Here are some of my favorite songs, and, of course, the essential part - why I like 'em so darn much. Of course, nothing I can say will do his songs justice, but I'll babble on and hopefully you'll get something out of it. This might take awhile...
The list of songs is starting to get long, so here's a table of contents:
- You're No Good
- Masters of War
- All I Really Wanna Do
- I Shall Be Free No. 10
- To Ramona
- I Don't Believe You
- It Ain't Me Babe
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine
- Lay, Lady, Lay
- Simple Twist of Fate
- You're No Good (Bob Dylan)
- This song is hilarious. I love how he says, "You gimme the blues, I wanna lay down and die," in a funny country boy way. He's actually really pathetic in this song. He's in love with this major bitch, but the way he sings it, it seems like he's making fun of her while making fun of himself at the same time. If you look at the words, you want to slap Bob Dylan and tell him to shape up, but if you listen to it, you just think about how horrible she is. He's getting back at her in this song, but he also knows that he's a dumbass for loving her.
Well, I don't know why I love you like I do.
Nobody in the world can get along with you.
You got the ways of a devil sleeping in a lion's den.
I come home last night, you wouldn't even let me in.
Oh, sometimes you're as sweet as anybody wanna be.
Oh, when you get the crazy notion jumpin' all over me.
When you gimme the blues, I guess you're satisfied.
When you gimme the blues, I wanna lay down and die.
After when you had no shoes on your feet, pretty mama,
after when you had no food to eat.
You're a kind of woman that just don't understand.
You're taking all my money 'n' give it to another man.
Well, you're that kind of woman makes a man lose his brains.
You're that kind of woman drives a man insane.
You gimme the blues, I guess you're satisfied.
You gimme the blues, I wanna lay down and die.
Well, you gimme the blues, I wanna lay down and die.
- Masters of War (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)
- Like everyone in the '60s, Bob Dylan was all about protest, and like all teenagers, he had a lot of rebel anger in him. Put those two together, and you've got a ridiculously sadistic war protest song. I personally think that Bob Dylan was just feeling really bitter and hopeless about some annoying things going around him (i.e. racial injustice, U.S. wars, struggles with "the establishment," etc.), and he took it all out in this song. It's pretty brutal; so much that it's funny. I mean, you might think that he's just really messed up, or just a mean bastard, when he says "even Jesus wouldn't forgive what you do," or "you ain't worth the blood that runs in your veins", but ya gotta laugh when he blurts out, "I hope that you die." Or, maybe not. Perhaps you have to listen to the song. There's real bitterness in his voice. That's what I love about him.
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
- All I Really Wanna Do (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
- I like this song mainly because Bob Dylan sounds the dorkiest here than all his other music. His country yodeling is so absurd, you know he's totally making fun of himself. It makes you shake your head at how dorky Bob Dylan is, but it's so funny. He also rhymes like crazy in this song, like the Beatles do especially in their "Let It Be" album. I love that, it's so funny. Like, "I ain't lookin' to block you up, shock or knock or lock you up." C'mon, can you get more clever and funny than that?
I ain't lookin' to compete with you,
Beat or cheat or mistreat you,
Simplify you, classify you,
Deny, defy or crucify you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you,
Frighten you or tighten you,
Drag you down or drain you down,
Chain you down or bring you down.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I ain't lookin' to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up,
Analyze you, categorize you,
Finalize you or advertise you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to straight-face you,
Race or chase you, track or trace you,
Or disgrace you or displace you,
Or define you or confine you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to meet your kin,
Make you spin or do you in,
Or select you or dissect you,
Or inspect you or reject you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
I don't want to fake you out,
Take or shake or forsake you out,
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me,
See like me or be like me.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.
- I Shall Be Free No. 10 (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
- This song makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, it starts off like there might be some type of substance, but then it just goes down from there. My favorite line is when Dylan talks about his monkey. Dylan can be so bitter and heart-wrenching, but sometimes, you're just like, "fuck it, whatever, i don't want to think about life anymore."
I'm just average, common too
I'm just like him, the same as you
I'm everybody's brother and son
I ain't different from anyone
It ain't no use a-talking to me
It's just the same as talking to you.
I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said "Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I'm gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you'd better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won't even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen."
Well, I don't know, but I've been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first.
Wowee' pretty scary!
Now, I'm liberal, but to a degree
I want ev'rybody to be free
But if you think that I'll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I'm crazy!
I wouldn't let him do it for all the farms in Cuba.
Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He's a weird monkey, very funky.
I sat with my high-heeled sneakers on
Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun
I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist
And my wig-hat was falling in my face
But they wouldn't let me on the tennis court.
I gotta woman, she's so mean
She sticks my boots in the washing machine
Sticks me with buckshot when I'm nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She's funny, wants my money, calls me "honey."
Now I gotta friend who spends his life
Stabbing my picture with a bowie-knife
Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
When my name comes up he pretends to barf.
I've got a million friends!
Now they asked me to read a poem
At the sorority sister's home
I got knocked down and my head was swimmin'
I wound up with the Dean of Women
Yippee! I'm a poet, and I know it.
Hope I don't blow it.
I'm gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I'm gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course.
Carry the New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds.
Now you're probably wondering by now
Just what this song is all about
What's probably got you baffled more
Is what this thing here is for.
It's nothing
It's something I learned over in England.
- To Ramona (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
- I have a couple friends that sort of hate themselves. I used to try so hard to make them feel better. I'd ramble on for HOURS about how great they are and how much I like them, but it does NOTHING. Bob Dylan is singing about a girl who buys into the stupid crap that tells you you have to fit a perfect, impossible mold if you don't want to be worthless. But, Bob Dylan LOVES her; her "cracked country lips [he] still wish[es] to kiss." What else is important in life than someone who loves you for exactly what you are, who thinks your faults are just as endearing as the million things that are great about you? He sings this song so sadly. In his voice, you hear how stupid the world is but how real the crappy feelings you have because of it are.
Ramona, come closer,
Shut softly your watery eyes.
The pangs of your sadness
Shall pass as your senses will rise.
The flowers of the city
Though breathlike, get deathlike at times.
And there's no use in tryin'
T' deal with the dyin',
Though I cannot explain that in lines.
Your cracked country lips,
I still wish to kiss,
As to be under the strength of your skin.
Your magnetic movements
Still capture the minutes I'm in.
But it grieves my heart, love,
To see you tryin' to be a part of
A world that just don't exist.
It's all just a dream, babe,
A vacuum, a scheme, babe,
That sucks you into feelin' like this.
I can see that your head
Has been twisted and fed
By worthless foam from the mouth.
I can tell you are torn
Between stayin' and returnin'
On back to the South.
You've been fooled into thinking
That the finishin' end is at hand.
Yet there's no one to beat you,
No one t' defeat you,
'Cept the thoughts of yourself feeling bad.
I've heard you say many times
That you're better 'n no one
And no one is better 'n you.
If you really believe that,
You know you got
Nothing to win and nothing to lose.
From fixtures and forces and friends,
Your sorrow does stem,
That hype you and type you,
Making you feel
That you must be exactly like them.
I'd forever talk to you,
But soon my words,
They would turn into a meaningless ring.
For deep in my heart
I know there is no help I can bring.
Everything passes,
Everything changes,
Just do what you think you should do.
And someday maybe,
Who knows, baby,
I'll come and be cryin' to you.
- I Don't Believe You (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
- This song absolutely breaks your heart. Bob Dylan feels really hurt here. He has this incredibly night with this girl, and starts to really like her, but the next day, she pretends like he doesn't even exist. He's so hurt, he doesn't believe her. Then, the last stanza, he's like, "Fine, fuck you. Two can play at this game, you bitch. You don't exist for me, either." I think one of the reasons I like this song so much is because, sometimes I'm the bitch that fucks with Bob Dylan. I've been hurt a million times as a kid by people you're supposed to be able to trust the most in the world. Finally, my emotional circuits just blew and I dealt with it by pretending that everyone who hurt me just didn't exist. Eventually, you get so good at it, you do it at the slightest chance that you start caring about someone (and they can therefore hurt you). It's one of the cruelest things to do to someone you (once) cared about. To make yourself out to be completely indifferent, so much that they can't help but feel like their not even worth one thought in your head; that everything that you had together is now completely meaningless. There's so much pain in this song, and it's even worse because Bob Dylan is equally participating in throwing away this relationship. He's so blinded by pain and bitter revenge, he turns his back and refuses to acknowledge what once was a really great thing. Sigh...
I can't understand,
She let go of my hand
An' left me here facing the wall.
I'd sure like t' know
Why she did go,
But I can't get close t' her at all.
Though we kissed through the wild blazing nighttime,
She said she would never forget.
But now mornin's clear,
It's like I ain't here,
She just acts like we never have met.
It's all new t' me,
Like some mystery,
It could even be like a myth.
Yet it's hard t' think on,
That she's the same one
That last night I was with.
From darkness, dreams're deserted,
Am I still dreamin' yet?
I wish she'd unlock
Her voice once an' talk,
'Stead of acting like we never have met.
If she ain't feelin' well,
Then why don't she tell
'Stead of turnin' her back t' my face?
Without any doubt,
She seems too far out
For me t' return t' her chase.
Though the night ran swirling an' whirling,
I remember her whispering yet.
But evidently she don't
An' evidently she won't,
She just acts like we never have met.
If I didn't have t' guess,
I'd gladly confess
T' anything I might've tried.
If I was with 'er too long
Or have done something wrong,
I wish she'd tell me what it is, I'll run an' hide.
Though her skirt it swayed as a guitar played,
Her mouth was watery and wet.
But now something has changed
For she ain't the same,
She just acts like we never have met.
I'm leavin' today,
I'll be on my way
Of this I can't say very much.
But if you want me to,
I can be just like you
An' pretend that we never have touched.
An' if anybody asks me, "Is it easy to forget?"
I'll say, "It's easily done,
You just pick anyone,
An' pretend that you never have met!"
- It Ain't Me Babe (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
- Me and my ex-boy Phil really like this song. We had/have a really weird relationship. God, I don't even want to get into it. But, as to this song, I guess I'll say some. We got together nearing the end of our senior year of high school, so basically, we knew this wasn't going to last. I mean, I was going to college on the west coast; he was trekking to the other side of the country. The only trouble was that we like/d each other in a way that we knew we'd never be able to find again (well, it would at the very least by long and difficult). This song is Bob Dylan telling a girl that she should go away because he can't give her absolute security, someone who will be there always no matter what. Bob Dylan had issues with girls like this. [He mentions the same thing in "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" when he says "I gave her my heart, but she wanted my soul."] Me and Phil would play this song or talk about and it, was sort of our way of acknowledging that none of us should expect the other to stay blindly faithful when we go away to college. God, this song is sad. And, it's so much worse because it's the truth that you don't want to admit.
- I was just spending a weekend with my mom. I can never be the innocent, loving daughter that she wants SO GODDAMN BADLY for me to be. She wants the person in this song. I can't do it. I can't do it.
Go 'way from my window,
Leave at your own chosen speed.
I'm not the one you want, babe,
I'm not the one you need.
You say you're lookin' for someone
Never weak but always strong,
To protect you an' defend you
Whether you are right or wrong,
Someone to open each and every door,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.
Go lightly from the ledge, babe,
Go lightly on the ground.
I'm not the one you want, babe,
I will only let you down.
You say you're lookin' for someone
Who will promise never to part,
Someone to close his eyes for you,
Someone to close his heart,
Someone who will die for you an' more,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.
Go melt back into the night, babe,
Everything inside is made of stone.
There's nothing in here moving
An' anyway I'm not alone.
You say you're looking for someone
Who'll pick you up each time you fall,
To gather flowers constantly
An' to come each time you call,
A lover for your life an' nothing more,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.
- Like A Rolling Stone (Highway 61 Revisited)
- Damn, Dylan is bitter in this song. It's about a girl (of course), but if you've ever felt displaced or unsure about your future, this song really gets to you. He's so emotional when he sings the chorus. It makes you think that maybe the song is not just about some bitch; it's also about him. That's what I love about Bob Dylan. His bitterness is never a shallow or selfish attack on someone else. The irony of his music is that when he sings about how messed up other people are, he's really singing about how messed up he is.
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
- Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine (Blonde on Blonde)
- I love the chorus in this song. Both of them realize it's over and they're caught between fighting to get way the hell away from each other and fighting to stay together. So, only time will tell which one of them has just stumbled along the way, and who has been abandoned far behind. It seems like she wants to love him, or maybe just wants him to love her. She alternates between trying desperately to pull him back into her and then pushing him away. This song is about him trying to make himself give up on her.
You say you love me
And you're thinkin' of me,
But you know you could be wrong.
You say you told me
That you wanna hold me,
But you know you're not that strong.
I just can't do what I done before,
I just can't beg you any more.
I'm gonna let you pass
And I'll go last.
Then time will tell just who fell
And who's been left behind,
When you go your way and I go mine.
You say you disturb me
And you don't deserve me,
But you know sometimes you lie.
You say you're shakin'
And you're always achin',
But you know how hard you try.
Sometimes it gets so hard to care,
It can't be this way ev'rywhere.
And I'm gonna let you pass,
Yes, and I'll go last.
Then time will tell just who fell
And who's been left behind,
When you go your way and I go mine.
The judge, he holds a grudge,
He's gonna call on you.
But he's badly built
And he walks on stilts,
Watch out he don't fall on you.
You say you're sorry
For tellin' stories
That you know I believe are true.
You say ya got some
Other kinda lover
And yes, I believe you do.
You say my kisses are not like his,
But this time I'm not gonna tell you why that is.
I'm just gonna let you pass,
Yes, and I'll go last.
Then time will tell who fell
And who's been left behind,
When you go your way and I go mine.
- Lay, Lady, Lay (Nashville Skyline)
- Dylan wants this girl so desperately. He needs her with him through the night, but at the same time, it's so meaningless. In fact, it just sounds like he wants to convince this girl to have a one-night stand. Empty love.
Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Whatever colors you have in your mind
I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine
Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Until the break of day, let me see you make him smile
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
And you're the best thing that he's ever seen
Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you
Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead
I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead
- Simple Twist of Fate (Blood on the Tracks)
They sat together in the park
As the evening sky grew dark,
She looked at him and he felt a spark tingle to his bones.
'Twas then he felt alone and wished that he'd gone straight
And watched out for a simple twist of fate.
They walked along by the old canal
A little confused, I remember well
And stopped into a strange hotel with a neon burnin' bright.
He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train
Moving with a simple twist of fate.
A saxophone someplace far off played
As she was walkin' by the arcade.
As the light bust through a beat-up shade where he was wakin' up,
She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate
And forgot about a simple twist of fate.
He woke up, the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere.
He told himself he didn't care, pushed the window open wide,
Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate.
He hears the ticking of the clocks
And walks along with a parrot that talks,
Hunts her down by the waterfront docks where the sailers all come in.
Maybe she'll pick him out again, how long must he wait
Once more for a simple twist of fate.
People tell me it's a sin
To know and feel too much within.
I still believe she was my twin, but I lost the ring.
She was born in spring, but I was born too late
Blame it on a simple twist of fate.