Bob Dylan: Favorite songs from every album (INDEX TO THE 77 SELECTIONS)

by JAY LUSTIG
bob dylan favorite songs index

BOB DYLAN

For the past two and a half months, I have been sharing a song from each Bob Dylan album, daily, on Facebook, and compiling them on NJArts.net. Now that I am done, I have put together this index of all of them, with links (click, below, on the red “The ’60s,” “The ’70s” and so on) for those interested in reading the entries and seeing the videos for a song or songs.

As I’ve done before in one-song-per-album series for Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Stevie Wonder, I’ve given myself some leeway and included tracks from some but not all compilations, live albums, soundtracks, side projects and so on.

I also want to include the caveat that I’m not arguing that each selection is the “best” song from that project; it’s just my favorite. I also didn’t allow myself to choose a song twice. So if I had had already chosen a song, it was out of contention if it reappeared in the same or different form on another album. (Or else there would have been five versions of “Isis” on this list; for any album that “Isis” is on, it’s pretty much my favorite.)

In case you are wondering, there are 77 entries in this series. By decades, the ’70s has the most (17).
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“BLONDE ON BLONDE”

The ’60s

Bob Dylan (1962): “Song to Woody”
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963): “A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall”
The Times They Are a-Changin’ (1964): “The Times They Are a-Changin’ ”
Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964): “It Ain’t Me Babe”
Bringing It All Back Home (1965): “Mr. Tambourine Man”
Highway 61 Revisited (1965): “Like a Rolling Stone”
Blonde on Blonde (1966): “Visions of Johanna”
Greatest Hits (1967): “Positively 4th Street”
John Wesley Harding (1967): “All Along the Watchtower”
Nashville Skyline (1969): “I Threw It All Away”

The ’70s

“BLOOD ON THE TRACKS”

Self Portrait (1970): “The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)”
New Morning (1970): “Father of Night”
Greatest Hits, Vol. II (1971): “When I Paint My Masterpiece”
The Concert for Bangladesh, Various Artists (1971): “Just Like a Woman”
A Tribute to Woody Guthrie, Various Artists (1972): “I Ain’t Got No Home”
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack (1973): “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
Dylan (1973): “Sarah Jane”
Planet Waves (1974): “Never Say Goodbye”
Before the Flood, Bob Dylan & the Band (1974): “Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine”
Blood on the Tracks (1975): “Tangled Up in Blue”
The Basement Tapes, Bob Dylan & the Band (1975): “Tears of Rage”
Desire (1976): “Isis”
Hard Rain (1976): “You’re a Big Girl Now”
The Last Waltz, The Band and Various Artists (1978): “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”
Street Legal (1978): “Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)
Bob Dylan at Budokan (1979): “I Want You”
Slow Train Coming (1979): “I Believe in You”

“THE TRAVELING WILBURYS, VOL. 1.”

The ’80s

Saved (1980): “In the Garden”
Shot of Love (1981): “Every Grain of Sand”
Infidels (1983):  “Jokerman”
Real Live (1984): “I and I”
Empire Burlesque (1985): “Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)”
Biograph (1985): “Abandoned Love”
Knocked out Loaded (1986): “Brownsville Girl”
Hearts of Fire, Various Artists (soundtrack) (1987): “The Usual”
Down in the Groove (1988): “Death Is Not the End”
The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1, The Traveling Wilburys (1988): “Tweeter and the Monkey Man”
Dylan and the Dead, Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead (1989): “Slow Train”
Oh Mercy (1989): “Everything Is Broken”

“TIME OUT OF MIND”

The ’90s

Under the Red Sky (1990): “Born in Time”
The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3, The Traveling Wilburys (1990): “If You Belonged to Me”
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 (1991): “Blind Willie McTell”
Good As I Been to You (1992): “You’re Gonna Quit Me”
The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, Bob Dylan and Various Artists (1993): “My Back Pages”
World Gone Wrong (1993): “Blood in My Eyes”
Natural Born Killers, Various Artists (soundtrack) (1994): “You Belong to Me”
Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (1994): “Dignity”
Till the Night Is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus, Various Artists (1995): “Boogie Woogie Country Girl”
MTV Unplugged (1995): “Tombstone Blues”
Time Out of Mind (1997): “Not Dark Yet”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The ‘Royal Albert Hall’ Concert (1998): “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.”

The ’00s

” ‘LOVE AND THEFT’ “

Wonder Boys, Various Artists (soundtrack) (2000): “Things Have Changed”
“Love and Theft” (2001): “Summer Days”
Good Rockin’ Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records, Various Artists (2001): “Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue (2002): “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”
Gods and Generals, Various Artists (soundtrack) (2003): ” ‘Cross the Green Mountain”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall (2004): “If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got to Stay All Night)”
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (2005): “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”
Modern Times (2006): “Thunder on the Mountain”
I’m Not There, Various Artists (2007): “I’m Not There”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 (2008): “Red River Shore”
Together Through Life (2009): “If You Ever Go to Houston”
Christmas in the Heart (2009): “Must Be Santa”

“ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS”

The ’10s and Beyond

The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (2010): “Long Ago, Far Away”
In Concert: Brandeis University, 1963 (2011): “Masters of War”
Tempest (2012): “Duquesne Whistle”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (2013): “Time Passes Slowly #2”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete (2014): “Big River”
Shadows in the Night (2015): “Why Try to Change Me Now”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 (2015): “Pledging My Time”
Fallen Angels (2016): “Melancholy Mood”
Triplicate (2017): “When the World Was Young”
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 13: Trouble No More, 1979-1981 (2017): “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking”
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks (2018): “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”
Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings (2019): “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”
The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969 (2019): “Ring of Fire”
Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020): “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You”
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2 comments

M Powers July 16, 2021 - 9:14 am

No such album as All Along the Watchtower. It was called John Wesley Harding.

Reply
njartsdaily@gmail.com July 16, 2021 - 9:15 am

Thanks, I’ll fix

Reply

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