Dylan al***s

Freewheelin' & Bringing It All back Home are both essential, but...

Highway 61 Revisited & Blonde On Blonde are the two monsters.

Best of the Best.

Blood on the Tracks (as you know)
Blonde on Blonde
Highway 61 Revisited.


Better than the best of almost anyone else (Ok, not the Beatles/Stones etc)

Bring it all back Home
Desire
Oh Mercy
Time out of Mind.

Essential:
Highway 61
Blonde on Blonde
Live at the "Albert Hall" 66
Desire
Bringing It All Home
Blood on the Tracks
Rolling Thunder Review (live)
Time Out Of Mind

Recommended:
Planet Waves
Oh Mercy
Nashville Skyline
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Basement Tapes
Love & Theft


Most of the rest ain't worth bothering with that much to be quite honest...

BUT

Avoid these like the plague:
Everything from the 1980s (apart from Oh Mercy).
Anything from his Christian period.
Dylan & The Dead
The early folky protest crap
Dylan
Self Portrait


Kevin

Thanks peeps.
The list of what to avoid is appreciated too.
I'm off shopping.

I would add the bootleg series 1-3 to the recommended list. I've got all Dylans albums but this is one of my most played. It's a treasure trove of recordings that covers most of Dylans career. It also has 'Blind Willie Mctell' on it which is totally essential IMHO.


I beg to differ on the Christian period or 'early protest crap' by the way...

IMO 'Slow train coming' is well worth getting as is 'The times they are a changing' which contains the wonderful 'Lonesome death of Hattie Carroll' and 'Boots of Spanish leather'


Nick

To be honest I would avoid the lot and buy some Randy Newman. I've yet to understand why Dylan seems to engender such blind worship; I think I have Highway 61 (?), really awful tuneless dirge that gives me a headache. Oh well each to his own.

Woodface

I was wondering how long it would take. Dylan Knocking seems to be something of a sport on this forum. Still thanks for the Randy Newman tip. He's someone I've been meaning to look into. What album would you recommend to start with?

Randy Newman

Jump right in. He's bloody marvellous.

Try this: Salon feature

I should be working really, but its Saturday and the shops are only 10 minutes from the office. Thanks guys.

Have just bought Blonde on Blonde & Time out of Mind.
Couldn't resist a couple of Little Feat CD's and a King Crimson while I was there.

Bob Dylan. After hearing a few tracks from "Slow train coming" on the radio yesterday I remembered how good it was (Mark Knopfler on guitar and pick withers on drums) so I'm off to get me a new copy on CD.

I also like Dylan’s "Love and theft" probably because it reminds me of Randy Newman's "Bad love" which I love a lot. The stupid thing is that another thing I just heard on the radio was that Randy Newman has written a musical based on Faust and I excitedly assumed that it was brand new, but today I find that it came out in 1995. I wonder if this is worth getting. Anyone ?

Perhaps I should have replaced 'blind' with 'unquestioning', anyway I always like to stir the pot as far as Dylan is concerned. Top Randy Newman recommendations would be 'Sail away', 'Bad Love', 'Little Criminals' & '12 songs'. To be honest he doesn't make bad albums it is just that some are more interesting than others. I really like the craft that goes into his music and he is one of the few americans who understand irony.

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Originally posted by woodface:
He is one of the few americans who understand irony.

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Yawn. You really should get out more.

Minky:
Faust is, er, interesting. Not one of his best, but still many Randy-tastic moments.

Obviously you did not understand my irony

quote:

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Originally posted by woodface:
Obviously you did not understand my irony

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What's actually ironic is that you enthuse about so much American music - Ellington, Pixies, Steely Dan, Calexico etc - while apparently misunderstanding Americans (BTW, I'm not one). Sorry to sound so over-sensitive about this, pal, but the old "they don't get irony" thing is such a cliche and so far from the truth.

Perhaps you are. I love American music and have visited the country a couple of times but I am sure there are many differences across such huge area. I think it a fair point to refer to the understanding of irony when discussing Randy Newmans music. Lets not forget that this artist has been misunderstood by his own counrty on a number of occassions; remember 'Short People' and 'I love LA' as prime examples. Like many cliches they are often grounded in truth.

[This message was edited by woodface on TUESDAY 16 September 2003 at 13:12.]

quote:

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Originally posted by woodface:
I think it a fair point to refer to the understanding of irony when discussing Randy Newmans music. Lets not forget that this artist has been misunderstood by his own counrty on a number of occassions; remember 'Short People' and 'I love LA' as prime examples.

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A reasonable point. However, Newman was (and is) understood clearly by millions of other Americans. And he's far from being the only irony merchant (including lots of Americans, ironically) who people here "get".

I think my point is that you really shouldn't generalise about a country of 270 million people. However, as a Scot, I CAN do that about the English (but I won't).

Davie

I shouldn't generalise but I can't help it! America is a great big country but the fact that many don't 'get' Mr Newman is probably why he makes his living from soundtracks. As an artist he is pretty uncommercial and it is ironic that we in the UK often appreciate slightly unusual American music before they do (although this has little to do with whether they appreciate irony).