My Top Ten Favourite Songs by Bob Dylan (Pt. 5)

Bob Dylan is one of the most versatile and famous musicians in all of human history. Normally called the greatest songwriter of all time, Bob Dylan's magic touch has brought us the bard in many genres, including: Rock and Roll, Folk, Folk Rock, Gospel, Christian Rock, Swing, and yes, even Dance/Electronic and New Wave.

Some great Bob Dylan albums include The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Shot of Love, Infidels, Empire Burlesque (it is a good album, you guys are just mean), Love and Theft,and many more.

He has had an incredible career so far, and with the Never Ending Tour (NET), he's been on the road for ages—making his way all around the world, boys—he's been everywhere! On the 12th of July, 2019, Bob Dylan will be playing in Hyde Park, London and it sounds like it's going to be awesome. The best part about Bob Dylan live is that there's going to be live footage on a DVD in say about... fifty years if we know Bob Dylan correctly.

At the moment, we're waiting for the documentary that's due to be released on the legendary Rolling Thunder Revue 1975, along with a boxset of rehearsal tapes and CDs. That boxset will cost me an organ, but at least the documentary will be on Netflix. This is due to be released somewhere in 2019, and yet, no date has been confirmed. Every Bobcat itches with impatience. It is going to be a big day for us all and we have no idea when the hell it is.

Hopefully, if you've made it this far then you enjoy Bob Dylan as much as I do. We're going to do all of this exactly the same way and here it is. The name of the album will be in brackets, and the explanations for each song will be my history with them and not necessarily the meaning behind the song. If required, I'll say what I think—but mostly, I'm no Dylanologist. I'm just a Bobcat.

41. "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" ('Blonde on Blonde')

"Everybody must get stoned!"

I know what you're thinking... "This song? Out of all the songs on the album, you picked this one?" Yes I picked this one. This song has a different tone to the rest of the album. Everything else on Blonde on Blonde is epic storytelling and really very well-written. It's all sounds very polished. Then there's this song. This song sounds like everyone was high or drunk whilst recording, and Bob Dylan even bursts out laughing halfway through. It sounds like someone's having a great time and, really, it's just a lot of fun. I enjoy it and I hope you do too. I have to admit though, I enjoy the 1995 MTV Unplugged version more than the original.

42. "Property of Jesus" ('Shot of Love')

"He's the property of Jesus, resent him to the bone. You got something better, you got a heart of stone."

Probably one of my favourite songs from the Gospel Era and definitely one of my favourites from that album, this song has been with me a long time. I used to listen to it whilst writing some of my assignments and even though I hated writing my assignments, I really enjoyed this song—it made the atmosphere happier and less intense. This song represents all the goodness on "Shot of Love"and is definitely a happy and uplifting song.

43. "Emotionally Yours" ('Empire Burlesque')

"I could be unraveling wherever I'm traveling, even to foreign shores..."

This album is good, you guys are just mean. I like this song even though nobody else does. I think it's a beautiful, almost Lionel Richie-like tune with some incredibly mellow lyrics. It's different from his usual epic or his usual 15 minutes worth of one song. This song, I believe, was intended for the 1980s and 1990s, and even early 2000s radios. It sounds so pretty, so even though nobody else likes it, I don't really care—I like this song and nobody can take that away from me.

44. "Masters of War" ('The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan')

"Come you masters of war, you who build the big guns..."

This song is an absolute anthem. It has Bob Dylan's "protest songs" trademark on it as being the ultimate 1960s anti-war song. This is the song that a lot of people talk about as being one of the greatest written songs of all time. This is because of those incredible verses—he sounds angry and resentful, and it really comes through on the way he sings the song. I remember clearly the first time I ever heard it and then I kept listening to it over and over again, listening to get the correct message. It is just one of those songs.

45. "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" ('Bootleg: No Direction Home')

"When you're lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time too..."

Yes, the version from No Direction Home I believe is better than the original. This is purely because there's less background sound on this one and you can hear his voice more. I think it's done in a different key and it just flows a bit better for me. I don't know whether that is the case for you, but I definitely think that the introduction to this song is one of the best introductions to any song ever. I love the way he holds notes like "avenue" especially on this version—I hope you can understand why I included this one and not the album version.

46. "License to Kill" ('Infidels')

"Now there's a woman on my block she just sits there, facing the hill saying who gonna take away his license to kill..."

As you know, I love the album Infidels, going as far as to say that along with Love and Theft it's probably Bob Dylan's best made album. This song has confused and confounded many people over the years purely because Bob Dylan mentions not liking the moon landing for some reason. The chorus to this song evokes an era of war, and era of killing and war for the sake of war. To be honest, I think that this is often one of his most evocative and thought-provoking songs.

47. "Subterranean Homesick Blues" ('Bringing It all Back Home')

"Don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

I love the way this song has been written, definitely in the beatnik tradition, this song experiments with the fusion between rock and rap. It's a brilliantly sarcastic song and often can be taken as pretty funny. It has been sampled, covered and even referenced by other songs and artists over the years and has proved to be one of the most important songs of all time. The music video is iconic as well. I hope this is somewhere on your top 50 as well.

48. "Most of the Time" ('Oh Mercy')

"I don't even notice she's gone, most of the time..."

Most of the Time is one of Bob Dylan's most melancholic and beautiful records. It evokes the same sound as the songs on Time Out of Mind I think and has a great sound. It makes for a brilliant song as an addition to the album and has some great lyrics. This song I used to listen to a lot and haven't actually heard in a while, for some reason I haven't been getting a good dose of Oh Mercy like I used to. I hope this song sits somewhere on your top 50 as well though.

49. "Duquesne Whistle" ('Tempest')

"Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing, blowing like it's gonna sweep my world away..."

This is such a happy song. I feel like Bob Dylan was in a great place mentally and emotionally when writing this and as an opening track, this song is so damn good. This song alone makes you want to listen to the whole album. I feel like this song meant a lot to me when I was travelling home and didn't want to fall asleep on the damn train; it did a good job of keeping me awake. On buses and trains at night, this song is the song you want to listen to. Especially when it's winter and getting dark by four PM, pitch black by six PM, and terrifying to be alone on a train or bus. This song never failed to lighten the mood. It's not dark yet, but it's definitely getting there.

50. "The Mighty Quinn" ('Self Portrait')

"You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn!"

Yes, I like this song, and yes, Self Portrait is a good album—Greil Marcus is just mean. I love this song because again, it sounds like Bob Dylan is having a great time recording it. He sounds really soulful and happy like he's not working for anyone but himself. He uses his Nashville Skyline voice and it sounds absolutely incredible on this record. I mean, you really just have to hear it to believe. I have met a lot of people who do not like this song, don't let that be you—listen today!

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed the next list in the series and have been following me through this journey of favourite songs by Bob Dylan. The reason why I chose to do it in 10-song blocks is to make it nice and easy for you to read, instead of having long, long blocks of information everywhere. Hopefully, this attempt has worked, and I hope you can read it easily and enjoy it as much as possible. If you'd like to be Bobcat friends, I'm on Twitter @3ftMonster—don't hesitate to get in touch because I'd love to hear what your favourite Bob Dylan songs are as well!