57 thoughts on “Knocking on heaven’s door: Bob Dylan is 70 today”

  1. And he ruined our trip to Scotland a few years ago. (But I do have all his early stuff)

  3. ^ Was just going to say. Blood on the Tracks might actually be my favourite Dylan record.

    2. Blood on the Tracks is a great album. It was the first Dylan album I got into to…

  4. “Of course, he hasn’t had a good album since 1969.”

    This the most blasphemous post yet.

  5. I always felt that the best way to listen to most of Dylan’s music was to listen to versions done by others. He seemed to me tobe one of those people who was better when interpreted by others.

    1. Couldn’t disagree more but would say that alternate versions of his own songs by him often can be stunning (e.g. “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” from the Rolling Thunder tour)

    2. A bunch of my favorite Grateful Dead songs are Dylan covers. Truly a shame that it didn’t work out when they toured together.

  6. He is a bit goddish, & although he has written some good songs I think he is not as good at performing them as other people…

        1. And any of the Byrds cover versions. I had no idea some of those songs had melodies, much less harmonies.

          2. That was truly and utterly awful.

            The only consolation is that YouTube offers up next Katie Melua’s terrific tremolo.

    2. Dude, not cool. I may not know much about Dylan’s discography, but I do know that Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde, and Blood on the Tracks are better than Desire and that it’s not close.

  8. I agree with Chuck, Matt and Frank. Blood on the Tracks is my favorite, followed by the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack. But I’m part of the generation after he went electric so I would feel differently.

  9. Inclined to agree with the 1969 bit. Blood on the Tracks would have been a good album if it was made by anyone else, but it’s not anywhere close to the 1960’s albums. “Blood on the Tracks was a definitely a local adaptive peak!” is a great way of putting it.

    I also disagree with the folks who think other people do Dylan songs better than Dylan does. There’s a part in Don’t Look Back when a critic or journalist is comparing him disfavorably to Caruso and Dylan says, “I’m just as good as Caruso. You have to listen closely, but I hit all those notes.” He was doing something different with the vocals than what other musicians do, and like other artists with unconventional vocal styles (think Neil Young or Getty Lee) there’s stark disagreement about how well it actually works. In Dylan’s case, I think what he was doing with the vocals was incredible.

    1. Perhaps I am being harsh – he hits the notes but with a lot of others in between! Well, he sort of slides & slurs & dwells on words. But he is not all bad – I am teasing you!

      1. Oh, I understand what you’re coming from. Took me a very long while to get into him. It was the “Judas!” electric set that finally pushed me over into being a pretty big Dylan fan. Blonde on Blonde was a big part of it too.

    3. I would say he’s one of the worst vocalists out there, no breath control, thought in phrasing, poor pitch, BUT!, also one of my favorites. Don’t know why. Dylan songs must be done by Dylan. The songs are just too entwined into his singing style for anyone else to make them sound natural.

      1. Yeah, basically the same reason why when you say “Jimmy Page” people think “guitar god” and when you say “Yngwie Malmsteen” people think “who?” Compare them in terms of pure musicianship and Malmsteen blows Page out of the water, but that doesn’t seem to carry over to the quality of the music.

      3. Oh, and: I got to know Dylan by way of Joan Baez. He may have been the poet of the age, and well deserved, but there’s absolutely no contest on whose voice is better!! 🙂

        Case in point: Boots of Spanish Leather on Baez Sings Dylan – Her range is just stunning, right in the first couple of lines.

        … Too bad this movie is the only time she sang Percy’s Song. The circumstances here surely didn’t help.

    1. Listened to Blonde on Blonde on the way to work this morning to honor the day. Great work.

  12. I can’t imagine my life without Dylan – he was the poet of our age, a genius who took all his influences, and through his Muse, created a whole genre. Interpersonally, he would have been a nightmare, however, as a talisman, I loved him.

  13. he hasn’t had a good album since 1969

    Wrong answer, man.
    It would still be wrong if you said “great album”.
    In addition to the stone classics mentioned above from 75-76, Infidels is a great album, imo, and that was 1983!
    I ignored the xmas record, but otherwise even all of his 21st-Century releases are “good albums”. Imo.

    I have no patience for Dylan-haters. You’re welcome to your opinion, but-heh-it’s wrong.

    Happy Birthday, Bob!

  16. Jerry, this is proof you are the devil just like all the Christers say.

    Dylan’s last four non-yuletide albums have been good. Also Blood on the Tracks and Desire, as others have mentioned.

  17. There were three male singers in the 20th century who basically defined pop vocal stylings…i.e., everyone else sounded like an extension of one or the other of these guys. Armstrong. Sinatra. Dylan. None of them had a particularly “good” singing voice, but they set the standards everyone else followed whether they wanted to or not.

    Many of the opinions here about His Bobness prove the adage about assholes and opinions. Everyone has one, and most of them stink. Not mine, of course. Nothing but lavender and rosewater.

  21. George Gershwin was a trial-and-error songwriter who was known to write seven or eight bad songs to get one good one. The difference is that Gershwin threw the bad songs in the trash can and only let the good ones out into the world.

    1. Some time ago, I met a guy who called himself Snax – his real name was Rick Jaeger – who was a drummer, and had played on recording sessions with a number of high-powered names, including Dave Mason, Paul McCartney, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Harvey Mandel and, yes, Bob Dylan. One thing Snax mentioned about Dylan is that he never rehearsed in studio – he’d run through the song once then do a take. This is why he often sounded more polished live: by the time his band hit the stage, they had more practice than when they recorded.

      http://tinyurl.com/3gplkhg

      http://tinyurl.com/3oyg6lf

  22. Blood on the Tracks is equal to anything else he did earlier. IMHO. We can have this one place to disagree, I suppose. Sigh. Another icon (you), deflated.

    just kidding.

  23. “My god’s better than your god.”

    “My Dylan’s better than your Dylan.”

    Same difference, different denominations.

      1. It’s still a disagreement in doctrine, albeit between two different categories of faithful.

        You may be able to prove he exists, but I’ve heard proof that he didn’t have a voice.

  24. Another vote for:
    Blood On the Tracks

    My favorite Dylan album.

    Tangled Up In Blue? Maybe his best song.

  25. If you stopped listing to Dylan after 1969 just be because you were hung up on the notion that he was a ‘folk singer’ then you have been missing out on a huge wealth of work. He keeps on putting out some of the greatest work there is. “Time Out of Mind” and “Modern Times” are amongst his greatest.

  26. Saw Dylan live for the first time in 2009 in a small hockey arena in Oshawa. He was fantastic and had an amazing band. If you want to hear a great musician then I highly recommend him but if you want to see Dylan circa ’65 then you should buy yourself a time machine because that Dylan don’t get ’round much anymore.

    The only problem I have with Dylan is that he broke up the Hot Club of Cowtown by recruiting their fiddle player into his band.

    Happy B-day Bob!

    Cheers!

  27. Of course, he hasn’t had a good album since 1969. And he was mean to Joan Baez…
    …and a great fake, who never meant or has lived up for anything he wrote about
    …and rents out his songs to sell lingerie, ice cream, laundry soap,
    …left his heart behind in Minnesota way long ago, and gets by with something made of stone, these days (but lately he’s been complaining even that’s too soft for him
    …and is given to anointing his betters as his heirs, and shuts up only when they ask him to STFU
    …will always be the faketivist who wrote well
    …will never be anything close to the real thing – not Bruce the Boss (NO, Mr.Iacocca, I won’t let you use “Born in the USA” to sell your cars)

    And although the fake went around hamming “I know Woody,” we the fans say, “Bob, we know Woody Guthrie. He was a friend of ours, of all the common and good folk. You Mr.Zimmerman are no Woody Guthrie.”

    Bob Dylan with all he has written hasn’t come close to ever producing a zinger like this copyright notice from Woody, for “This land…”

    <<>>

  28. Of course, he hasn’t had a good album since 1969. And he was mean to Joan Baez…
    …and a great fake, who never meant or has lived up for anything he wrote about
    …and rents out his songs to sell lingerie, ice cream, laundry soap,
    …left his heart behind in Minnesota way long ago, and gets by with something made of stone, these days (but lately he’s been complaining even that’s too soft for him
    …and is given to anointing his betters as his heirs, and shuts up only when they ask him to STFU
    …will always be the faketivist who wrote well
    …will never be anything close to the real thing – not Bruce the Boss (NO, Mr.Iacocca, I won’t let you use “Born in the USA” to sell your cars)

    And although the fake went around hamming “I know Woody,” we the fans say, “Bob, we know Woody Guthrie. He was a friend of ours, of all the common and good folk. You Mr.Zimmerman are no Woody Guthrie.”

    Bob Dylan with all he has written hasn’t come close to ever producing a zinger like this copyright notice from Woody, for “This land…”

    This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”

Comments are closed.