If Not for Bob: A Playlist for Bob Dylan at the Grammy Awards

Today's a very good day at work. I'm actually getting paid to watch my lifelong hero Bob Dylan rehearse a segment for Sunday's Grammy Awards that will find him playing alongside two of today's better bands in the world whose folk rock roots are showing -- The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons. To make my workday even better, some guys named Jagger and Eminem are stopping by after him. I woke up this morning at 5AM, put my iPod on shuffle and the first song that came up was by Bob and it perfectly describes my mood today -- "Can't Wait."

So I thought I should write this playlist today. See Bob Dylan made me want to be a writer -- any kind of writer. I named my firstborn in Dylan's honor -- and no, I didn't call him "Zimmy." I've been honored to speak with my hero on a number of occasions times over the years, and the truth is he's never let me down. Once I wrote liner notes for one of Dylan's albums, and he very politely asked me not to use "any adjectives." You can't make this stuff up -- and please notice I didn't use any adjective in front of "stuff."

Another time in 2001, my hero and I had a two-hour meeting about a project that he had imagined, and that day I realized something about true genius. The real geniuses are way ahead of the rest of us -- hell, I didn't even figure out what Dylan's idea was until a few hours after I got home that night -- if then. Great minds are not linear -- which I was reminded of again when I read Chronicles, Volume One, a remarkable book about a remarkable life. Sadly, "remarkable" is an adjective.

What I did understand from that meeting was that my hero could not have been sweeter to me or more fascinating. I got so comfortable at one point, I found myself -- at Dylan's good-natured urging, mind you -- acting out his less-than-convincing fight scene with Rupert Everett in Hearts of Fire, a 1987 movie anyone better adjusted than a Dylan completist like me me might have long forgotten. When I was leaving Dylan's hotel room that day, the greatest songwriter in history, stopped me and wrapped up some cookies in a hotel napkin for me to take home to my then little kids -- include the one who I'd named in his honor.

So thank you Bob Dylan, for those cookies and for a lifetime of inspiration for me and for anyone else who gives a damn about words and music, and the way the two can come together in the right hands. And sorry about those adjectives.

Here, then, are the songs I will be playing today on my way to work at the Grammy Awards.

If Not For You - Bob Dylan
Can't Wait - Bob Dylan
Forever Young - Bob Dylan
All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan
Pressing On - Bob Dylan
Everything Is Broken - Bob Dylan
Jokerman- Bob Dylan
My Back Pages - Bob Dylan
I Believe In You - Bob Dylan
Every Grain Of Sand - Bob Dylan
4th Time Around - Bob Dylan
Is Your Love In Vain - Bob Dylan
Caribbean Wind - Bob Dylan
In The Summertime - Bob Dylan
Buckets Of Rain - Bob Dylan
TV Talkin' Blues - Bob Dylan
Born In Time - Bob Dylan
Series Of Dreams - Bob Dylan
Ain't Talkin' - Bob Dylan
Not Dark Yet - Bob Dylan

If you are so moved, please share your favorite Dylan songs here.

 

 

 

Follow David Wild on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Wildaboutmusic

Comments

[taylorbad]

12:41 PM on 02/21/2011

I will never understand why "Planet Waves" is not listed more frequently as a Dylan favorite. Backed by the Band, Dylan puts out all the sign posts that led to "Blood On The Tracks." The songs are smart, heartfelt and true. Among my favorites are "Something There is About You" and "Never Say Goodbye." The chronicles of Dylan's personal life show imperfection in many places but he turned it into art that reaches his fans as they use his songs to sing their own lives. That's what artists do.

[ProfessorMacphisto]

02:12 PM on 02/15/2011

I really like the Dylan songs that tell a person's story. I think he does it best.

1. Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
2. North Country Blues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnvFPJ78nXY&feature=related
3. Lenny Bruce
4. Hurricane
5. Joey
6. George Jackson (I don't know that this can even be found)
7. Ballad of Hollis Brown
8. The Death of Emmett Till
9. Who Killed Davey Moore
10. Only A Pawn in Their Game
11. Ballad in Plain D
12. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
13. John Wesley Harding
14.Billy

I have not heard any other song writing like this.

[rich3324]

02:05 PM on 02/15/2011

Things Have Changed
Knockin' on Heaven's Door

[floater]

07:17 AM on 02/15/2011

This post: I love you on Valentines day Bob.

[divinewine]

08:58 PM on 02/14/2011

Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue"..one of the best songs ever!

[alamacTHC]

02:38 PM on 02/14/2011

As an owner of 30-some-odd Dylan albums, I'm familiar with most of his work--and I have to say my favorite collection is still the Electric Trilogy (which I consider to be one extended work). I'm old enough to remember the '64 Newport Jazz Festival (by reputation--wasn't present) and I was personally delighted at the change. I still remember all the words to "Subterranean Homesick Blues"... Another fave (on your list): TV Talkin' Song, off of "Under the Red Sky". This one was prescient in its astuteness--it is television that's the carrier wave of The Matrix we are condemned to live in, with the Fox News pustulation the worst of the lying liars. We'd be better off if we'd just stop watching the thing altogether--"Sometimes you gotta do what Elvis did and shoot the damn thing out!"

I also really liked the album for which you did the liner notes--the 30th Anniversary celebration. Maybe the best tribute album evah!

[David Wild]

09:55 PM on 02/14/2011

Thank you so much for writing

[Alison Calder]

02:05 PM on 02/14/2011

Dylan fan, too: I'd rank Not Dark Yet as among his best. One quibble though: The writer says "You can't make this stuff up -- and please notice I didn't use any adjective in front of 'stuff.'" But "this" actually is an adjective in this context.

[CubanVoice]

12:06 PM on 02/14/2011

No onslaught please but I am completely oblivious to Bob Dylan's appeal or talent. Yes, a great songwriter, but how can you tell by the way he mumbles through his songs? i find it absolutely annoying.

[dalegood]

02:21 PM on 02/14/2011

2 possibilities--Love Bob, love his singing and/or Love his singing, love Bob. I do both.

[CubanVoice]

05:53 PM on 02/14/2011

Most do, I think.

[alamacTHC]

02:42 PM on 02/14/2011

"...completely oblivious to Bob Dylan's appeal or talent....mumbles..annoying..."

Consider yourself flamed! >;-)

[CubanVoice]

05:52 PM on 02/14/2011

Ok, considered! Just being honest. I know I am in the grand minority because he is revered.

[marcosweb]

10:18 AM on 02/14/2011

you've gotta serve somebody

[Mr Bad Example]

08:41 AM on 02/14/2011

"Baby Let Me Follow You Down", "(Most Likely) You'll Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine" (Dylan played this the last night I spent with my best friend before my friend was killed in a car accident a few months later), "Brownsville Girl", "Sylvio", anything he did with The Band, and "Sweetheart Like You"-the last verse always gets me: "They say that patriotism is the last refuge...to which a scoundrel clings. Steal a little and they throw you in jail...steal a lot and they make you the king."

And he didn't dress up like a peacock or get carried into the theater in an egg, either...

[PhilTListener]

04:02 PM on 02/14/2011

But what cool sneakers!

[LightOn]

08:15 AM on 02/14/2011

The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll and Not Dark Yet bring me to tears each and every time i hear them.

Every song on Time Out Of Mind, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blood On The Tracks are among my favorites.

[alamacTHC]

02:48 PM on 02/14/2011

One of the great early songs. William Zantzinger, though, has gotten his:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/william-zantzinger-subject-of-bob-dylan-ballad-1301592.html

[hueylover]

06:15 AM on 02/14/2011

I just needed to recommend Mr Tambourine Man sung by the young Bob as featured in Scorsese's 'No Direction Home'. My desert island choice :)

[Dredd]

06:12 AM on 02/14/2011

Hear hear sir ...

[Greg Bell]

03:46 AM on 02/14/2011

Anything from Blood on the Tracks - anytime. And that's a tough pick, because I can't really say there's anything of his that I DON'T like - those are just among my favorites.

[Exene]

05:12 PM on 02/14/2011

I was listening to Blood on the Tracks today while walking to work. Simple Twist of Fate is perfection.

[Greg Bell]

02:14 AM on 02/15/2011

And Exene perfection, as well!

[studdog]

01:16 AM on 02/14/2011

Not many times you can read 8 pages of comments on the web and have everyone pretty much agreeing on something:

Dylan rocks!

[David Wild]

11:33 AM on 02/14/2011

You got that right

Thanks