A hard choice to make
Spotted today, a choice by Clemencé Michallon of essential Bob Dylan’s songs that everyone needs in their lives, selected upon the occasion of his 79th birthday – see here – THE INDEPENDENT
Whenever making a musical list, it’s sometimes a tough and subjective task to choose between an artiste’s “greatest” ditties and one’s own personal “favourites” because sometimes those two ain’t the same thing.
In this case it’s especially hard because in all aspects of his life and music Dylan has ploughed with own furrow with seeming scant regard to what anyone expects or wishes. He’s probably “thrown away” more songs that most other musical icons have ever composed.
For example, a case in point are the legendary Basement Tapes, recorded during his “fallow” period after allegedly almost breaking his neck in a motorbike accident on 29th July 1966 when at the height of his 1960s fame.
He took a year out – probably needed it because of his frenetic lifestyle (including substance abuse) and endless touring/recording – and effectively ‘disappeared’ before re-emerging again in December 1967 with the laid-back, stripped bare, country-influenced, John Wesley Harding album.
However, he hadn’t been idle during those forgotten twelve months. Working from his home in the Woodstock area of New York state, with his backing band The Hawks (later to become famous in their own right as The Band) he wrote and recorded a huge number of songs – some of which later became classics, whether for Dylan himself or other artistes – for the hell of it, at the time with little regard as to whether he’d release any of them.
Eventually a 24-song selection from these much-fabled session were released eight years later in 1975 as The Basement Tapes to huge acclaim.
Later – in the early 1990s – a remastered version entitled The Genuine Basement Tapes was released containing another 60-plus songs and outtakes and then in 2014, as part of Dylan’s Bootleg Series, Columbia/Legacy released The Bootleg Series Volume 11: The Basement Tapes Complete – a 6-CD collection featuring 139 songs including over 30 never-heard before tracks.
Take another example, Blind Willie McTell – the song that Michallon choses as her Number One.
Dylan originally wrote this in the spring of 1983 but it first appeared in public on another release in the Bootleg Series – The Bootleg Series Volumes 1 – 3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991. It was then covered by many artistes, including The Band, but is believed only to have been performed by Dylan himself in public for the first time at a 1997 concert.
Lastly, as an indulgence, here’s my own choice of a personal favourite Dylan track.
It comes from one of his later-period masterpieces – the album Time Out Of Mind (1997), recorded with producer Daniel Lanois, which was something of a comeback as it was his first album release of new material in seven years and won him three Grammy Awards including Album Of The Year in 1998.
It’s an atmospheric song called Not Dark Yet.
I’m sure some wouldn’t regard it highly because of its downbeat lyrics and Dylan’s ‘mature’ voice (which some might describe as “shot”), but it struck a chord with me.
It comes courtesy of YouTube and if Rusters wish to follow all the words, please go to the “second” comment down – by Veronika Toledo – and click on the ‘Read More’ words – see here – NOT DARK YET
