Category Archives: The Best Songs

Bob Dylan, The Best Songs, Video

‘Cross the Green Mountain by Bob Dylan an analysis

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‘Cross the Green Mountain by Bob Dylan

”Memories linger, sad yet sweet/And I think of the souls in heaven who we’ll meet”

‘Cross the Green Mountain was written for the soundtrack of Gods and Generals, a Civil War TV series, in this very well constructed ballad Dylan puts himself in the mind of a Civil War soldier (a dying man). I’m not sure that it was written specifically for the movie or if Dylan had written it earlier and found use for it now, it’s hard to say.  The mood is strikingly brought forward by his band, rolling along like in so many of his long and significant tunes. It is a major work of art, it deserved a better fate than to be tucked away on the bootleg series or on a TV-soundtrack!

I do not pretend to have the complete meaning to the song or found all the references Bob Dylan has used, so please enlighten me in the comments section. When I get enough new information I will update the post.

Check also out:
Analysis of Dylan’s Scarlet Town

Analysis of Pay in Blood

Analysis of Tin Angel

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan songs, The Best Songs

The Best Songs by Bob Dylan: Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

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bobdylan-blondeonblonde-cover

“Now!… Well for one thing, the music, the rhyming and rhythm, what I call the mathematics of a song, are more second-nature to me. I used to have to go after a song, seek it out. But now, instead of going to it I stay where I am and let everything disappear and the song rushes to me. Not just the music, the words, too.
~Bob Dylan (to Margaret Steen, Nov 1965)

[SIoMWTMBA].. goes beyond being an exciting rock-music performance. It shares with those slower Blonde on Blonde songs ‘Visions of Johanna’ and ‘Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’ a greater-than-average duration and a general high seriousness of intention.
~Michael Gray (BD Encyclopedia)

bob dylan stuck inside of mobile

@ #5 on my list of Dylan’s 200 best songs.. the second best song on Blonde On Blonde.

The master version (Blonde On Blonde version) was recorded @ Columbia Music Row Studios – Nashville, Tennessee –17 February 1966 (47 years ago).

This was the the 8th Blonde On Blonde session, produced by Bob Johnston.. and after 20 attempts Dylan was satisfied … with take 20. No other songs were tried @ this session.

….and those lovely drums….

…I know it sounds silly, but I love that song and how it pulls me in, but once I’m in there I always focus on the drummer. It’s a song with so much soul, but the more I listen, I always go back to those killer drums.
~Frank Black (Pixies, etc) (to MOJO’s “Dylan 100 best songs edition” )

Bob+Dylan+Dylan+1966

Master version (Blonde On Blonde):

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan - The songs he didn't write, Bob Dylans's best songs, The Best Songs

Bob Dylan – Old Five And Dimers (Billy Joe Shaver)

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I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver
And I’m reading James Joyce
Some people they tell me
I’ve got the blood of the land in my voice
-Bob Dylan (I Feel a Change Comin’ On)

«..I’ve lost part of three fingers, broke my back, suffered a heart attack and a quadruple bypass, had a steel plate put in my neck and 136 stiches in my head, fought drugs and booze, spent the money I had, and burried my wife, son & mother in the span of one year…. I’m not proud of my misfortune – I’m proud of my survival»
~Billy Joe Shaver

“I’ve always been real blunt. Most people from Texas are that way. And it seems like all the great writers, they’re not afraid to say anything. I’ve always been pretty blunt, and sometimes it seems, brutally honest, but it’s real close to the bone.”
~Billy Joe Shaver

Bob Dylan has never played this song in concert, or released it. All we got are the 3 takes from the circulating “Hearts of Fire outtakes”. The solo version is absolutely incredible.

Townhouse Studio
London, England
27 & 28 August 1986
Hearts Of Fire recording session, produced by Beau Hill

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylans's best songs, The Best Songs

Bob Dylan: “When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky”

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Bob Dylan Bootleg_series_1-3

Composing it [When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky], yeah. Um… you know, it was bits and pieces of different places that went into writing that. Lines overheard here and there, you know, strung together over a long period of time, resulted in that particular piece.
~Bob Dylan (to Eliot Mintz – March 1991)

…Dylan sings wonderfully. The songs seems capable of kicking itself into even-higher gear, and as the band recognizes it, so does Dylan, who gets audibly more and more excited as the song progresses
~John Bauldie (about the TBS 1-3 version)

@ #113 on my list of Dylan’s 200 best songs.. and this is the “Bootleg Series 1-3” version…. the Empire Burlesque version is nowhere near my top 200…

This version was recorded @

Studio A
The Power Station
New York City, New York
19 February 1985
Empire Burlesque recording session

The band included 2 “E-streeter’s”: Roy Bittan & Little “Stevie” Van Zandt..

  • Bob Dylan (guitar, vocal)
  • Roy Bittan (piano)
  • Robbie Shakespeare (bass)
  • Sly Dunbar (drums)
  • Queen Ester Marrow, Debra Byrd, Carolyn Dennis (backing vocals).
  • Steve van Zandt (guitar)

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions, Bob Dylans's best songs, The Best Songs

June 16: Bob Dylan recorded Like A Rolling Stone in 1965

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Bob Dylan - like-a-rolling-stone

….would be Like A Rolling Stone because I wrote that after I’d quit. I’d literally quit singing and playing, and I found myself writing this song, this story, this long piece of vomit about twenty pages long, and out of it I took Like A Rolling Stone and made it as a single. And I’d never written anything like that before and it suddenly came to me that that was what I should do, you know. I mean, nobody had ever done that before.
~Bob Dylan (to Martin Bronstein – Feb 1966)

.. The sound is so rich the song never plays the same way twice
~Greil Marcus

The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your mind
~Bruce Springsteen (Jan 1988)

bob-dylan-1965-bass

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