Positively Bob Dylan

Visitors of this website have voted “Mr. Tambourine Man” Dylan’s greatest song ever. The classic 1965 album cut off Bringing It All Back Home reached the peak of the Top 100 Dylan Songs rating in April, closely followed by - and this might be a little surprise to some - Blood On The Tracks’ “Idiot Wind”. A few excerpts from user comments on the song: “the lyrics/imagery are unapproachable”, “first psychedelic vision of rock”, “last verse has been my personal touchstone for close on 42 years”, “Dylan is restless and aimless he is searching for something”, “The amazing thing about Dylan is that he can bathe himself into the sickness of a song, and then come out again.”
Feel free to vote for “Mr. Tambourine Man” as well, or post your own personal comment on the song or on any other officially released Bob Dylan tune.

Check out Cat Power’s new album Jukebox which includes both a wonderful cover version of “I Believe In You” as well as a song dedicated to Bob in the manner of his 1962 “Song to Woody”, “Song to Bobby”. In the lyrics of her very personal song she reveals her love to Dylan, “Givin’ you my heart was my plan”.

I found this live performance from French Canal+ TV channel on YouTube:

Music producer Izzy Goodman Young discovered an early unpublished song in his archives. The Talking Blues “Go Away You Bomb” is a rare example of an explicit protest song by Dylan against the atomic bomb. Stockholm’s newpaper “Dagens Nyheter” reprinted the lyrics (see links below).
In the meantime Bob Dylan has already confirmed the authenticity of the lyrics, however mentioning that he cannot really remember it. Young now owns all the rights to publish it in any way.

> “Go Away You Bomb” lyrics

Another decade, another triple-disc Dylan compilation. This one purports to be both a definitive retrospective and a reflection of fan choices logged online, but the imperative of representing all periods of Dylan’s career apparently outguns the punters’ preferences. Well, mine, anyway. The problem with retrospective compilations is that they are constantly being updated, with genuine gems shaved off the front end to accommodate more recent, comparatively unproven, work. But even allowing for that, who would really consider the likes of “Blood in My Eyes” and “You’re Gonna Quit Me” preferable to “Visions of Johanna” and “It’s Alright, Ma”? Only someone interested in giving a leg up to the less well-performing corners of Dylan’s catalogue, that’s who. Likewise, if you were going to feature just one 11-minute track, would you choose “Brownsville Girl” over “Desolation Row” or “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”? Ominously sharing its title with his worst album, this set contains an incomparable fund of classics – and is just as frustrating as previous Dylan compilations. (Reviewed by Andy Gill for “The Independent”)

Click here for album details