If Dylan’s songs were once protests looking for rectification — if his language was once phantasmagoric and tricky to decipher — well, that was wonderful, but things have changed. Tell Tale Signs sets a new milestone for this American artist. Dylan has always written about morally centerless times, but this collection comes from a different perspective — not something born of the existential moment but of the existential long view and the courage of dread. Jack Fate, Dylan’s character in Masked and Anonymous, intones what might work as the pracis for this album: “Seen from a fair garden, everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau, and you’ll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder. I tried to stop figuring everything out a long time ago.” For a long time, we’ve asked Dylan to deliver us truths. Now that he has, we need to ask ourselves if we can live with them.
~Mikal Gilmore (rollingstone.com)
About a year ago we ran a poll asking readers to vote for their favorite “Tell Tale Signs” songs.
Original challenge:
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I hereby challenge all readers to put out their personal list of the 10 best songs from Bob Dylan’s lovely “The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006”.
Top 5 is also appreciated.
Use the comments section in this post or check out our Facebook page.
The poll will be open till Tuesday’ish.
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- Top 5 on provided lists got 2 points each & 6-10 got 1 point
- 25 Bob Dylan experts voted
The results
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| 1 | Red River Shore (Unreleased #1, Time Out of Mind) | 36 points |
| 2 | Cross the Green Mountain (from the Gods and Generals soundtrack) | 31 points |
| 3 | Born in Time (Unreleased #1, Oh Mercy) | 29 points |
| 4 | Tell Ol’ Bill (Alternate version of song released on the North Country soundtrack) | 28 points |
| 5 | Huck’s Tune (From the Lucky You soundtrack) | 27 points |
| 6 | Mississippi (Unreleased #1, Time Out of Mind) | 17 points |
| 7 | Most Of The Time (Alternate version #1, Oh Mercy) | 16 points |
| 8 | Can’t Wait (Alternate version #1, Time Out of Mind) | 14 points |
| 9 | Dreamin’ of You (Unreleased #1, Time Out of Mind) | 13 points |
| 10 | Ring Them Bells* (Live at The Supper Club, November 17, 1993, New York, NY) | 9 points |
| 11 | High Water (For Charley Patton) (Live, August 23, 2003, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada) | 8 points |
| 12 | Marchin’ to the City (Unreleased #1, Time Out of Mind) | 7 points |
| 13 | Ain’t Talkin’ (Alternate version, Modern Times) | 6 points |
| 13 | Dignity (Piano demo, Oh Mercy) | 6 points |
| 13 | Everything Is Broken (Alternate version, Oh Mercy) | 6 points |
| 13 | Series of Dreams (Unreleased, Oh Mercy) | 6 points |
| 13 | Tryin’ to Get to Heaven (Live, October 5, 2000, London, England) | 6 points |
| 13 | Can’t Escape from You (Unreleased, December 2005 recording) | 6 points |
| 19 | 32-20 Blues (Robert Johnson) (Unreleased, World Gone Wrong) | 5 points |
| 20 | Mary and the Soldier (Unreleased, World Gone Wrong) | 3 points |
| 20 | Red River Shore (Unreleased version #2, Time Out of Mind) | 3 points |
| 20 | Someday Baby (Alternate version, Modern Times) | 3 points |
* there are 3 versions of this song included on TTS & it was not clear from the votes which versions were chosen. I will presume everyone voted for the best one.. the supper club version.
Spotify (without songs from the bonus disc)
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My List:
- “Red River Shore” – 7:36 (Unreleased, Time Out of Mind)
- “Huck’s Tune” – 4:09 (From the Lucky You soundtrack)
- “Born in Time” – 4:10 (Unreleased version #1, Oh Mercy)
- “‘Cross the Green Mountain” – 8:15 (from the Gods and Generals soundtrack)
- “Tell Ol’ Bill” – 5:31 (Alternate version of song released on the North Country soundtrack)
- “Mississippi” – 6:04 (Unreleased version #1, Time Out of Mind)
- “Most of the Time” – 3:46 (Alternate version, Oh Mercy)
- “Dignity” – 2:09 (Piano demo, Oh Mercy)
- “God Knows” – 3:12 (Unreleased, Oh Mercy)
- “Marchin’ to the City” – 6:36 (Unreleased, Time Out of Mind)
Spotify:
Check out:
- 19 Songs released in 1961 you MUST hear (video & audio)
- 20 songs released in 1962 you must hear
- 33 Songs released in 1971 you MUST hear (audio & video)
- 21 Songs released in 1972 you MUST hear (video & audio)
- –
- Bob Dylan’s best songs from the 1960s
- Bob Dylan: 30 best songs from the 1970s (Poll results)
- Bob Dylan: 30 best songs from the 1980s (Poll results)
- Bob Dylan: 31 best songs from the 1990s (poll results)
- Bob Dylan: His 30 best songs from 2000 – 2012 (poll results)
– - These are the 20 Greatest albums of all time according to the JV community
-Egil