# Which of Bob Dylan's lyrics are actually good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724 "2009-01-23T22:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/21 "2009-01-24T01:38:06Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There are a couple of bad Dylan songs. **Joey** sucks. Note that, like most of the _Desire_ songs, “Joey” has lyrics co-written by Jacques Levy, so it’s not strictly a Dylan lyric. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/22 "2009-01-24T01:49:59Z")
[With God on Our Side:](http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/god-our-side) Oh the history books tell it They tell it so well The cavalries charged The Indians fell The cavalries charged The Indians died Oh the country was young With God on its side. But now we got weapons Of the chemical dust If fire them we’re forced to Then fire them we must One push of the button And a shot the world wide And you never ask questions When God’s on your side. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/23 "2009-01-24T01:51:22Z")
I’m not going to thread crap and you can count me in with the “doesn’t get” crowd but still I can acknowledge greatness when I see it. From memory, Dylan’s **Don’t Think Twice - It’s Alright** reaches the sublime with: _I once loved a woman, a child I’m told, I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul._ The whole song is great but those lines stand out. That is when it’s sung by anyone but…NO, I’m not going down this path. Out. ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/24 "2009-01-24T02:38:59Z")
I guess I’ve been exposed to the wrong subset of his songs previously. A lot of this is quite good. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/25 "2009-01-24T02:59:27Z")
> [@Mixolydian](#): > > Some people are not supposed to “get” Dylan. It’s okay. Like he wrote… _I got a friend who spends his life Stabbin’ my picture with a Bowie knife, Dreams of stranglin’ me with his scarf, When my name comes up he pretends to barf. – I got a million friends!_ (“I Shall Be Free No. 10”) My personal favorite Dylan song (right now) is [Ballad Of A Thin Man](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kw_8pBW09M) (link to a live version of the song). It has so much fantastic lyrical imagery, bordering on (or crossing into) surrealistic nonsense, yet repeating a contemptuous, snarled and increasingly hostile refrain (to a slow, almost dirgelike blues beat) about a bewildered “Mr. Jones” who continues not to understand what it all means. In a way, it’s an excellent metaphor for life in turbulent times. \*You raise up your head, and you ask, “Is this where it is?” And somebody points to you and says, “It’s his!” And you say, “What’s mine?” And somebody else says, “Where what is?” And you say, “Oh my God, am I here all alone?” But something is happening, and you don’t know what it is… Do you, Mister Jones? … Now you see this one-eyed midget, shouting the word “Now!” And you say, “For what reason?”, and he says, “How?” And you say, “What does this mean?”, And he screams back, “You’re a cow! Give me some milk, or else go home!” And you KNOW something is happening, But you don’t know what it is… Do you, Mister Jones?\* ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/26 "2009-01-24T03:01:19Z")
Oh God said to abraham kill me a son Abe said man you must be puttin me on God said no, abe said what God say you can do what you want but… The next time you see me comin you better run Well abe said where do you want this killin done God said out on highway 61 ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/27 "2009-01-24T03:07:47Z")
How good ,how good does it feel to be free I answer quite mysteriously ,are the birds free from the chains of the skyway ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/28 "2009-01-24T03:12:06Z")
[QUOTE=Associated press] Dylan, the most acclaimed and influential songwriter of the past half century, who more than anyone brought rock from the streets to the lecture hall, received an honorary Pulitzer Prize on Monday, cited for his “profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” It was the first time Pulitzer judges, who have long favored classical music, and, more recently, jazz, awarded an art form once dismissed as barbaric, even subversive. [/QUOTE] From here: [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000483/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000483/) He has also been nominated for the Nobel Prize many times. So I think it is safe to say if you don’t like the guy’s music your taste is for shit. That or you are under 30… ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/29 "2009-01-24T03:13:31Z")
[The Official Bob Dylan Site](http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/hard-rains-gonna-fall) Hard rains gonna fall lyrics from a site that has them all . ---
**Author:** ![Tabula\_Rasa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/30 "2009-01-24T03:18:19Z")
A self-ordained professor’s tongue Too serious to fool Spouted out that liberty Is just equality in school “Equality,” I spoke the word As if a wedding vow. Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. He was 23 when he wrote that. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/31 "2009-01-24T03:31:09Z")
[ETA: I see **askeptic** mentioned _Highway 61 Revisited_ while I was editing this posting … great minds think alike, and random minds sometimes do too, I guess!] I’ve decided my favorite Dylan album (even more so than _Blonde On Blonde_) is _Highway 61 Revisited_. Both albums are just about perfect from beginning to end, and it’s simply astounding to me that he made both albums in _the same calendar year_. The songs have great hooks and manage to have elements of lyrical beauty yet also sardonic, even black humor – all things I greatly enjoy and that are hard to combine well. [Highway 61 Revisited](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqX4a9eS-Nc) (the song itself) kicks off with him blowing a “siren whistle” (that “wheeeee!” whistling sound a la _The Three Stooges_), of all things, and the following funny yet bitingly satirical lyrics: _God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son!” Abe said, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on.” God said, “No”, and Abe said “What?!” God said, “You can do what you want to, but The next time you see me comin’, you better run!” So Abe said, “Where d’you want this killing done?” And God said, “Out on Highway 61!”_ Is “Highway 61” a metaphor for 20th Century America, which in the mid-1960s was seeing its first generation grow up in the post-war era of Interstates and Highways? Is this a biting attack on the very core of all Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – how incredible is it that an Almighty God is good when his original covenant with Abraham is based on getting him to accede to human sacrifice of his only child to prove his obedience? Or is it all, as indicated by that incredibly silly whistle, just Dylan having fun pulling beards? Especially when the lyrics get progressively more surreal! \* Now the Rovin’ Gambler, he was very bored Tryin’ to create a next World War He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor, He said, “I never engaged in this kind of thing before – But yes, I think it can be very easily done… We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun, And have it on Highway 61!” \* Is that some kind of clever commentary on how some Cold War hawks seemed to treat the prospect of war as a game, even a sports event of sorts? Is the phrase “bleachers in the sun” evoking both a high school football game, and bones bleached bare in a desert sun? Or – there’s that silly whistle again – is Dylan just having fun with people who take him, his lyrics and life in general wayyy too seriously? ---
**Author:** ![bobthebuilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobthebuilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobthebuilder)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/32 "2009-01-24T03:33:41Z")
> [@askeptic](#): > > From here: [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000483/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000483/) > > He has also been nominated for the Nobel Prize many times. > > So I think it is safe to say if you don’t like the guy’s music your taste is for shit. That or you are under 30… hey dont insult us younguns, some of us have good taste. Some of Dylan’s work is amazing. Most of it actually. He is not a technically proficient singer, or guitarist, but his music holistically becomes art. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/33 "2009-01-24T03:49:05Z")
robardin: You know that Dylan’s music career began in New York in…1961. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/34 "2009-01-24T04:06:35Z")
> [@askeptic](#): > > robardin: You know that Dylan’s music career began in New York in…1961. I’m not sure how to parse this. It’s true that Dylan arrived in New York in 1961, but his music career began in the 1950s. And I’m another one who saw the title and thought, “which aren’t”? How could the OP have been exposed to enough of Dylan to know who Dylan is without hearing the magnificent early albums, essentially everything through Blonde on Blonde, which are individually and collectively astonishing, beyond any other collection of works in popular song history. For someone in his 20s to do this work can only be explained by genius. There is nothing to compare with this achievement in lyrics. Paladud, get hold of Dylan’s memoirs Chronicles, volume 1. The man can write. Probably the best rock memoirs of all time, and one of the finest memoirs of any kind of all time. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/35 "2009-01-24T04:25:38Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Is “Highway 61” a metaphor for 20th Century America, … Or is it all, as indicated by that incredibly silly whistle, just Dylan having fun pulling beards? I remember now a phrase that perfectly captures the spirit of this period of Dylan’s lyrics: _Ha Ha, Only Serious_. The best irony has truth in it, and my world view is basically that reality and existence itself is some big joke that one is fated never to fully appreciate, but is lucky even to only “get” every now and then in bits and pieces. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/36 "2009-01-24T04:36:27Z")
I recall reading about some rapper (was it a guy with NWA?) whose older brother said, “You think you write poetry? Bob Dylan writes poetry,” and sat down and listened to that old Jew with new ears, and saw his brother was right. The thing with Bob is that he writes music, not tunes with lyrics, but what a rapper can identify as “holistically,” to quote bobthebuilder, music. Not a lot of people have successfully covered his songs, and those that had commercial success did it by watering down the emotion (usually anger: see Peter, Paul and Mary), because Bob did them right the first time. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/37 "2009-01-24T04:54:39Z")
[Love Minus Zero/No Limit](http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvWHkL6jHoE&feature=related) The first verse is: My love she speaks like silence, Without ideals or violence, She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful, Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire. People carry roses, Make promises by the hours, My love she laughs like the flowers, Valentines can’t buy her. Which seems like a love song, but is it really? By the last verse we have some very poetic and cryptic lines: The bridge at midnight trembles, The country doctor rambles, Bankers’ nieces seek perfection, Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring. The wind howls like a hammer, The night blows cold and rainy, My love she’s like some raven At my window with a broken wing. Complete lyric and discussion [is here.](http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/108676/) ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/38 "2009-01-24T05:06:31Z")
[QUOTE=robardin;10735825[Highway 61 Revisited] ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqX4a9eS-Nc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqX4a9eS-Nc)) (the song itself) kicks off with him blowing a “siren whistle” (that “wheeeee!” whistling sound a la _The Three Stooges_), of all things … . … Or is it all, as indicated by that incredibly silly whistle, just Dylan having fun pulling beards? Especially when the lyrics get progressively more surreal! [/QUOTE] It should also be mentioned the siren whistle was often used by [Spike Jones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Jones). I’m pretty sure that was reference Dylan was going for when he used it. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/39 "2009-01-24T05:10:32Z")
> [@askeptic](#): > > From here: [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000483/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24000483/) > > He has also been nominated for the Nobel Prize many times. > > So I think it is safe to say if you don’t like the guy’s music your taste is for shit. That or you are under 30… I don’t see how that follows. I could find critics and judges/awards panels that rave about countless musical artists - that doesn’t mean you have no taste if you don’t agree with them. Pretty lame argument. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Kerrman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/45deac/32.png) [@Joe\_Kerrman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Kerrman)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724/40 "2009-01-24T05:15:17Z")
Having taking my username from a somewhat obscure but wonderful little Dylan ditty, I think it’s obvious on which side of the lyrical fence I stand. But I’ll add my $.02: Early Bob: \*Masters of War, 1963 \* You fasten on the triggers for the others to fire. Then you sit back and watch while the death count gets higher. Well, this one thing I know though I’m younger than you: Even Jesus would never forgive what you do. _Not Dark Yet_, 1997 Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day. It’s too hot to sleep and time is running away. Feel like my soul has turned into steel. I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal. There’s not even room enough to be anywhere. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there. _TV Talkin’ Blues, 1990_ One time in London I’d gone out for a walk, Past a place called Hyde park where people talk 'Bout all kinds of different gods, they have their point of view To anyone passing by, that’s who they’re talking to. There was someone on a platform talking to the folks About the T.V. god and all the pain that it invokes. “It’s too bright a light”, he said, “For anybody’s eyes, If you’ve never seen one it’s a blessing in disguise.” No one can turn a phrase or set the stage or deal with so many subjects as well. He is amazing. He is basically a channel of Something Higher. Unbelievable. JK [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-bob-dylans-lyrics-are-actually-good/482724.md?page=3)