Here it goes, the Top Ten plus a few songs of the Master (that mind-blowing genius called Bob Dylan) that have most moved me, or that I can sing along with, or that make me laugh. Because it’s so hard to choose only ten, I may add a few more, as part of a shortlist of 15, as I go along. Because of his Midwestern-country accent, I missed most of his lines until 2010 or so, when Google began to provide me the lyrics on the Internet. For a long time, I had heard “Tangled up in Blue” as “China-loving Blues!”
Things Have Changed: I first heard this song end of 2000, when my life changed: I was suddenly cut off from my long-time residence, my young children, my companion of 22+ years, and the sentiment, “Feel like falling in love, with the first woman I meet,” resonated, as did the cynical “All the truth in the world is one big lie,” and so many other lines.
Knocking on Heaven’s Door: At times, I wanted to take this badge of “writer, father, husband,” off of me. This song is passionate, heartfelt, and rich in its music, and no wonder other bands/singers have done even better with it.
You’re a Big Girl Now: “With a pain that stops and starts
Like a corkscrew to my heart”
Tombstone Blues: “Is there a hole for me to get sick in?” and “The sweet pretty things are in bed now of course!”
Lay Lady Lay: Seductive, irresistible. Sadly, I’ve never had a big brass bed of my own.
Mr. Tambourine Man: “Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky … Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.”
It’s Alright Ma: I first heard one of this song’s lines as “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Dying,” and laughed. So many profound lines.
Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall: Brilliant poetry and prophecy, no matter what Dylan, the saboteur, may have said of it later. “I heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin'” seems to describe the wilderness of the Internet, and “And I’ll tell and speak it and think it and breathe it
And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it” has been the motto of some of my writing.
Desolation Row: All letters to this website henceforth have to be mailed in from Desolation Row.
I Want You: The insistent “I Want You,” that single line repeated again and again become so powerful.
Not Dark Yet: Poetic, epic.
Highway 61: That’s the location of World War III, make your plans accordingly.
Just Like a Woman: Powerful, honest, fragile, courageous, irresistible.