Category Archives: Playlist

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan songs, Playlist

Playlist: Bob Dylan overlooked songs by decade – the 1970s

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bob dylan florida april 1976Hidden gems, buried treasures, deep cuts, forgotten or overlooked tracks, these songs have many descriptions. What are they?

Well, to me, it’s a great song that seldom (or never) is on the “best-of” lists of the artist, and it could have/should have been. They are sometimes alternative recordings or “out of print” releases.

I am talking about great songs that are often overlooked. We are talking about personal favorites that you wouldn’t rate among the artists top 20 (maybe), but deserve more praise and recognition than they get. Continue reading Playlist: Bob Dylan overlooked songs by decade – the 1970s →

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan songs, Playlist

Playlist: Bob Dylan overlooked songs by decade – the 1960s

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Bob Dylan recording Highway 61 Revisited in Columbia Studio A New York Summer 1965 Photograph by Don Hunstein
Photo by Don Hunstein

Hidden gems, buried treasures, deep cuts, forgotten or overlooked tracks, these songs have many descriptions. What are they?

Well, to me, it’s a great song that seldom (or never) is on the “best-of” lists of the artist, and it could have/should have been. They are sometimes alternative recordings or “out of print” releases.

I am talking about great songs that are often overlooked. We are talking about personal favorites that you wouldn’t rate among the artists top 20 (maybe), but deserve more praise and recognition than they get. Continue reading Playlist: Bob Dylan overlooked songs by decade – the 1960s →

Bob Dylan, Playlist

Playlist: Bob Dylan by the numbers

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dylan numbers

Playlist: Bob Dylan by the numbers

“I said “Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I’m gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you’d better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won’t even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen”
– Bob Dylan, I shall be free No.10

A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, and so forth. A notational symbol that represents a number is called a numeral. In addition to their use in counting and measuring, numerals are often used for labels (as with telephone numbers), for ordering (as with serial numbers), and for codes (as with ISBNs). In common usage, the term number may refer to a symbol, a word, or a mathematical abstraction.
– Wikipedia

Dylan has been fascinated by numbers all his career, he sometimes put them at the start or at the end of songs, sometimes even in the middle. A lot of his songs have numbers in their titles, I’ve tried to collect them all, tell me if there are songs missing…

…and I’ve tried to put them in ascending order!

 

Continue reading Playlist: Bob Dylan by the numbers →

Bob Dylan, Playlist

Playlist: Bob Dylan Murder Ballads
Painting by Bob Dylan (the New Orleans collection)
Painting by Bob Dylan (the New Orleans collection)

Playlist: Bob Dylan Murder Ballads

“Western settlers found murder and bloodshed fascinating, and composed local ballads. But with printing facilities scarce, many of these items were not published at all while others saw fame only briefly in the columns of the local newspapers. As a result true western ballads of murder—except those about such famous outlaws as Jesse James, Cole Younger, Sam Bass, and their ilk—have been entirely lost, or are known only to the children of those who knew and sang them. These children are now, of course, old men and women. Some of the best examples of western murder ballads will be lost forever when these people die.”
– Olive Burt (Minstrelsy of Murder, 1958)

Murder ballads are a sub-genre of the traditional ballad form, the lyrics of which form a narrative describing the events of a murder or a very tragic event, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath. Sometimes but not always the judgement of innocent people. Traditional ballads are independent from broadsheet ballads insofar as the typical broadsheet form does not use the same formulas or structures and is rooted in a literate society: traditional ballads flourished within non-literate groups within society.

Bob Dylan – Death of Emmet Till:

Continue reading Playlist: Bob Dylan Murder Ballads →

Bob Dylan, Playlist

Playlist: Bob Dylan sings about Rivers, Oceans and Ships

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Dylan_boat

Playlist: Bob Dylan sings about Rivers, Oceans and Ships

When I assemble these “mix tapes”/playlists I discover common threads in Bob Dylan’s music, themes I haven’t been aware of. I will explore these recurring themes in Dylan’s songs in my Playlist series.

Bob Dylan often sings about journeys, both physically and metaphorically, today’s playlist is about Rivers, Oceans and Boats.

Bob Dylan sings about Rivers, Oceans and Ships:

Watching the river flow, South Sweden Tour 2009 (click on the picture to start the video):

Other playlists:
Bob Dylan – Songs that could have been movies
Bob Dylan – Songs about real persons
Bob Dylan – Murder ballads
Bob Dylan Shadows in the night track listing and Sinatra Spotify playlist

Bob Dylan “High Water (for Charley Patton)” Irvine, CA August 3, 2013:

– Hallgeir