• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

What Is Your Favorite Dylan Album?

Laurel Hill Crazie

AKA Rob Davis
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,264
Location
Keystone State
Ok, I got hooked on the Classic Rock thread elsewhere and the Beatles thread here so I had to ask, what is your favorite Dylan Album? No poll here, the discography would be too long. Fact is, I was a big fan pre Blood On The Tracks and not too familiar (in a full album way) with most of his work since then. Does anyone still listen to full albums?

My all time favorite? Well there are 2 really. Bring It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, both released in 1965, both after his meeting the Beatles the year before. So who influenced who here? These are the albums when the Folk Troubadour became the Rock Poet.
 

Jim Kenney

Travel Correspondent
Team Gathermeister
Contributor
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 27, 2015
Posts
3,588
Location
VA
At this point Bob Dylan may only be surpassed by Willie Nelson (and I guess Tony Bennett) for the longest touring music icon?? On the one hand I really admire Dylan's tenacity to keep touring and doing something he must love. On the other hand, I'm scared to attend a live performance for fear that his croaking voice, odd delivery, and bizarre re-interpretations will ruin forever the more melodic versions of his songs I have in my head. Supposedly, there is some sort of secret motivation (like Jerry Lewis doing MDA telethons) for why Dylan keeps touring, but I think it's just part of the mystique.


My favorite way to listen to music these days is to fire up my home pc (connected to a 32" TV) and go to youtube. I type in a favorite song or artist and let it rip. Although I was raised on a fair amount of 60s and 70s Dylan, he is not one I often cue on youtube for fear of seeing the modern live performances. But maybe I'll start just listening to his old recordings. They're certainly worth a revisit. I like Nashville Skyline (1969) and the other old ones you mentioned. The last album I bought of his was Slow Train Coming (1979 and I still have the vinyl). Like you, I'm not very familiar with his stuff after that. i have never seen him live, young or old.


Crazy aside: I skied with Billy Kidd for about 45 minutes in 2012. He was using soft Apex ski boots and skied in what I'd call a very "loose" style. I think his top priority is comfort and doing his own thing - maybe a little like Dylan:)

1327842260_pic3.jpg
 

4ster

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
7,219
Location
Sierra & Wasatch
“Self Portrait” hands down!
I don’t know why, there is just something about that album from beginning to end that just does it for me. There is lots of Dylan that I like but for an album, this is the one beginning to end.

BTW, I do the YouTube thing too. There is not too much studio Dylan available. Often when something shows up, it is copyrighted & taken off very quickly.
 
Last edited:

Jim Kenney

Travel Correspondent
Team Gathermeister
Contributor
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 27, 2015
Posts
3,588
Location
VA
BTW, I do the YouTube thing too. There is not too much studio Dylan available. Often when something shows up, it is copyrighted & taken off very quickly.
The Beatles get pulled off quickly too. however, right now there is a lot of remastered Beatles music on youtube.
 

Jim McDonald

愛スキー
Skier
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Posts
2,101
Location
Tokyo
Highway 61 Revisited.
I saw Dylan live in about 1975, awesome rocking performance.
 

mdf

entering the Big Couloir
Skier
Team Gathermeister
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
7,220
Location
Boston Suburbs
I'll stick to Dylan recordings, thanks. We saw him live once -- a major disappointment.

My favorite is "Blood On the Tracks" (1975) by a mile. Honorable mention to "Love and Theft" (2001) and Desire (1976).
Joan Osborne covering Dylan is a pretty good Dylan album -- and a fantastic live show!
91IR94PzYBL._SX425_.jpg
 
Thread Starter
TS
Laurel Hill Crazie

Laurel Hill Crazie

AKA Rob Davis
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,264
Location
Keystone State
I think Nashville Skyline is Dylan at his vocal best, if there is such a thing. I caught Dylan live many times but none in the late 60s/70s. I caught the Dylan/Simon tour, what a juxtaposition of approach to their music. The thing about Dylan live is you have to drop all expectations. Many were the tunes I was listening to that took me most of the song to realize, Oh, this is Masters of War and wait a minute, did he just change the lyric to that entire verse?

As for how I get my music fix these days? Mostly Spotify but I am fortunate to have a listener supported radio station that plays just enough Boomer bait to feel comfortable and also a nod to the station's roots in the local counterculture. They play an eclectic mix of music, a format reminiscent of freeform programing of early FM days. You'll hear a lot of stuff from rap to more country inspired music that seem to be on the rise. WYEP,org for a live stream or Wyep playlist on Spotify.
 
Last edited:

Scruffy

Making fresh tracks
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 16, 2015
Posts
2,429
Location
Upstate NY
^^ Blond on Blond got me through my teenage years.

I was a huge Dylan fan from Free Wheeling up to Desire. I don't listen to him too much these days, sometimes I crank him up just for old time sakes. I've seen him in concert a half dozen times or so. What can you say, he's a legend, a living legend. The most prolific song writer ever. And definitely a voice and force of his generation, not withstanding his disdain for any label of the such.
 
Last edited:
Thread Starter
TS
Laurel Hill Crazie

Laurel Hill Crazie

AKA Rob Davis
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,264
Location
Keystone State
No wait, Blood On The Tracks .......there is that acoustic guitar and harmonica again. Nixon resigned the year before and Saigon will fall in about 3 months. This album kinda put an exclamation point at the end of an era.

@Jim Kenney. I don't know if you were a fan of that album but here is an old Sound Stage video of a well covered "Simple Twist of Fate" that I just found on You Tube. It keeps pretty true to the recording but Dylan is already changing the lyrics. Release date was 1975 but I suspect the video was made either very late that year or sometime after that because the backing band sounds more like Desire album.

 
Last edited:

Sponsor

Staff online

  • Andy Mink
    Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
Top