So let's just get to the business at hand with no further foo farrah. To wit:
...and your favorite (or least favorite) song/recorded performance (live or studio) by Bob Dylan is...?
Discuss.
No arbitrary rules, obviously, but just to be clear -- we're talking about one of Bob's songs, or Bob performing one of his own songs or Bob performing a song by somebody else. No Dylan covers by other artistes need apply.
And in case you're wondering, my favorite -- by a mile -- is...
That's absolutely spellbinding, but I should note here and for the record (as it were) that I was actually planning to post the electric studio version of same that Dylan did with The Hawks, and which I first heard on a Trademark of Quality bootleg circa 1974.
And which is right up there in my Top 10 Greatest Performances of Anything by Anybody list. 😎
Alas, to my surprise, it's not up at YouTube, so I went with that almost as fabulous live Aussie version from the same period (1966).
And speaking of which, I originally heard that on another Trademark of Quality bootleg, the one with this hilarious album cover by the great William Stout.
Okay, and moving right along, my least favorite Dylan performance, and man, is it fucking awful, is...
As you may have noticed, Bob's singing a duet with himself on that in both his normal and his Nashville Skyline voices, so it's possible -- perhaps, maybe, could be -- that it's meant tongue-in-cheek.
I doubt it, though. 😎😎
Have a great holiday weekend, everybody!!!
Oh wait -- I found that studio version of "Johanna" with The Hawks. Enjoy!!!
14 comments:
Let's go right to the covers: On one of Bob's endless tours 20 years back, he had this excellent band featuring Larry Campbell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqXZmSLBQUU&list=RDNqXZmSLBQUU&start_radio=1
Can't seem to find that at Youtube (a Lemon Twigs song comes up, actually). Can you check the link?
"Mississippi."
Bob's greatest song, possibly one of the ten greatest songs ever written. There are four alternate versions, maybe even five. I'll take'em all.
]Sublime, moving, heartbreaking, universal.
Genius.
I'd forgotten that one -- good call!!!
Jeez, I haven't listed to Self Portrait in decades. Forgotten all about The Boxer.
Because angry Bob is the best Bob, my favorite Dylan performance is the, until recently, only available on bootleg She's Your Lover Now. The one with the full band that falls apart on the last verse (as opposed to the piano version on one of the bootleg series). Oceans of venom with the band trying to keep up. I don't know why they never did a final take and release of this. Much angrier than Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window.
Did he ever perform it in concert?
Only one? Eek! I really wanted to go with One Of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later), which fits the above mentioned angry category, but I have to say my favorite is Love Minus Zero/No Limit. The Boxer is hard to beat in the worst category.
That "She's Your Lover Now" was on the same bootleg as the take of "Johanna." I hadn't heard it before then, (1974) and it immediately blew my tiny mind.
From slightly later in his career that I think is magnificent is "Jokerman". The original, full-length version is on the INFIDELS album from 1983 but CBS also released an edited version (about 4 minutes long) on a 45 around the same time - the edited version is the one I really enjoy. It's a good example of something Dylan does well - the topical song with lots of interesting images. I still find the verse about the "Molotov cocktails" and "false-hearted judges/dying in the webs that they spin" to be very powerful. From what I recall, the video for the song is pretty cool, too.
It's easier to name my favorite child than my favorite Bob song...that said, Bob's reinventions of his '60s material on the Rolling Thunder tour still blows my mind.
I'd go for Things Have Changed from the Wonder Boys movie soundtrack. Equal parts droll and cynical my favourite flavours of Bob.
rs
Very odd, because it works for me. In any case, it's 'Brown Sugar.'
Alzo -- I just heard that Dylan cover of "Brown Sugar." Words, as they say, fail me. 😎
like a rolling stone - the version they played on the radio
At the same show he covered "Brown Sugar," he also covered Henley's "End Of The Innocence," Zevon's "Mutineer," and "Neil's "Old Man"
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