SO MUCH WRITING
Now I know a bunch of ya'll only know Robert Allen Zimmerman as this old dinosaur who had some pretty big hits in the 60s and then went off the deep end in the 70s and produced weird religious music for like a decade and a half, which is actually pretty true. But then sometime in the late 90s he changed religions once more or whatever and actually started making good music again that went mostly unnoticed or was immediately dismissed by the general public even amidst almost universal praise from critics.
His early work is probably known by everyone, but just in case you were raised by Jozef Fritzl or something, here's what you missed:
Blowin' in the Wind, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
But even before he rose to fame, he was real busy making some great music in The Village, New York, slaving away for a dollar and a burger after every set he played at the Gaslight just to pour his heart & soul into delivering amazing renditions of folk standards (Barbara Allen) and some new material. And before even that, he was sitting in his bedroom recording tapes: Rambler, Gambler (Home Recording).
That's probably too boring and gay for you philistines, though, so I'll just skip his first few albums even though they're all great in their own way (songs to check out if you like boring, stupid, amazing things mostly in chronological order: Handsome Molly, House of the Risin' Sun, Song to Woody, Girl From the North Country (speaking of which, Roy Harper also recorded a awesome version of this which he coincidentally played when he opened for Joanna Newsom when I saw her. You might also like this version which was used in Sons of Anarchy.), One too Many Mornings, Percy's Song).
Now you may be led to believe (from what you've heard of him) that he can't sing. This isn't true; he probably just doesn't want to put in the effort because he's a goddamn lazy bastard. On the rare occasions that he does sing, though, he proves that he's actually pretty capable:
Lay Down Your Weary Tune (then again, there's stuff like this. Sometimes I think he's just constantly trolling everyone.)
He invented rap, too.
What you should also know is that he's a megalomanious with no regard for anyone but himself; an evident example of this is his relationship with Joan Baez. They did inspire each other a whole lot which resulted in some great music such as this, though:
Anyway, somewhere around the mid 60s, he decided to pick up an electric guitar, released an album, and alienated like 95% of his fanbase, causing a pretty famous heckling and much booing at the Newport Folk Festival of 1965. But none of that probably interests any of you even though it directly led to some of the greatest albums ever created:
(seriously though Bringing it all Back Home is pretty awesome too, but it's mostly still old-style Dylan which I've already bored you with enough to make you hate him for the rest of your life)
This is the point where Dylan started getting balls to the wall crazy (for his time, anyway) and probably actively tried to make everyone hate him. He also started doing a lot of drugs. There's some great interviews from this period with critics who just didn't understand and he delivers some amazing bits of irl trolling and not giving a crap about anything:
Bob Dylan - San Francisco Press Conference 1965 Part 1
Bob Dylan - San Francisco Press Conference 1965 Part 2
Bob Dylan - San Francisco Press Conference 1965 Part 3
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Trolling is one thing he was and still is really, really good at. In response to everyone about him going electric, he put one of his finest, most ambitious acousting songs at the end of an album full of wailing electric guitars: Desolation Row.
(My Chemical Romance did a freakinghorrible terrible cover of this song that Bob Dylan says he likes but crap him they totally butchered it and I won't even link that crap and you shouldn't youtube it either)
This albums contains other really great songs too, but it's still pretty blah compared to what many consider to be the best album he's put out:
Blonde On Blonde (1966)
An album that could, probably, still be released today. It wouldn't be as popular because it's not as revolutionary now as it was back then, but I'm certain it'd find its own little niche. There is not a single song on this album that isn't worth listening to a million times, so I'm just going to link all of them:
1. "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" – 4:36
Recorded: March 10, 1966
2. "Pledging My Time" – 3:50
Recorded: March 8, 1966
3. "Visions of Johanna" – 7:33
Recorded: February 14, 1966
4. "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)" – 4:54
Recorded: January 25, 1966
5. "I Want You" – 3:07
Recorded: March 10, 1966
6. "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" – 7:05
Recorded: February 17, 1966
7. "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" – 3:58
Recorded: March 10, 1966
8. "Just Like a Woman" – 4:52
Recorded: March 8, 1966
9. "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" – 3:30
Recorded: March 9, 1966
10. "Temporary Like Achilles" – 5:02
Recorded: March 9, 1966
11. "Absolutely Sweet Marie" – 4:57
Recorded: March 8, 1966
12. "4th Time Around" – 4:35
Recorded: February 14, 1966
13. "Obviously 5 Believers" – 3:35
Recorded: March 10, 1966
14. "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" – 11:23
So after he dropped his last album like an atom bomb on the music scene and everyone who listened to it didn't know what the heck had just happened to their record player, he got into a motorcycle accident and didn't do a goddamn thing for a year until he came out with John Wesley Harding, where he returned to his pre-electric sound. It's not a bad album and even though it was pretty well received and hailed as a return to "the old Dylan", I think it's boring. But it has a pretty good post-apocalyptic feeling song that was completely and utterly destroyed and then reassembled into something brilliant by none other than Jimi Hendrix, a religious song that's actually really good, and a bluesy love song.
Then he went crazy for a while again, probably got into an identity crisis as he tried to adjust to family life while still being constantly hounded by reporters, and came out with a completely new voice (I'm not even kidding, just click the next two links) and released another boring country album that has only two songs as its saving grace: a new recording of Girl From the North Country with Johnny Cash and Lay Lady Lay, another bluesy love song).
Some people think this album is better than Blonde on Blonde. They're retarded, but it is a really good album. Deeply personal (especially the acoustic demo that eventually surfaced), about some relationship crap he went through that ultimately nobody cares about other than that it made him come up with some of his greatest songs (Tangled Up in Blue, Meet Me in the Morning, Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts (**** you, this song owns), If You See Her, Say Hello, Shelter From the Storm), it marks the beginning of the end of a period of him releasing good music again that ended with:
There's exactly one great song on this album: Hurricane (although Sara is also pretty decent). But goddamn if it isn't a really great song. Everyone should know this song and why it was such a big deal (if you don't: click this right now). It's also one of the rare times he uses Bad Words in his songs.
Then afterwards he got all religious and released a ton of bad albums (thanks, Jesus, you *******) and didn't really return to form even after he dropped all the Jesus stuff (rare good songs: License to Kill (not about James Bond), Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight, I'll Remember You). Everyone had pretty much written him off until he somewhat made a comeback with:
Oh Mercy (1989)
Recorded with Daniel Lanois, its recording detailed extensively in his autobiography full of damn dirty lies, this is the stepping stone to some of his even later, greater work. Really atmospheric, overall pretty good with some standout songs: Everything Is Broken, Shooting Star, Ring Them Bells.
If you've noticed I'm not posting about Dylan himself anymore, it's because he became really boring in interviews and things. Charming, jerking, insightful and funny, but ultimately boring.
Under the Red Sky (1991)
screw this album. Seriously,screw it. I wish I could pretend it doesn't exist, but I actually own a physical copy and I hate myself for it. I guess if you like children's songs, Cat's In the Well isn't too bad. Just kidding, it's actually really really bad.
Good As I Been to You (1992) / World Gone Wrong (1993)
Wait, what's that, Bob Dylan's first two acoustic solo album's since 1964's Another Side of Bob Dylan? Hell yes. Most of them are traditional songs interpreted by Bobby, and most of them are really good. He sings a song about Canada, another children's song but in a very touching way (not that way) this time, a rockin' blues song, and a song about a gay sailor who'd later end up a cult leader leading 900 members of the Peoples Temple into hamburger time at Jonestown or something, I dunno. Actually, speaking of that cult leader, did you know he released an album full of happy choir songs before that massacre?
Rev. Jim Jones & Peoples Temple Choir pt. 1
Okay, back to Dylan. World Gone Wrong isn't as good as the first album, but still has some decent songs: Blood in My Eyes, Delia (fun fact: an old recording of this song by another artist can be heard in the finale of the first season of House, in the scene near the end where Stacey walks into House's office and they share a tender moment that almost made me cry until I remembered I'm not a weepy girl).
Unplugged (1995)
As amazing as Under the Red Sky is terrible. No new songs, but there's one song that's never been officially released before: John Brown (an old old anti-war song he's actually been playing since his 1962 Gaslight days). Everything is worth listening too, but especially Shooting Star (original), Love Minus Zero / No Limit (original), Dignity (original) (not to be confused with the also pretty good Hilary Duff song), With God on Our Side (original).
*headdesk* I never thought of that. XD
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