Title says it all 
Forever Young is pretty gorgeous. And Blowin in the Wind.
I can’t stand his singing but his lyrics are great–I just like them covered by other people!
The entire album Blond on Blond. The entire album Blood On The Tracks. Almost all of Highway 61 Revisited. Lot’s more…
Are you looking for people to quote specific lines? I can if that’s what you want.
How about this my favorite verse from my favorite Dylan song, “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” off Bring It All Back Home
Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who’s rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.
Full Lyrics on Bob Dylan.com for context of why this vese is so powerful
Mr. Tambourine Man
Anyone who denies the lyrical power of Hurricane wants their ears perforating with skewers.
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, I’m really not sure.
Cops said, a poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and were talkin to your friend Bello
Now you dont wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
Youll be doin society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He aint no gentleman Jim.
Yes, but Dylan’s line-reading of this is an offense to all that is holy.
Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.
-My Back Pages
One more and then I will back off and let other post:
From Tangled up in Blue (The whole song is great and I had trouble picking just one bit to quote)
She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess,
But I used a little too much force.
Again, this is a story song so you need the whole context. But the phasing, the structure (of the whole song) and the ability to say so much about their whole relationship with just those few words is mind blowing.
The real question is, which ones aren’t?:rolleyes:
Some people are not supposed to “get” Dylan. It’s okay. Like he wrote…
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him.
And he’s still got it, as evinced by Working man’s blues #2
Lyrically, one of the best songs ever.
He has written dozens of masterpieces. Which of his classic songs do you think have bad lyrics? A question like the OPs could only be written to provoke.
No single artist has been covered more than Bob Dylan. No songwriter in the modern era has been more influential.
I was going to try to find the best verse of Desolation Row as my example but it was impossible. Just read the whole thing.
I doubt I’d read Bob’s lyrics if they were published as poetry, without musical accompaniment. (I really almost no poetry.) But as lyrics, he comes up with more good lines than anyone else.
The sparse scene setting of Shelter From The Storm:
It was in another lifetime,
One of toil and blood,
When blackness was a virtue,
The road was filled with mud.
He’s also a very funny writer. Try Talkin’ World War III Blues for example.
I rode down 42nd Street
In my Cadillac
Good car to drive
After a war.
And (literally) on the other side of the album comes the other way to see the after the war world, as a nightmare, not a funny dream, in A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall. How many writers have that much range on one album?
There are a couple of bad Dylan songs. Joey sucks. But not that many.
So many, but I like these two best:
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.
God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61.”
Here’s what I wrote about (the lyrics to) Blowin’ in the Wind. Obviously, we differ on what constitutes a great lyric.
Dylan did indeed write many good lyrics, but he wrote just as many that were pretentious, portentious crap, as well as a ton that were meaningless wordplay, which has always been enough to get a majority of listeners to confuse it with depth or poetry. The guy was gnomic, for sure, but for that kind of thing I’ll take the first 10 years of Elvis Costello.
Yes. He could’ve just said, “I don’t think Bob Dylan’s lyrics are good.” Well, fine. If that’s the case, then why do you want people to tell you lyrics they think are good, when you obviously have concluded otherwise? It’s called attention-whoring.
I’ll just cite my username with a plug for “lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” Brilliant song…
so, so many great ones. many of faves already mentioned in this thread.
I think the lyrics to “Idiot Wind” are some of the most biting, vicious, brilliant ever written.
As others have said, there’s too many to list, but Shelter from the Storm is one of my favorites. Every verse is great, IMO, so here’s one:
Suddenly I turned around and she was standin’ there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair.
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns.
“Come in,” she said,
“I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”