The Bob Dylan songs that define his greatness
A look at some of the most iconic and important songs by Bob Dylan, created for my “Writing About Music” class in July 2024.
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Bob Dylan has had a long and storied career. Starting off as a young artist looking to revive the American-folk scene from the first half of the 20th century, Dylan would go on to revolutionize a whole genre and inspire generations with his uniquely beautiful songwriting.Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Dylan released some of the most important music in recent history, and I would like to focus on ten songs in particular that I believe define Bob Dylan’s artistry. He has been my favorite artist for as long as I can remember, so narrowing it down to only ten songs was a bit difficult. I decided to go with a healthy mix of popular songs, influential songs, and personal favorites to hopefully provide a well-rounded look at the evolution of Bob Dylan and what makes him so great.
“Blowin’ In the Wind” (1963)
Dylan’s first song to gain traction is still one of his most impactful and important to American society. Serving as a soundtrack to the anti-Vietnam war and Civil Rights movement, this series of rhetorical questions about all the problems of the world is still as relevant as ever, with lyrics such as “How many deaths will it take till he knows/ that too many people have died?” and “How many times must a man look up/before he can see the sky?”. This track is rather melancholy in nature, but in a weird and interesting way, it provides people with hope.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/MMFj8uDubsE?si=mfmSbkFPQqCrdLNg
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)
Dylan’s first foray into electric music was met with harsh criticism from his fans who were upset with him for branching out from the pure folk sound. Now, this is one of his most popular songs and was just the beginning of a new era for both Dylan and rock music as a whole. This song is super fun, and as a bonus has an iconic music video to go along with it.
Official video: https://youtu.be/MGxjIBEZvx0?si=Fr3CK3pmrkU03S0q
“Like a Rolling Stone (Live)” (1966)
By the time “Like a Rolling Stone” came out on his 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan had gone fully electric and people (mainly folk purists) were not happy. While the studio version is great and his most popular for a reason, the live recording packaged as being from his show at the Royal Albert Hall during his 1966 tour is truly the definitive version of the song. The crowd was angry at Dylan for “abandoning his folk roots”, and you can clearly hear a man in the crowd yell “JUDAS” at him before he starts the song. While it doesn’t seem like it immediately, this definitely made him mad as he turns to his bandmates and says “play it fucking loud”. The performance that follows is, well, loud. Again, the studio version is great, but it’s hard for me to go back to it when I know this version is out there.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/cl2_1V7zjSs?si=1-Fh4DobBInii7Qm
“Positively 4th Street” (1965)
This is one of the most vicious, malicious, and spiteful songs that I have ever heard. There is no confirmation about who this song is about, but most people seem to think it was inspired by Andy Warhol associate Edie Sedgwick, a model who had an alleged fling with Bob (something that he still denies). Whoever it’s about, the person is someone that he no longer wants anything to do with, and he doesn’t mince words. With lyrics like “And tho I know you’re dissatisfied with your position and your place/don’t you understand, its not my problem?”, and “I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes/and just for that one moment I could be you/Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes/you’d know what a drag it is to see you” practically being yelled at us over a booming organ, Dylan makes it clear to us that this is truly a song made up of passion and vitriol.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/SsovdtBgz3Q?si=junyStrV1oqsCSGJ
“Visions of Johanna” (1966)
For a song to be praised as an artists best work of writing is one thing, but it means much more when that artist is Bob Dylan. This song has a simple concept, he misses his ex-girlfriend, the titular Johanna (likely inspired by his real life ex, singer Joan Baez), and despite being in a new relationship with a woman he calls Louise, he can’t get Johanna out of his head. Lyrics such as “the ghosts of electricity howl in the bones of her face” and the incredibly visual writing throughout the first verse make this song stand out as a special feat of writing in a discography full of special feats of writing.
Official audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwuCF5lYqEE
“I Shall Be Released” (1967)
This song exudes feelings of hope and inspiration to better oneself and to keep pushing forward when times seem dark. The chorus where Bob emphatically proclaims “I see my light come shinin’/from the west down to the east/any day now/any day now/I shall be released”. This was never released on an official album and was mostly known through the cover by The Band, my personal pick for the best cover of a Dylan song. This song brings back vivid memories of sitting around a campfire as a kid with my dad, which just makes me enjoy it that much more.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/bz-QBZeEAtY?si=LlbwNxHm7Chf2k8P
The Band’s cover: https://youtu.be/bpiXfumGf9k?si=JvkFIQSAlII1Juvc
“Girl from the North Country” (1969)
Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline saw him venture into the world of country music for the first time, something that could have gone horribly wrong but ended up being one of his best projects. The first song, “Girl from the North Country” is a country-style redoing of an earlier song he recorded from his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and to help him make the genre transition as smooth as possible he enlisted the help of the legendary country artist Johnny Cash. Bob’s voice sounds different on this song, he strays away from his trademark raspy/shouty style and switches to something much more calm. That’s how I would describe this song in a word: calm. Johnny and Bob make for a great duo and thankfully we got to hear more from the two of them on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/Je4Eg77YSSA?si=UUk5x9C75B0jbWh9
“Tangled Up In Blue” (1975)
Simply a beautiful song that tells a story of two lovers who lose touch, reunite, and then ultimately come crashing down. The way this narrative is constructed shows Bob’s skill at writing from different points of view and telling a straightforward story while doing so. He keeps his trademark metaphors and wordplay throughout, but he is definitely flexing a writing muscle that he does not often show. This six-minute long song tells a story more beautiful and concise than a lot of books I’ve read have done, and I think that is extremely impressive.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/QKcNyMBw818?si=DUEFTRLF6H_2c1l4
Acoustic version: https://youtu.be/zrHlyK4Y0hI?si=X1wmrQSb9Q00C0ob
“Buckets of Rain” (1975)
To end this off, I wanted to look at what is my personal favorite Dylan song, “Buckets of Rain”. This is a very low-key, quiet song that seems quite simple, and it is. It’s simplicity is what makes it so good in my opinion. There aren’t any crazy lyrics that people need to overanalyze and debate the true meaning of, it is a rather straightforward song where a man expresses his adoration for his lover across five short and very to-the-point verses. The last verse sees Bob lamenting on how life is rough and can become quite doldrum, but because he has this girl in his life he is content.
“Life is sad, life is a bust/all you can do is do what you must/you do what you must do, and you do it well/I do it for you, honey, baby, can’t you tell?”
Beautiful song that showcases a very raw side of Dylan, something that we don’t get to see very much, not to this extent at least.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/jGsOmKZXDvo?si=HKEhVeNoLHbqCM4D: Music & Culture
Geese: The Future of Contemporary Rock
This review of an opening set performed by the band Geese was written for my “Writing About Music” class in Journalism school in August 2024. I briefly touch on the bands history, a track-by-track breakdown of the set, and what I thought could be next for them. Check it out!
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Officially forming in 2016 while the five original band members were just starting high school, Geese have gone on to release two full length albums that have received critical acclaim across the board. I became a fan of them and their different style back in 2021 when I heard their debut album Projector. This project blends the classic New York punk-style akin to bands such as The Stooges and the New York Dolls with an almost 90s grunge-esque sound with a chunky guitar and sometimes unintelligible lyrics to create a psych-rock sound that is both unique and nostalgic.As the names may suggest, 3D Country and 4D Country take on a more country style than the psych rock chaos of Projector. 3D Country was reviewed very positively and shows even more diversity with the band than previously thought. While keeping that New York sound that fueled Projector, the band leans more into an old school country/southern rock sound from the 1960s and 70s largely thanks to the lead singer Cameron Winter and the guitarist Emily Green. The performances on this album from beginning to end are vibrant and passionate which helps each song stand out significantly from each other and really stick with you. The youthful energy Geese bring to their music was only turned up on this project, and it serves as a very fun breath of fresh air in a during a time where this genre can become stale.
Although I have been a fan of Geese for a good few years now and have looked forward to seeing how they can continue to grow as they develop their style more and more, I’ve never seen or heard anything from them live, a huge misstep on my part as they apparently released a live album in late June that completely flew under my radar. So when I was perusing the website nugs.net for a concert livestream, I was excited to see that the Geese set from their show with King Gizzard on August 21st was posted. I didn’t fully know what to expect, but I was excited to find out.
They start the set with an unreleased song titled “Islands of Men”, a song that has no official recording to compare it to, but one I enjoyed thoroughly. Again, there’s no “finished” product to look at, but I really enjoyed the loose structure of this song. The repetitive guitar lick that crescendos and decrescendos seemingly at random throughout kept me on my toes as it gives the listener no sense of build up towards a climax or chorus. It sounds like a sort of melancholy warm up exercise for everyone in the band. The crowd was loving it and was responsive to the interactions that Winter would facilitate between songs. Great start to the show.
The next song “Space Race” is one I was really excited to hear the bands take on live. This is a weird song from the 4D Country EP, a great song but a weird song. It uses lots of vocal manipulation to make the singer sound unnaturally low, something that they did not elect to do for this performance. Hearing a more raw and stripped back version of one of their more “overproduced” songs showed me just how much talent Winter has on the mic.
The next two songs “Mysterious Love” and “Cowboy Nudes” bring more emotion out of the band, as the subject matter to these is less out there than the past three. They don’t stray too far from how they sound on the official recordings, and even though that might seem like a negative point considering how much I have loved the spontaneity and creative liberties they have taken with their songs up to this point, I thought it was a nice change of pace despite being sort of unremarkable in the grand scheme of this short set.
“2122” was probably my favorite one here. This is totally different from the studio version, taking a slightly faster and more heavy approach to the instrumentation. The instrumentation is so tight that the chaotic vocals somehow take a backseat to it. There’s a fun break around two minutes in where they play the intro riff from the song “YYZ” by the great prog rock band Rush (a fun nod to the crowd, as this show was in Canada, the motherland of Rush). This one really showcases the bands ability to have fun and be wild, while still performing their hearts out.
The closing track, the titular song from 3D Country, was amazing. An eight minute and thirty second performance where they left it all out there. Everyone on this song killed it and showcased their skill on a level that no other previous song really allowed. This has been one of my favorite songs by them since it was released, and this version left me stunned. I don’t know if I can go back to the studio version knowing that this is out there. A great end to a great set.
Despite only being 31 minutes, Geese managed to pack a lot into this performance. Featuring different takes on their songs, fun crowd interactions, an unreleased song they have been teasing for a couple of months now, and an overall great energy, this performance made me an even bigger fan of them and I hope to be able to see them in person one day. I truly believe that alongside bands such as Black Country, New Road and black midi, Geese are the future of rock music and can only go up from here.
: Music & Culture
Desert Island Disc: Brian Eno’s “Another Green World”
Answering the prompt, “what would your desert island album be, and why?”, written July 2024 for “Writing About Music”.
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“Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.“ – Brian Eno, liner notes of Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978).This quote from the man who coined the term “ambient music” back in the 70s, Brian Eno, has not left my brain since I first heard it. Ambient music is one of my favorite genres of music, and this Eno quote sort of represents why. Ambient music is designed to make you think; in my opinion, its purpose is offering a nice soundtrack for a period of personal introspection. Others have come close, but no one has replicated this feeling through music quite like Eno has.
Another Green World is an album that serves as a transitional period between art-rock Eno and a full on ambient music Eno. His previous two albums had embraced the art rock scene that was being populated by acts such as David Bowie, Genesis, the recently defunct Velvet Underground and the solo artists to come from them, and many more. Another Green World went in a different direction however, one where Eno was exploring how our environment and the world around us impacts the music we listen to. The music took center stage on this album, with only five of the fourteen songs having any vocals on them. While not fully explored quite yet, Eno had found his sound and his style that he would focus in on for most of his career to this day.
It’s hard to pinpoint the first time I heard Another Green World. It sort of existed in the background of my early childhood via my dad playing it in the background seemingly all the time. I have memories of hearing this while camping with my dad, driving around with my dad, hearing it play from his office while he worked, and while he may not have known it, I was listening. Something new would stand out to me every time. Whether that be the unique instruments used and the unique sounds Eno manages to get out of them, or realizing that songs like “In Dark Trees” “Sombre Reptiles” and the titular “Another Green World” are just the same melody repeating over and over again for around two minutes but were still able to grab my attention, I would always come away from this album with a different experience.
The memories I hold closest to my personal relationship with Another Green World are the ones from camping with my dad, as I alluded to earlier. Every summer my dad and I would go camping together as often as we could, and every time we went this album would play. Even still when I listen to it I am taken back to a campfire and can see my dad sitting across from me, taking in both the crackle of the fire and the calming beauty of the music. It provided such a particular experience, one that even an seven year old version of me could appreciate. My dad and I sort of exist in a mutually agreed upon non-awkward silence when we’re together for one reason or another, and this album would fill that silence in a very reaffirming way. Lots of music was played while camping during moments like this, but none of it stuck with me like Another Green World
The song that has stuck with me the most is the sixth track on the album “I’ll Come Running”, one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard to this day. Originally, I thought this song was, to use the phrase I most likely used as an annoying little kid, “super dumb”. I mean, he spends a great deal of the runtime just repeating the lines “I’ll come running to tie your shoe, I’ll come running to tie your shoe” which, to give a younger me some credit, does sound super dumb on a first listen. My opinion of this song changed however when my dad and I took my friend Parker on a camping trip. Nighttime came and we were sitting around the fire so naturally Another Green World was serving as our soundtrack. I was goofing around with Parker, not really fully taking in the album in silence like I usually would when “I’ll Come Running” came on. I made a point to tell Parker my thoughts on this meaningless song about tying somebodies shoe, but he didn’t seem to hear me. The song starts out with a piano playing a couple runs that sound both random and extremely precise at the same time, and that must have pulled him in. Noticing him and his attentiveness to the song, I decided to shut up and let him listen, which in turn led to me listening, really listening. That was when I heard these lyrics:
“I’ll find a place somewhere in the corner
I’m gonna waste the rest of my days
Just watching patiently from the window
Just waiting seasons change, some day
Oh, oh, my dreams will pull you through that garden gate.
I want to be the wandering sailor
We’re silhouettes by the light of the moon
I sit playing solitaire by the window
Just waiting seasons change, ah, ah
You’ll see, one day, these dreams will pull you through my door
And I’ll come running to tie your shoe”
Isn’t that beautiful?
The picture that Eno paints with the lyrics of the song is only able to be fully realized with the help of Robert Fripp on guitar. His solo after the first “I’ll come running to tie your shoes” refrain is some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. Fripps signature chunky yet smooth guitar tone compliments the entire album. The song “St. Elmo’s Fire” shows that Fripp’s tone can fit over any soundscape. Overscoring a chugging synth pattern that makes me feel like I’m traveling across a beautiful countryside, Fripp’s playing feels almost random and unintentional. Random peaks and quick jittery ascensions come together to create a beautiful soundscape.
“The Big Ship” is a song that follows Eno’s law of “it must be as ignorable as it is interesting”. This song is one that upon first listen sort of blends in with the rest of the tracks. A beautiful melody, but that can be said for every song on this album. What makes this one special is how it builds on itself, adding a new melody and instruments every eight bars or so and with each one transforming the entire feel of the song. It’s subtle, but if you allow it to command enough of your attention, it will make you feel something. I guarantee it.
There are so many beautiful instrumentals throughout that each have their place on the album. “Over Fire Island” is a groovy yet very airy and sort of uncomfortable sounding song that leads into the previously mentioned “St. Elmo’s Fire”. “Becalmed” is as the title implies, quite calming. “Spirits Drifting” which closes the album, provides an atmospheric, almost scary sound that catches you off guard. All of these quick instrumental songs may not seem like much at face value, but they come together to make an experience like no other.
Another Green World is an album that has lived with me for as long as I remember. I have spent countless hours biking or walking around with this album running through my headphones and reflecting on whatever is on my mind. It helps me think clearly, it calms me down when feeling overwhelmed, and it takes me back to a simpler time in life. If I found myself on a deserted island with only the essentials for survival and this album, I think I’d be ok. Much of Brian Eno’s music has a similar effect on me, but none have been as impactful as Another Green World
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A Review of Clairo’s Charm (2024)
A review of, at the time, a recent album for “Writing About Music”, written in July, 2024.
Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City: Style over Substance?
An project I did for “Storytelling and Reporting”, a course from journalism school. A review of the then recent film “Asteroid City”.
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Asteroid City, released June 23rd, 2023, is the newest film from the popular and acclaimed director Wes Anderson. As per usual with his films, the reception has been mostly positive, but one complaint that Anderson seems unable to avoid with his movies has followed him with this most recent outing.The critique of “style over substance” gets brought up quite often when discussing Anderson’s filmography due to his whimsical and unique filmmaking techniques but somewhat weak character writing and dialogue that is seemingly more focused on being quirky than being realistic. For some people that is exactly what they are looking for, but I and many others feel different.
Asteroid City is a film that has lots of great parts and interesting ideas with potential, but gets in its own way of full realizing these ideas. It spends its time musing on extremely half-baked nihilistic philosophies instead of progressing its lackluster story. The main story and conflict actually had lots of potential I thought, but the film would rather focus on its characters who, to put it simply, were bad.
I found myself becoming less and less invested in the characters as the story progressed, and that was largely due to the static relationships between all of them. I asked fellow student and enjoyer of film Christian Powell what he thought about the characters, and he agreed with me saying “[…]the character interactions were cool but I felt no growth in the relationships between anyone. It felt so stagnant to the point it was annoying”.
Going off of the point of the characters and their relationships, I want to talk about the dialogue and how its style makes it impossible for the audience to connect to (or care about) anything a character is saying. Anderson has a habit of making his characters deliver their lines in a very monotone, fast paced way to the point where they are almost talking over each other. This can be very effective under the right tone and circumstances, but when a story is trying to make me feel attached to their characters and the story surrounding them, the characters need to be likable and have notable traits, lots of these characters feel exactly the same.
Now, even though I didn’t enjoy this film much, I would be wrong to say that it wasn’t fun to look at. I have seen a good amount of Anderson’s more stylistic and flashy movies, and in terms of that this film trumps them all. The gentle and warm color palette mixed with the busyness and detail on every wall or room helped to keep me engaged and intrigued when the characters couldn’t.
Despite my thoughts on the movie, it has definitely made an impact on several people. I talked to Jake Padgham, a huge Wes Anderson fan, who said “Asteroid City is the most effective depiction of the complete compartmentalization of American society I have ever seen”. While I myself can’t see this, I am glad that it has made a lasting impact with some.
In short, I enjoyed looking at this film, but that is about it. Wes Anderson seemingly will never escape the criticism of “style over substance” from the masses and he seems to be okay with that. I enjoy a great deal of his earlier works and for those, would argue against that criticism, but for Asteroid City, I believe it is completely warranted.: Music & Culture
