Happy Birthday, Zimmy
The Minnesota Bard is now 83 and still on the road, still searching, still vital.
On Bob Dylan’s latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, much of the attention went to “Murder Most Foul”, a 17-minute epic that acted as a cleansing of sorts for those of us lost in a ball of confusion at the height of the worldwide lockdown due to COVID-19. The song baffled many, proving that Dylan still had it in him to surprise, confuse, enlighten, and get tongues wagging even as he reached octogenarian status.
Yet Rough and Rowdy Ways had so much more to offer. And Dylan thinks so, too, as his performances over the last few years have reflected. The entire album, save “Murder Most Foul”, is played every night, peppered with some of his not-so-obvious gems from his back catalog. (Read all about the tour from Ray Padgett, one of the best Dylan chroniclers out there, and check out other recommendations at the bottom.)
One of the RARW songs that gets a nightly nod is “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You.” Upon first listen, one wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it was just another song to a loved one. Listen closer and (to me, at least) what you hear is Bob Dylan’s purpose played out in song form. He’s singing about music itself. He’s singing about why he does what he does. About why, at 83, he’s still on the road, night after night, town after town, reinventing his songs live on stage before us. It’s what he loves. It’s what he’s made his mind up to do. He’s given himself over to the music he makes.
What can be said that hasn’t already been said or written? You’ll see plenty of thoughts on Dylan around the web and elsewhere today for his birthday, so there’s no need for me to add to it, other than simply share a digital mixtape of 100 of my favorite Dylan covers below. They range from classics to obscure, but together they prove he’s not just a peerless lyricist, but also an incomparable melodist - a point that doesn’t get enough ink.
I’ve made sure to include at least one song from every one of his studio albums of original material (in other words, no need to have cover versions of songs off Good As I Been To You or World Gone Wrong), as well as some representatives from The Bootleg Series and The Basement Tapes. (However, there’s nothing from The New Basement Tapes - a decision I was back and forth about, but ultimately decided to leave songs from it out, regardless of how much I loved the project…and there’s no “Wagon Wheel”.) Needless to say, this exercise covers most every style of music, as it should be. Oh, and please, like any good mixtape, be sure to listen to this in order, not on shuffle. Sequencing matters!
Happy birthday and keep rollin’, Bob.
Further Dylan reading recommendations:
Ray Padgett’s Flagging Down the Double E’s, as mentioned above.
Matthew Ingate’s Together Through Life
…and for more Dylan fun, here’s an outtake from a chapter for Have A Little Faith: The John Hiatt Story that details the night Dylan, with the Plugz, stormed Late Night with David Letterman.
Excellent mixtape! Many here I have never heard. I recall reading someplace that Dylan fight the best cover of any of his songs was Elvis’s “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.”