Bob Dylan is 70 today! Not entirely sure that merited an “!,” but it probably did; the dude is a major American musical figure, of course. Now, he’s done some weird shit — and let’s be honest, Bob Dylan isn’t even his real name — but still, Sinead O’Connor thinks he’s dead sexy, NPR threw together a four-hour stream of music for him, and, in this video from the NME, notable musicians all have a favorite Dylan jam:
(Editor’s Note: There’s also this tribute from Jimmy Fallon from March:)
Hit the comments with your favorite Dylan song/memory/moment. Our dad saw him rock at a ski lodge in upstate NY before he was using the name “Bob Dylan,” so that’s fairly cool (our dad bought a tape off him, which you could kinda argue may have kept him going at that stage, so…).
You’re No Good from his first album. Short, sweet and the harmonica solo is amazing.
Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
http://www.bobdylan.com/sites/www.bobdylan.com/themes/dylan/player.php?song_nid=172&album_nid=6235
Bob Dylan is my Favorite artist , I first heard him in my 9th grade english class when my teacher played Mr. tambourine man. My favorite Dylan song is Visions of Johanna from the Blonde on Blonde album, and No Direction Home is one of my favorite movies.
His cover of House of the Rising Sun is so raw and fantastic. Other then that Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright for sure.
Subterranean Homesick Blues is number one to me but Hurricane is a close second.
Today’s my birthday, as well! “All Along the Watchtower”.
When I was in college in the early nineties I was a member of the newsgroup rec.music.dylan and met up with some random stranger from the group and drove hundreds of miles to see my first Dylan concert the night before my Calculus 3 final. The concert was awesome, we made it back to school unmurdered by the stranger in the car two hours before the final. Even though I fell asleep during the test, it was totally worth it.
Favorite song: Abandoned Love, unreleased off Desire, but then added to the compilation Biograph.
I think the collection of songs that make up The Basement Tapes are probably are some of the most purely motivated pieces of art you’re ever going to encounter. No sales in mind, no deadlines, no popularity contest, just songs made for their own sake. And, icing on the cake, several of them (Tears Of Rage, Apple Suckling Tree, Crash On The Levee, Sign On The Cross, and then some) can stand up to anything else in the history of popular song.
Hurricane! What a great song…
Today is also my birthday! 🙂
I remember stealing my dad’s copy of Blood on the Tracks when I was a kid and I was hooked. <3
Tangled Up in Blue, by far.
For one, I’ve always been a sucker for a story-centric song, and ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ is like a puzzle I keep trying to work out again and again, each time finding a new solution. It can be anything from a song that helps cope with a confusing relationship to a beautiful,m moving piece of poetry.
Dylan’s one of my four heroes, and probably the most influential of them. His writing style, especially in earlier songs (i.e. ‘House Carpenter’, ‘Motorpsycho Nitemare’) has really had this profound effect on my own writing. I’ve found that since beginning to listen to Mister Dylan, I’ve started to use a lot more imagery in my own stuff and rely on flowing sentences that break and continue like poetry.