Muscle Shoals

Bob Dylan On the Brain: My Top Ten

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I’m sure all of you Bob Dylan fans have a list of your favorite Dylan albums. I personally discovered several websites that ranked all his albums from best (in their opinion) to worst.

I’m not that dedicated, but I do have my own personal top ten favorites. Here they are ranked from #10 to #1 (more or less).

10. Oh Mercy (a bright spot in an otherwise less-than-stellar period from about 1983 to 1990)

9. Another Side of Bob Dylan/The Times They Are A-Changin’ (I picked both because hey, this is my list and I can do what I want)

8. Time Out of Mind (produced by Daniel Lanois, this one has a very unique vibe that I really like)

7. Desire

6. Saved (the second of Bob Dylan’s Christian albums and also the second to feature the famed Muscle Shoals sound)

5. Blood on the Tracks

4. Blonde on Blonde/Highway 61 Revisited/Bringing It All Back Home (again, I cheated a little because I like all three of these and they are pretty much around the same time period)

3. The Freewheeling Bob Dylan (it may not be his first album, but it’s the one that put his name on the map)

2. Slow Train Coming (the first and best of his Christian albums)

1. John Wesley Harding (maybe the first Americana album ever?)

Cover Front

I’m sure some of you who are more seasoned Dylan fans may take umbrage to my selections and rankings. Some of you reading this may think Bob  Dylan is the worst artist ever. That’s because art– any kind of art– is subjective. What some people consider a masterpiece may be what others might call garbage or noise.

But I like what I like (as I’m sure you like what you like). I realize that ol’ Bob is not the greatest singer I’ve ever heard, but I like his masterful way of penning lyrics that can be challenging, confronting, convicting, and at the same time, poetic and, for me at least, cinematic.

Bob Dylan on the Brain

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

saved bob dylan

I’ve been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately. As a sort of challenge to myself, I decided to listen to his albums in order starting from his eponymous debut in 1962. Currently, I’ve got his 1980 album Saved playing in my car.

It’s interesting to see how he evolved from a traditional folk singer into something much harder to define. He had his folk-rock era, his country era, his singer-songwriter era, and his gospel era. That’s as far as I’ve gotten. And I’m fairly certain at this point he’d rather not be pigeon-holed into any kind of genre or musical style.

I do like his Christian albums. Both the ones I listened to were recorded and produced in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which has a very rich musical history. I recommend the documentary about that town and its music.

I’m not going to speculate about whether those albums were a phase or he had a genuine conversion experience. Only he and God know that. I will go on record (pun intended) to say that he made some really great music during that time, in my humble opinion.

My Bob Dylan pilgrimage will end with the latest album of his that I own, his 2009 record, Together Through Life. I don’t have the last two he recorded.

What’s the point of all this? That I like Bob Dylan? That I’m a big musical nerd? That I have too much free time on my hands? Yes, yes, and yes.