On Thursday’s post I speak of being invited to choose a Bob Dylan song, to sing with him. I chose Dark Eyes. What song would you pick? And maybe a few words why. Happy Memorial Day weekend.
Wallflower (he's never sung that one in public either, but I adore it)... because of its simplicity of the relationship between the longing to love young boy poet, and the shy girl wallflower who can't come out of the shadows except he helps her to see how truly beautiful she is...as Dark Eyes says...I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized,/All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes. So reminds me of a moving scene in the movie with Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner...ON THE BEACH...there is a Commander who is single and his lovely adoring secretary; they are about to go home to take the pills that will put them permanently to sleep...but as the Commander who never got close in a personal or romantic way to his secretary. before asks if she has a boyfriend to do this with...she said no...so he invites her to die with him...and then he says as off the cuff as he can say it..."BLIND WORLD.'...i don't weep to often, but that line reminds me so much of Mr. Dylan's lines here....this is beauty that is spiritual in Christ deep that very few people except Mr. Dylan, the fine man and poet that he is...sees and is gifted to convey to us in words to wake us up to such beauty ...in the seemingly ordinary...like in the song SHELTHER FROM THE SONG..."Just to think that it all began on an uneventful morn....Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine. Scripture reminds us to forsake not the day of small things...Jesus was scarred and no one considered him beautiful or something to be admired and thus they didn't pay him any mind so he could pretty much walk freely anywhere until his began his ministry...then that inward Beauty began to show, and he drew people to him like a magnet...beauty and truth are one in the same...so if you love Truth you will also love beauty..Emily Dickinson was very concrete and understood that in a very experiential way as Mr. Dylan does particularly in WALL FLOWER. I love Dark Eyes, but it is a bit Whitmanesque in large scope to me...I like small gestures ...but I love big ones too as they have their place in God's schemes. All the best of joy, Lani Elizabeth Makholm - Thanks for asking the question, Patti SmithI like your writings and enjoyed your performance at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, a while back.
I am two years late to this thread, but something must have led me here tonight, because after the month we’ve had—specifically the month my son has had—I’d choose “Lord Protect My Child.” Like many here, there are many, many Dylan songs I love,* but that’s the one that’s been getting me through these days:
There’s gladness in his heart
He’s young and he’s wild
My only prayer is, if I can’t be there
Lord, protect my child
*Bob Dylan was my first concert, in 1990, just as I was starting high school. I last saw him in 2019–still wonderful—and was thrilled to recognize all but one song from the 50 years worth of songs he played.
Thank you Patti . . . I realize this is a very late answer to your question. I would choose Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love. I first heard it on Joan Osborn's Righteous Love album and which I brought it for another song. One day while listening to it I heard Make You Feel My Love and I was on my knees crying. I was moved by the depth and breadth of it and played it over and over and over again. I think its one of the purest love songs I've ever heard. It was only later on that I found out that Bob Dylan had written it.
Forever young. A blessing of peace and contentment this Christmas morning merry Christmas Patti and Bob. (just catching up on posts before I joined on father's day a gift from my partner Jeanne)
She Belongs To Me, if I could sing well. But, as my musical talent is limited, I would choose Subterranean Homesick Blues.
The Why's...
She Belongs To Me: This is the song my first love dedicated to me and it will always have a special place in my heart (as I am certain it does for the woman or women Dylan wrote it for).
Subterranean Homesick Blues: Because I just fucking love everything about it! And I would likely get totally caught up in rattling it off (being fully present) that I wouldn't be self-conscious about my singing.
I'd sing 'Lay Lady Lay', but as 'Lady Elaine', which is how I first heard it over the crackle of AM transistor as a toddler, under the assumption that the song concerned itself with one Lady Elaine Fairchilde of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. One of the oldest songs I know.
I’d choose The Times They Are A-Changin’, because of its significance on society. We still have people, including politicians, who won’t acknowledge climate change, the existence of racism, the history of racism in America, sexism, classism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. the more that society progresses and moves forward, they stay in their closed minds and they drown from the backlash, which they stupidly call “cancel culture.” Since you are an activist, I think this would be a good song to sing.
A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall. It would almost seem like a sad lullaby sung by a mother and father to an innocent child who is about to experience the ugly side of life.
Naturally, I'd want to sing Blowin' in the Wind. It took me to be in nature to come to this answer. So I sang it with the wind. In a dream I will sing with Bob Dylan.
Every Grain of Sand. On days that I feel especially restless, alone or broken, I try to take a few minutes out of the day to sit by the piano and sing this particular song. It's given me a small, but significant bit of comfort that I'll be forever grateful to Bob Dylan for.
It is my intention to get to know more Bob, I loved Dark eyes but know few of his songs apart from the famous ones. My son Joe, is a fan and I encouraged him to share the space of a concert hall with him and hear Bob play. the sacred exchange ? maybe scared synergy is a better description, of being part of the process of the worlds soul music .
So nice to read the readers' choices and to remember so many dylan's songs I had forgotten... I would choose Like a Rolling Stone because it's so singable, very nice and it has a great tune.
I would love to sing harmonies to Song to Woody with Bob. Such a sweet ballad that touches my heart. And though I don't know if I could add to the vocals, I love his version of Man of Constant Sorrow from that first album. I guess I just love young Bob.
I would have to say currently, Buckets of Rain. Because it feels hopeful and a bit playful. And some really classic Dylan picking guitar. But mostly because I can’t mess it up worse than him. 😉
All Along the Watchtower has been a favorite for many years, the sense of waiting for something to happen always intrigued me. For a string of nights, not too long ago, it inspired my meditative drawings that I make before going to bed.
There are so many ingenious Dylan's songs affecting our lives..but your choice, performed in this specific moment, sounded like a wellspring of emotion and pure truth.
House Carpenter - as heard on Another Self-Portrait. Or Copper Kettle on either Portrait. The former as it seems loaded with restraint and the breaks emphasize the narrator knows something we don't and the emotion is building. The 2nd is simply a beautiful number and we know a little bit about whiskey tax around here.
Tangled up in Blue I think,although there are so many. It just paints a wonderful story of two people who meet and love,break up and find each other again.
Hurricane at this time in America, trials, more injustice .... and the all out intensity I love. Sad eyed Lady too & It’s all right Ma, I’m only dying take me right back- as do so many of his with tears, pain, regret, longing for that passion of yesteryear. But This celebration of his brilliant creativity beats sadness! What a soul, what a bard. We are so lucky to love him & his visions.
I 've been contemplating this for many hours now. Thinking about songs of his that have haunted and entranced me over the years.
Thought about 'One More Cup of Coffee' yesterday. A favorite, but been chosen by too many people here already.
Thought about 'Baby, Let Me Follow You Down' - but it couldn't beat the definitive version (Last Waltz), so no point.
'Ballad of a Thin Man'? No, that's a song for Bob alone (and for me, trapped in aspic from his '66 tour).
'Where Are You Tonight'? Perhaps. 'Jokerman'? Maybe.
Too hard to choose.
But then I thought the first Bob LP I happened across, which was 'Planet Waves.'
Yeah, 'Forever Young' is on that one, but that's out of the question (again, Last Waltz).
But 'Dirge'... that's an excellent song, and not one he's ever played live, I don't think. So, I guess that's my answer.
Here's the thing, though - I'd be far too intimidated to even broach the subject. I'm even freaked out when I see him in my dreams (the other night, I tried to speak to him and failed miserably).
Wallflower (he's never sung that one in public either, but I adore it)... because of its simplicity of the relationship between the longing to love young boy poet, and the shy girl wallflower who can't come out of the shadows except he helps her to see how truly beautiful she is...as Dark Eyes says...I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized,/All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes. So reminds me of a moving scene in the movie with Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner...ON THE BEACH...there is a Commander who is single and his lovely adoring secretary; they are about to go home to take the pills that will put them permanently to sleep...but as the Commander who never got close in a personal or romantic way to his secretary. before asks if she has a boyfriend to do this with...she said no...so he invites her to die with him...and then he says as off the cuff as he can say it..."BLIND WORLD.'...i don't weep to often, but that line reminds me so much of Mr. Dylan's lines here....this is beauty that is spiritual in Christ deep that very few people except Mr. Dylan, the fine man and poet that he is...sees and is gifted to convey to us in words to wake us up to such beauty ...in the seemingly ordinary...like in the song SHELTHER FROM THE SONG..."Just to think that it all began on an uneventful morn....Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine. Scripture reminds us to forsake not the day of small things...Jesus was scarred and no one considered him beautiful or something to be admired and thus they didn't pay him any mind so he could pretty much walk freely anywhere until his began his ministry...then that inward Beauty began to show, and he drew people to him like a magnet...beauty and truth are one in the same...so if you love Truth you will also love beauty..Emily Dickinson was very concrete and understood that in a very experiential way as Mr. Dylan does particularly in WALL FLOWER. I love Dark Eyes, but it is a bit Whitmanesque in large scope to me...I like small gestures ...but I love big ones too as they have their place in God's schemes. All the best of joy, Lani Elizabeth Makholm - Thanks for asking the question, Patti SmithI like your writings and enjoyed your performance at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, a while back.
Dear Landlord or Dirge
1. I've never heard him sing either live and would love to
2. They're underappreciated
3. I think I could actually do a decent job singing them with him
4. They're amazing lyrically but just as importantly, melodically.
I am two years late to this thread, but something must have led me here tonight, because after the month we’ve had—specifically the month my son has had—I’d choose “Lord Protect My Child.” Like many here, there are many, many Dylan songs I love,* but that’s the one that’s been getting me through these days:
There’s gladness in his heart
He’s young and he’s wild
My only prayer is, if I can’t be there
Lord, protect my child
*Bob Dylan was my first concert, in 1990, just as I was starting high school. I last saw him in 2019–still wonderful—and was thrilled to recognize all but one song from the 50 years worth of songs he played.
Thank you Patti . . . I realize this is a very late answer to your question. I would choose Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love. I first heard it on Joan Osborn's Righteous Love album and which I brought it for another song. One day while listening to it I heard Make You Feel My Love and I was on my knees crying. I was moved by the depth and breadth of it and played it over and over and over again. I think its one of the purest love songs I've ever heard. It was only later on that I found out that Bob Dylan had written it.
Without second guessing, I'd choose "Visions of Johanna." It has my favorite Dylan line
"We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's insane"
Forever young. A blessing of peace and contentment this Christmas morning merry Christmas Patti and Bob. (just catching up on posts before I joined on father's day a gift from my partner Jeanne)
One more cup of coffee or Hurricane, basically any song from desire.
Farewell Angelina. Not sure I have a coherent reason why!
i have to agree with those who chose everything is broken because it's one of my favorite songs and makes me smile and feel sad at the same time.
'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' . . . my favorite Dylan song.
"Most of the Time". Though, upon hearing me sing, listeners might wish I kept it "right between my teeth"!
She Belongs To Me, if I could sing well. But, as my musical talent is limited, I would choose Subterranean Homesick Blues.
The Why's...
She Belongs To Me: This is the song my first love dedicated to me and it will always have a special place in my heart (as I am certain it does for the woman or women Dylan wrote it for).
Subterranean Homesick Blues: Because I just fucking love everything about it! And I would likely get totally caught up in rattling it off (being fully present) that I wouldn't be self-conscious about my singing.
I'd sing 'Lay Lady Lay', but as 'Lady Elaine', which is how I first heard it over the crackle of AM transistor as a toddler, under the assumption that the song concerned itself with one Lady Elaine Fairchilde of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. One of the oldest songs I know.
I’d choose The Times They Are A-Changin’, because of its significance on society. We still have people, including politicians, who won’t acknowledge climate change, the existence of racism, the history of racism in America, sexism, classism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. the more that society progresses and moves forward, they stay in their closed minds and they drown from the backlash, which they stupidly call “cancel culture.” Since you are an activist, I think this would be a good song to sing.
A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall. It would almost seem like a sad lullaby sung by a mother and father to an innocent child who is about to experience the ugly side of life.
Naturally, I'd want to sing Blowin' in the Wind. It took me to be in nature to come to this answer. So I sang it with the wind. In a dream I will sing with Bob Dylan.
Every Grain of Sand. On days that I feel especially restless, alone or broken, I try to take a few minutes out of the day to sit by the piano and sing this particular song. It's given me a small, but significant bit of comfort that I'll be forever grateful to Bob Dylan for.
It is my intention to get to know more Bob, I loved Dark eyes but know few of his songs apart from the famous ones. My son Joe, is a fan and I encouraged him to share the space of a concert hall with him and hear Bob play. the sacred exchange ? maybe scared synergy is a better description, of being part of the process of the worlds soul music .
Mr Tambourine Man. I often imagine that "evening's empire" that "has returned into sand"
So nice to read the readers' choices and to remember so many dylan's songs I had forgotten... I would choose Like a Rolling Stone because it's so singable, very nice and it has a great tune.
I would love to sing harmonies to Song to Woody with Bob. Such a sweet ballad that touches my heart. And though I don't know if I could add to the vocals, I love his version of Man of Constant Sorrow from that first album. I guess I just love young Bob.
Blowing in the wind. It blew my mind as a child. Still does as an adult.
Isis...I love powerful, emotional songs. He has so many, but this one I feel viscerally!
Bob Dylan's Dream.
Very beautiful song, Dylan singing to lost young friends. And the rymth of song like a train go away home.
“I must admit I felt a little uneasy / When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe / Tangled up in blue”
Sad eyed lady of the lowlands, it just seems (as many of his songs do) so chivalrous and just
To make you feel my love! My favourite
A Hard Rain stirs my gut but Love Minus Xero soothes my heart…’She knows there is no success like failure And that failure is no success at all…
Now the next question is what I’d sing with you! xxx
Maybe ‘You Belong To Me’ from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. I know it’s a cover but Dylan makes it his own completely. So beautiful x
I would have to say currently, Buckets of Rain. Because it feels hopeful and a bit playful. And some really classic Dylan picking guitar. But mostly because I can’t mess it up worse than him. 😉
New Morning just because we have one everyday
All Along the Watchtower has been a favorite for many years, the sense of waiting for something to happen always intrigued me. For a string of nights, not too long ago, it inspired my meditative drawings that I make before going to bed.
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.
Ok, sorry, this one's for real. What song would I like to share a mike with Bob and sing: You 'Aint Going Nowhere
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall... and you performing it at the Nobel ceremony was soul lifting..
Time Passes Slowly... it's my favorite Dylan song. From the album New Morning. xx
There are so many ingenious Dylan's songs affecting our lives..but your choice, performed in this specific moment, sounded like a wellspring of emotion and pure truth.
Forever Young—Written for his son, I’m thinking about my daughter.
Simple twist of fate ‘cause I’m so twisted by fate..
Isis, love the visuals I imagine go with it❤️
To Ramona - though I doubt I could get through it without crying. That one gets me every time. It's so viscerally sad and comforting at the same time.
House Carpenter - as heard on Another Self-Portrait. Or Copper Kettle on either Portrait. The former as it seems loaded with restraint and the breaks emphasize the narrator knows something we don't and the emotion is building. The 2nd is simply a beautiful number and we know a little bit about whiskey tax around here.
Great down and out Bob lines
Any minute of the day the bubble could burst
Everything I touch seems to disappear
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
So much for those long and wasted years
We’re going all the way ’til the wheels fall off and burn
Toasting to the bestest lyrics writer of all time, not Heaven's Door Whiskey, but a Scotch Whiskey all the same.😎
Tangled up in Blue I think,although there are so many. It just paints a wonderful story of two people who meet and love,break up and find each other again.
Hurricane at this time in America, trials, more injustice .... and the all out intensity I love. Sad eyed Lady too & It’s all right Ma, I’m only dying take me right back- as do so many of his with tears, pain, regret, longing for that passion of yesteryear. But This celebration of his brilliant creativity beats sadness! What a soul, what a bard. We are so lucky to love him & his visions.
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, the pause before and the emphasis on Baby would be fun
“Most of the Time”. I just love it, the lyrics, the sound, the feel. Everything.
Listening to The album "Banga" it's pretty wonderful.
"Girl from the North Country". It would be most beautiful and most imperfect. Johnny would approve!
I 've been contemplating this for many hours now. Thinking about songs of his that have haunted and entranced me over the years.
Thought about 'One More Cup of Coffee' yesterday. A favorite, but been chosen by too many people here already.
Thought about 'Baby, Let Me Follow You Down' - but it couldn't beat the definitive version (Last Waltz), so no point.
'Ballad of a Thin Man'? No, that's a song for Bob alone (and for me, trapped in aspic from his '66 tour).
'Where Are You Tonight'? Perhaps. 'Jokerman'? Maybe.
Too hard to choose.
But then I thought the first Bob LP I happened across, which was 'Planet Waves.'
Yeah, 'Forever Young' is on that one, but that's out of the question (again, Last Waltz).
But 'Dirge'... that's an excellent song, and not one he's ever played live, I don't think. So, I guess that's my answer.
Here's the thing, though - I'd be far too intimidated to even broach the subject. I'm even freaked out when I see him in my dreams (the other night, I tried to speak to him and failed miserably).