nope. Just my opinion, that's all. :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: joshleik
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 09:14 PM

ANGRY-MASTERS OF WAR SARCASTIC-LONG AGO, FAR AWAY RIBALD-PLEASE MRS HENRY MYSTICAL-ANGELINA HUMOROUS-115TH DREAM LONGEST-HIGHLANDS SHORTEST-COUNTRY PIE MOST BRILLIANT LYRIC-MY BACK PAGES WORST-HANDY DANDY BEST LOVE SONG-LOVE MINUS ZERO MOST MEMORABLE-BLOWIN' IN THE WIND HAPPIEST-MR TAMBOURINE MAN MOST INCOMPREHENSIBLE- YEA HEAVY AND A BOTTLE OF BREAD

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From:
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 10:06 PM

Angry: Positively 4th Street Sarcastic: Most of the Time Ribald: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue Mystical: When He Returns Humorous: I Shall Be Free Longest: Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands Shortest: Country Pie (or Talkin' Hava neghilah Blues) Most Brilliant Lyric: "I Don't even remember what it was I came here to get away from" Worst Song: Wiggle, Wiggle Best Love Song: Born in Time Memorable: Seven Curses Happiest: Tonight I'll be Staying Here w/ You Least comprehendible: Jokerman (heard all the explanations, still not clear/haven't decided who "Jokerman" is)

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 05:26 PM

Yeah, Jokerman is a puzzler, but it's a great song...most mysterious. It remains one of Bob's greatest of all time, I think. "Changing of the Guards" is another great one. I agree that "Handy Dandy" is a pretty wretched lyric.

- LH

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 06:21 PM

Hawk, your point on "blowin" is well taken and what can either kill a song or keep it alive. When I began thinking of it as an angry protest, almost a rage (like "when is this shit gonna' end???"), it gave the song a new life for me. Its a style that some don't like (too much PPM influence), but I like doing it that way....it takes all the sappiness away.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 06:40 PM

Yeah, I heard a very neat live take of the song by Dylan from quite recently. I think it was on some bootleg that my friend Johny Death had of Dylan in concert during 1999 or 2000. Anyway, he did the verses very quietly and then came in strong on the choruses with harmony singers...quite interesting and different. Sort of like a gospel singalong.

- LH

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 10:43 PM

I'm thinking that "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" was written about Joan Baez.

So I hate to sound like a broken record (CD), but the live version on Biograph is absolutely magical. I believe it is also the version that is on Live '66.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 10:47 PM

Yeah! What a song!

I may have been written about Baez. She also recorded it in '65 and has sung it many times. It was my favourite Baez doing Dylan song of all time.

- LH

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST,my vote
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 09:33 PM

most brilliant dylan lyric:
What can i say about Claudette, ain't seen her since january
She could be respectably married or runnin' a whorehouse in Buenos Aires.
from "The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar"

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Sam L
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 10:12 AM

I always thought Jokerman was a song about Jesus from a point of view of disbelief, but with a strangely sympathetic tone. I've never heard any explanations.

Happiest and most incomprehesible--Santa Fe. If anyone knows the actual words I'd like to see them. Every lyric I've seen is wrong on a word or two, but I can't hear some of the others.

   My favorite line in Jack of Hearts is Be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand new coat of paint. Dylan has the short-story gift for the passing detail that charges everything with reality.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST,boab d(as a guest again)
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 12:04 PM

Well since I'm named after him then I think that I should have a say in this wee thing dont you.
Well I dont know about all the catagories but well I dont even know loads of his songs
Best song though
Has to be I Threw It All Away
but to be honest with you any song that he sings is rotten as he's like the worst singer in the world and I dont even think that it's on purpose(I think he thinks he can sing) any way there you go on that one. This is the kind of question for my Da cos he thinks he's really good and stuff
Dylan

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 12:44 PM

Okay, well, if you think he thinks he can sing what do you think about the fact that I think he can sing, me being myself a very good singer according to most people? Good singing is based upon a number of things, among which are the ability to express and communicate both the emotion and the idea contained in the lyric in an effective manner. Some people sing on key beautifully, but are incapable of investing the song with any real life. Are they good singers? I don't think so.

Why do so many other good singers like the way Dylan sings? Gotta ask yourself that, son.

- LH

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST,Boab D
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 01:26 PM

well Maw the thing is that even though I am neither a singer nor a person who has given the world beautiful music(apart from my own songs) In my OPINION he just isnt a good singer. If I can appreciate his songwriting ability but not like and enjoy his singing is that a crime?
I enjoy the voice of Mark Knopfler who is in a similar vein to Dylan and has also written some great songs. Both men are rightfully recognised as great writers but neither of them will ever go down in history as great or even good singers. If someone can sing in key beautifully then good for them others cant. No problem there and as for emotion well that goes with out saying only the songwriter can sing their songs the way they should be sang with the right emotion and experssion of their soul, feeling and passion. But it still doesnt make Dylan sound good through these ears.
Final wee point on this matter from me at the concert where sinead got booed off do you honestly think that he was the best performer on stage that night? cos he really was rotten. Or did some people sing his songs better than he did. I know that i have just contradicted my self in this wee sentence and I'm not affraid to admit it but for me he cant sing.
Speak to you later auld yin
Dylan

PS listen to aztec camera and I Threw It All Away and then tell me who sings it better. killermont street.com or something like that.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Sam L
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 02:45 PM

Oh no, of course not. Kris Kristofferson singing I'll be your Baby Tonight was far and away the best singing performance at that concert.

In my opinion Dylan can sing.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 04:07 PM

That show was definitely not one of Dylan's better nights. I agree that a number of the other performers at that concert sang far better than he did. On the other hand, I've seen and heard him sing marvelously...on certain nights. Bob is very unpredictable. I can of course understand that you don't like the way he sings. I couldn't stand the way he sang either when I was a teenager, but when I hit 21 all of a sudden I started to love the way he sang. I guess my expectations changed at that point.

I also think Mark Knopfler is a great singer, although he's not what you'd call a singer with a flawlessly on-pitch perfect voice. He's a great singer because he's expressive in the manner that fits the song. Ditto for Dylan.

- LH

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 03:33 PM

Anyone remember the name of a Dylan song that Dave Van Ronk did with a Dixieland Jazz band? Something about "all over you". May bump out contenders in "ribald" category.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: melodeon king
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 06:30 PM

Blind Willie McTell - that's brilliant!

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 07:55 PM

Yep. Classic example of Dylan singing up a hurricane.

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: Candyman(inactive)
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 10:30 PM

Anyone remember the name of a Dylan song that Dave Van Ronk did with a Dixieland Jazz band? Something about "all over you". May bump out contenders in "ribald" category.

On the recent CD reissue Two Sides of Dave Van Ronk, it's just called "All Over You." On the original LP, In the Tradition, it was called "If I Had To Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You."

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 12:06 PM

Thanks! My copy was stolen years ago, but it was almost warn out anyway from trying to learn "St. Louis Tickle".

Subject: RE: Most '........' Dylan song - your vote!
From: pdq
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 10:48 PM

To whom it may concern, guest of 13-14 JUL is now a member!