My Top Ten Favourite Songs by Bob Dylan (Pt. 7)

Bob Dylan is the beacon of hope for the music of the folk revival era. He is the stance of the great lyricist, the poet who writes personally about their own time and life rather than, what came before him—a string of impersonal songs about love. Bob Dylan experiments with dark lyrics, love songs of his own life, protest songs, songs that people have worked their entire lives trying to figure out and songs about things that only Bob Dylan could know.

To me, Bob Dylan is a character of many personalities, he's never just one person, he can't be defined, bought or reasoned with. That's his greatest quality. He is always himself, but we will never know who that is. We are just assured that he is him - he is not imitating or copying anyone else. He always seems like this ever-changing figure who will never be pinned down to a single person. Bob Dylan said it rightly himself in his book Tarantula, that the ghost too "is more than one person."

Bob Dylan's changing character has been visited by every Dylanologist under the sun. From Harold Lepidus, the famed author of the Dylan Examiner who has a book called Friends and Other Strangers. Bob Dylan analysed through his influence upon others. To Clinton Heylin who does a song-by-song analysis of the changing ideas of Bob Dylan. To Michael Gray who writes extensively and expansively about Dylan's mind and the psychology of the eras we are so familiar with.

Like Bob Dylan, the Dylanologists are changing characters—they write not just about what they know, but they offer direction and theory to things that we couldn't possibly know. They give us each the knowledge to think about Bob Dylan and who he could be today, who he was yesterday and who he might be tomorrow.

Dylanologists are the people us Bobcats look up to. They are the guidance through the Dylan catalogue and they make some incredible arguments for some of Dylan's most loved and most respected songs. I think there is some pretty powerful stuff in the Dylanology books and at the moment myself, I've just finished my second reading of "Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet" by Seth Rogovoy. I always read my Bob Dylan books at least twice before they hit the shelf ready to be used when the time comes. This book is incredible and I hope you all read it as well! It's great for getting stuff off the ground with Dylanology!

Let's move on to having a look at the list then. I hope you enjoy it and here we proceed to 100, starting with part seven, numbers 61-70.

61. "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" ('John Wesley Harding')

"I dreamed I saw St. Augustine alive as you or me. Tearing through these quarters in the utmost misery, with a blanket underneath his arm and a coat of solid gold. Searching for the very souls whom already have been sold."

A beautiful song with an incredible message. It tells of a dream sequence in which St. Augustine is present and is going to be martyred. Since the narrator dreams he "was the one who put him out to death" it is assumed that the narrator dreams of the past. But, there are moments of the present involved, such as "tearing through these quarters" so he's obviously in the place where the narrator is at the particular time of this song. Whatever this is, I believe this song is supposed to transcend us, telling us that St. Augustine of Hippo is always there, and we are responsible for what happened to him.

62. "On a Night Like This" ('Planet Waves')

"Build a fire, throw on logs and listen to it hiss. And let it burn, burn, burn, burn on a night like this..."

On a Night Like This is a brilliant song because it's Bob Dylan doing what is the incredibly lyrical love song. I love these songs by him because they never sound cheesy or overdone, they are always just perfect for the sound and album they are on. The one thing that I love most about this song is remembering the first time I ever heard it. I remember this time because I had a really cool realisation, I have no idea whether this was actually intentionally done - but I thought it was cool. The line "let it burn, burn, burn, burn..." is from a Kerouac novel—again, no idea whether it was intentional but it was a cool lyric I thought.

63. "Just Like a Woman" ('Blonde on Blonde')

"Nobody feels any pain tonight as I stand inside the rain..."

One of the best songs from the album in my opinion; I want to share some of my experiences with the song in this section. The first time I ever heard this song, I automatically fell in love with it (though I don't actually recall when that was exactly). I read an essay one day in the library of my university on how this song was misogynistic and I questioned a lot of that particular essay. Almost until then, I had believed the song was a love elegy of some kind. But I don't really believe misogynistic is the correct word to describe the song—bitter would probably be a bit better - but misogynistic is a strong word and took it a bit too far. Needless to say, I never actually read that essay again. If you think this song is misogynistic, could you please explain it to me because I'm open to new interpretation—the essay was just really weirdly written.

64. "Ring Them Bells" ('Oh Mercy')

"Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf. Ring them bells for all of us who are left. Ring them bells for the chosen few who will judge the many when the game is through..."

Oh Mercy is an album that I feel doesn't get enough love and Ring Them Bells is one of the best songs on the album. It's a beautiful song that seems to be about the want for a better world through spirituality (correct me if I'm wrong). I love this song because it has such an incredibly mellow sound and really makes the album what it is. Ring Them Bells sets up the entire sound for this album and songs like "Was it What You Wanted"and "Shooting Star"work off of the same or a similar sound. It's a beautifully written song and I always enjoy listening to it, whatever the mood.

65. "Black Diamond Bay" ('Desire')

"Up on the white veranda she wears a necktie and a Panama hat..."

I absolutely love this song and I know it's on the lists of some other people's top tens on Twitter. Desire is a brilliantly made album, possibly one of his strongest albums to date. I feel like the song Black Diamond Bay gets the appreciation it deserves because it has the brilliant sound of the old folk guitar which we are so familiar with on the album. This song drives the vehicle of the album's sound and backs up songs like Hurricane and Romance in Durango—complimenting them perfectly. I hope you too have this somewhere on your top Bob Dylan songs.

66. "Peggy Day" ('Nashville Skyline')

"Peggy Day stole my poor heart away..."

This song is absolutely adorable. I had to include this song on this list because it always makes me feel happy. It's one of those songs that can put you in a good mood purely because of that bouncing guitar on the track. Bob Dylan's crooning vocals are beautiful and even though the lyrics may not be as complex as other songs, this song is still one of those that can change anyone's mood to uplifted in no time. I just think it's a cute song.

67. "It's Alright Ma" ('Bringing it all Back Home')

"And if my thought-dreams could be seen they'd probably put my head in a guillotine."

Fully titled "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"this song became a staple classic of the album that has recently celebrated its 54th birthday—Bringing it all Back Home. This album is a delight of electric folk blues and Bob Dylan is really going for it by putting this classic semi-acoustic song on there. Here's a cool story. During a conversation at a restaurant I had with my dad, he actually quoted this song knowingly. I was quite surprised because he said he was never really into Dylan, but apparently my great aunts and uncles were. That's enough for me, I've got it in my blood.

68. "Up to Me" ('Bootleg 14: More Blood, More Tracks')

"In 14 months I've only smiled once and I didn't do it consciously. Somebody's got to find your trail, I guess it must be up to me."

This song is a brilliant thing to listen to and for the life of me, I can't imagine why it wasn't released on Blood on the Tracks to begin with. I mean it's a great song and fits in well. But I think he didn't do it because it sounds so similar to "Shelter from the Storm"that people would get mixed up between the two songs. The song is lyrically brilliant and has a radiance of acoustic folk music that Bob Dylan revisits in the entirety of the More Blood, More Tracks bootleg. It is a very special moment in his career.

69. "Queen Jane Approximately" ('Bootleg 12: The Cutting Edge')

"Won't you come and see me Queen Jane..."

I love the Cutting Edge version of this song, again a lot more than the original. I feel like in a different key it sounds really good and I notice it's been slowed down a bit so that you can hear every note and every single syllable of Bob Dylan's voice. The reason why I think this song is better than the album version is because there's something that sounds a bit different in this song - it sounds like it's slightly happier because of the key it's in and I personally think this version would've fit on the album better than the original on Highway 61 Revisited.

70. "Sweetheart Like You" ('Infidels')

"Snap out of it baby, people are jealous of you, they smile to your face, but behind your back they hiss. What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?"

This love song from Infidels along with "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight,"is a brilliant addition to an otherwise very deep album. I love the way it balances the album perfectly. "Sweetheart Like You," like the song "Just Like a Woman" has a special place in my Dylanology reading because it was that song and "Sweetheart Like You" that were in the essay of Bob Dylan and Misogyny. Again, this song is in no way (as I can see) misogynistic. I think it's a beautiful love song and stands to be one of my favourite Bob Dylan love songs to date. But, if you can explain how you believe this song is misogynistic, I am open to new views so you can definitely explain that to me. I am all ears.

Conclusion

I find that sometimes, Bob Dylan's songs can be difficult to explain because of the many theories that are around them. I get really scared about how other people view my work because I'm not a Dylanologist, I'm just a Bobcat. Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed this piece on my appreciation for Bob Dylan songs part seven and if you want to contact me, it's @3ftMonster on Twitter—I hope we can be Bobcat friends!