Thursday, June 23, 2011

Top Five Bob Dylan Songs - 'Like A Rolling Stone'

This is the one you hear on the radio all the time. Written in 1965, it still resonates. Here's a link to the lyrics.

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/like-a-rolling-stone

When I heard it on the radio yesterday, what blew me away was how good Dylan's vocals are. I have gotten so used to his now 70-year old scraggly voice that to hear the 20-year old at full throttle was a wonderful reminder that he had one of the best rock voices ever.
The rhyming schemes are incredible as well 'juiced in it - used to it'; 'didn't you - kiddin' you'; 'princess on the steeple and all the pretty people.' Musically, it was directed by Tom Wilson with the best studio musicians Columbia records had. The song just rocks. It has become part of our culture 'when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.'
I still have the vinyl lp that 'Like a Rolling Stone' is on. To say it is a classic is trite.One of the reasons I am the way I am is I grew up reading the liner notes to Dylan's albums. If you have read them, you understand. If you haven't, well then, you haven't.
Legend has it that on the day Dylan recorded this song in the studio that Tom Wilson used the same musicians later to record the electric version of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Sound of Silence' that became the breakthrough hit for them.
This was an easy pick, the other's are harder. Stay tuned!

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