You might know that I don’t like summing up a year in a few words, especially if a particular year didn’t leave me enthusiastic. But I do like writing “best of” lists. So here are the things which entertained me the most this last year.
Books
I did not read a lot this year, for many reasons, none of them sufficient. Here’s what I managed.
5. The Golden Bough by James Frazer Not something that would end up here in a better year but it did prove an intense experience. Reviewed here.
4. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik Another fairy tale reinterpretation by Novik, enjoyed it again. Reviewed here.
3. The Just City by Jo Walton Walton has the weirdest ideas! And she makes them work like you wouldn’t believe.
2. Court series by Sarah J. Maas I read up to the fourth book so far and was a little embarrassed to share but I freaking love this series. It’s so entertaining.
1. Middlemarch by George Eliot I read it for months but enjoyed every visit to Middlemarch and its surroundings.
As usual, only stuff added to my playlists this year.
5. “Standing in the Need of Love” by Dusty Springfield Definitely an oldies year. This is a stand-in for many Dusty songs.
4. “The Lady Barber” by Lynn Castle Very atmospheric and fun.
3. “Rake” by Townes Van Zandt I could alternatively fill the list with Van Zandt songs but I decided to limit them to just a taste.
2. “Look at Me” by Buddy Holly I listened to Holly soooooo much this year because my younger son fell in love with his album. And I still like this song, and many more.
1. “Be Here to Love Me” by Townes Van Zandt Light-hearted and charming.
Here’s to a fantastic new year: may it bring us joy and fun!
This Christmas season has been busy. Work-wise, kid-wise, all-wise. I wanted to do my proper Christmas Songbook post today (once I realized I won’t have time to do a recommendation) but I couldn’t pick a Christmas song that I would really want to write about. So instead let me talk about the song that has been the actual soundtrack to my Christmas preparations this year, my favorite of a stunning album:
“Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel” by Townes Van Zandt
Album:Townes Van Zandt
Year: 1969
Why it rocks: Van Zandt writes amazing melodies, melancholic and light at the same time, somehow both sparse and rich, only superseded by his mastery with words. This is a truly poetic song that sails so many emotions within its five minutes. The consensus among the internet analysts seems to be that it’s a song about a terrible maneater that the lyrical ego is trying to get away from. And you can read it that way – but I don’t. The thing that gets me in this song is the intimacy between the speaker and Miss Carousel: he sees everything she does wrong but he has compassion for her because it’s really society, patriarchy, the whole system that shaped her this way. And I actually read the chorus as him having hope for her, that she might break through the vicious, carousel-like circle of her life.
Favorite lyrics: “Well, the lady’s been told that all the gold / Is worth so much it can’t be sold” and the whole verse about “every mother’s son” are such biting comments on society, with a brilliant use of irony, rendered even stronger by inserting them into this failed love story. And these are just two examples. I also like the deceptively simple “el” rhymes, culminating in “It’s all been swell, Miss Carousel.” And the rhyming of “the” with “authority”/”degree” is so fun*.
Favorite moment: A lot but I love the ending of this verse: “When the battle’s been fought and they’ve all been taught / That the trick is just not being caught / Will you give ’em hell, Miss Carousel / When they’re begging you to hide them?” for how he’s not accusing her of anything, just establishing this deal between them.
Best for: Christmas cleaning! But really it’s just a brilliant song from a brilliant album, great for when you want to spend time with a wonderful singer-songwriter.
This is the first time I’m recommending an album because I prefer to talk about single songs but I’ve 1) temporarily run out of my usual recommendations and 2) been quite delighted by
What it is: A 1978 album by John Prine, a celebrated but not-quite-famous singer-songwriter (who died last year of covid). His songwriting resembles some facets of Dylan’s work (the more humorous, less abstract ones) and while he was possibly as sharp-witted as any writer, he determinedly avoided any pompousness (though I’m only judging by my incomplete listening to his oeuvre).
My history: I knew and quite loved a few covers of Prine songs, like this one, so I suspected he probably was a formidable songwriter but I never felt that interested in his own work. Until recently, when I think Spotify threw a song or two of his at me and I opened my eyes in wonder.
Single best thing: This album has great tunes, guffawy humor and fearless stoicism. But if I’m to pick one thing, it has to be the titular song, “Bruised Orange,” it’s clearly the heart of the album. The deceptive simplicity conveys so much resilience and it’s a message that goes straight to heart.
Other great things: ✤ I think it was actually the first song, “Fish and Whistle,” that hooked me (yes, I do those puns consciously, sorry). The catchy melody and jokey mood masks philosophical and religious depth that is actually impressive (and Prine would probably deny it altogether). It is also a fantastic sing-along song. ✤ The wide emotional range of the album, from largely humorous songs like “Sabu…” and “There She Goes” (though you can look for depths in both) through the shockingly simple, anti-romantic “If You Don’t Want My Love” to melancholic “The Hobo Song.” And then there’s everything in between, which is probably even more interesting. ✤ The mix of humor and pain, sold through that simplicity in wording and melody, works so well for me. Also, the humanist optimism wins out in these songs every time and that’s the philosophy that I will always stan for, my fists and teeth clenched as they may be. ✤ He totally sounds like Dylan on “Crooked Piece of Time” (and in a few other places). And I’m for it.
Biggest doubt: There’s always a song you like less, I guess, and for me it’s “Aw Heck” but what does it matter.
Follow up: I’m slowly getting to know Prine’s other albums and I have already found some gems.
Strength of recommendation: ★ ★ ★ With the caveat that you can’t be allergic to the very folksy, almost countryish arrangement and delivery that many of these songs employ. Personally, I love it but I know people prejudiced against the whole vibe and who am I to try and convert them?
Here’s the other song from First Love that I wanted to talk about.
“On the Museum Island” by Emmy the Great
Album: First Love
Year: 2009
Category: Recent-years favorites
Why it rocks: I love how each of Emmy’s songs is a small, independent story with a setting, characters and drama. Among the delightfully sparse arrangement, her voice tells a story of Berlin and friendship that is both full and fragmented. Her voice is not even the kind that I normally like in women singers but it is so evocative. I learned online that this song tells of her friendship with Joe Strummer’s daughter but it is outside of the song and really not necessary to enjoy this miniature picture of a relationship (almost more like a love story this way, too). I particularly like the parallel between complicated human relations and bigger history, how the possibility of renewal always exists.
Favorite bit of lyrics: I like all the pictures she paints, like: “As we followed the coffin of your famous father / Adjusting our skirts as we turned at the altar / And within every word that they’d written was spelt out / You’d taken your last ever bus.”
Favorite moment: The thing I particularly like about Emmy’s songs is the rising intensity. I feel it starts with the “You have hardened completely / By the end of this story” and just goes from there with a small reprieve for “Now the waving is all that you do” and I love this moment.
Best for: Backpacking through European capitals with old friends. I imagine.
This is post one of two: two of my favorite songs from a great album I’ve recently revisited. I wanted to start from the other one that charmed me recently but I couldn’t do the disservice to
“First Love” by Emmy the Great
Album: First Love
Year: 2009
Category: Recent-years favorites
Why it rocks: This is by far the strongest song from an incredibly strong debut album. Also, it references Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (which I love, especially the lyrics) and Beckett’s short story “First Love” (which I haven’t read but probably wouldn’t like; still, I know what it’s about). This kind of cultural entanglement is something that speaks to me but even without that this is a strong song. It tells a twisted, disturbing story (you can see Beckett’s influences here) in a smart, word-economic way (look at the sly references to Cohen, like using the word “broken” – as opposed to the direct references) and combines that with a catchy, intense melody, conveying rising hysteria. I said it already but it bears repeating: this is a brilliantly constructed song that reveals levels of brilliancy on subsequent listens.
Favorite bit of lyrics: I like all the dark couplets, like “You were stroking me like a pet / But you didn’t own me yet” and “I remember you like a verse / That I didn’t want to learn.”
Favorite moment: I love the second time the cross is mentioned with a twist and the sinister meaning becomes obvious while, at the same time, the music gets more and more manic.
Best for: Contemplating the complicated nature of storybook love – or of one night stands.
This is a continuation of the last week post: the other five of my top ten Dylan albums. The disclaimer still stands.
Blood on the Tracks
Year: 1975
Character: A much more mature Dylan, some say it’s the story of the end of his marriage (I personally never read it that way), it’s a challenging album, not exactly enjoyable for a large part. It smacks of disappointment and does not try to seduce you at all. But there are moments of reprieve.
My impression: Here’s a little story from a different era for you. I got into Dylan in early high school (see below). I was getting to know him rather slowly, limited by the music I had access to (especially financially). And here’s a period piece: once I decided to buy myself a new Dylan album in a record store (yes) so, very shyly, I talked to the standoffish clerk who told me they had Blood on the Tracks and Desire, the former praised by critics, the latter beloved by fans. You may guess which one I picked, the little snob that I was. And I didn’t quite love the album. But! All the harshness was immediately redeemed when I heard “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.” I mean, what a song. It slowly led me to rediscovering the rest of the album.
Favorite songs: Duh. But I also really like “Shelter from the Storm” and “Buckets of Rain.”
Desire
Year: 1976
Character: Dylan’s fun, story-driven album, with hints at cultural misappropriation. He already played with story songs (and how!) at Blood but Desire is almost entirely that: songs that tell stories. No wonder fans love this one, record store guy. Even when he gets back to social protest in “Hurricane,” he does it in a movie-like narrative. The album gains a very distinctive sound because of the violin that, legend has it, got included when Dylan spotted the player, Scarlet Rivera, on a street, carrying her instrument.
My impression: I do enjoy this album a lot. Despite sometimes heavy issues it mentions, it’s light-hearted and every songs has a distinct character. It’s Dylan that doesn’t have to prove anything, he’s just playing with his craft.
Favorite songs: I like almost all of them, with a big exception of “Joey” (this one I can’t stand) but “Hurricane” is by far the masterpiece and “Oh, Sister” is very Cohenian in how it uses religion to jokingly talk of love.
And from now on, I’ll be cheating, maybe. Instead of talking of three more studio albums, I’ll talk about albums which have been more important for me: The Bootleg Series.
The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966. Royal Albert Hall Concert
Character: A record of Dylan’s concert played in Manchester (it’s been mistakenly [?] named as the legendary Royal Albert Hall concert, probably because the audience also yells at him; the actual Royal Albert Hall has also been released not long ago if you’re interested, but there’s little difference to me) from the time when he added electric sound to his music and his former fans started hating him. But it also made him into a legend. You can hear his confidence and what an accomplished artist and performer he already was.
My impression: Oh boy. Here’s the personal story of how I started on the Dylan way. So, at the end of elementary school, around age 14, I really hated my school, everyone in it and the whole vibe it had. At one point everyone started obsessing over Nirvana – it was way after their heyday or even existence but my school wasn’t what you would call up-to-date – and I immediately decided I hated Nirvana (I recanted later) and instead I would start listening to something cool that no one else there knew. By then the 1960s music blew my mind and stole my heart but I wanted a specific name to identify with. And for some reason, probably because he was mentioned in a book, I chose Dylan even though I’d only known “Like a Rolling Stone” and the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” by then. So. I got two Dylan cassettes (google it): The Best of and this particular concert and listened to them until I started, in this order, accepting them, liking them, loving them, sort of understanding them. Yes, I taught myself to love Dylan and I was very determinate. It’s hard to be passionate about a “best of” selection (though it was a decent selection) so this concert album has become for me an encapsulation of Dylan’s entrance into my life. It’s also fun to listen to, with its acoustic and electric halves, but that’s almost beside the point.
Favorite songs: “She Belongs to Me,” “Visions of Johanna” and “Desolation Row,” and then from the other side (of the cassette) the moment he starts mumbling into the mic.
The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Live 1975. The Rolling Thunder Review
Character: The recordings from Dylan’s famous tour, the one in which he had his face painted white and the silly hat. This is the artist at the top of his game, surrounded by a bunch of talented people, and they’re all enjoying playing some very good songs to people who want to listen to them. It’s good to listen to, refreshing.
My impression: I got this album in college and listened to it a lot – a lot! – because it gives you so much joy. Not the kind of album you have to learn to like. The energy is catching and the selection of songs, in its mix of 60s and 70s, strong. It’s one of those things you’d love to see live.
Favorite songs: “Mama, You’ve Been on My Mind,” I love it. But most of Desire songs play well here.
The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Live 1964. Concert at Philharmonic Hall
Character: This is Dylan’s early concert, still acoustic and very folksy, with this raw, personal quality. And sometimes he sounds almost like he’s doing stand-up.
My impression: This one is also fun to listen to, in a different way: while the sound is way rougher than it will be in later concert recordings, it feels perhaps the most like being at the actual concert. I can listen to it either focusing on the words or just playing it in the background, and it works both ways. And when Joan Baez joins him the thing gets yet another quality. Also, I know I said it many times, but I feel people tend to notice Dylan for his gloom and doom or at best his sardonic amusement with the world’s folly but he doesn’t get enough credit for his goofy, very likeable humor, which was especially apparent in the earlier recordings. Maybe it’s even the mix of the humor and the gloom that makes him special, just a theory.
Favorite songs: This is going to sound frivolous but I have to go with “Silver Dagger,” it’s freaking fantastic. Justice for Joan.
That’s it! For now. My month of celebrating Dylan, probably to no one’s great chagrin, comes to an end. But I quite enjoyed looking back at all these songs and albums and it made me want to listen to some of his later stuff so thank you for accompanying me. However, next week: back to recommendations.
Following Dylan’s birthday last Monday, I want to continue my exploration of his music and what it’s meant to me. So, welcome to the Dylan List Series, which I think will be about three posts. Totally counts as a series. Today I want to share my favorite Dylan songs. But, just a disclaimer, this means almost nothing. I mean, there’s a Dylan song for every mood: angry, thoughtful, funny, bitter, you name it. When I started compiling this list I discovered that 10 songs means including barely the obvious choices and the top of the top from my “Best of Dylan” Spotify playlist (which is already very curated). Anyways. Here we go.
Runner-up. “Changing of the Guards”
Album:Street-Legal
I’m adding only one because I already wrote this one but then decided I couldn’t skip “Visions of Johanna.” There could easily be more runners-up.
An underrated gem from an underrated album, it’s the backsingers who make a half of this song’s charm with their late interjections which they seem to be improvising – and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I also love the intensity of the story and no one does story songs like Dylan. He paints movie-like pictures, not always understandable but so easy to see. This one is like a dark fairy-tale.
Favorite bit of lyrics: I can’t choose for this one. This is such a murky story, where you never know who the pronouns refer to that I just let it wash over me. We’ll get to clearer storytelling though.
10. “Visions of Johanna”
Album:Blonde on Blonde and The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966
This is one of my favorite songs ever since I even started listening to Dylan but I’ve heard it so many times that I almost don’t have any reason to listen to it anymore. Don’t know if you ever experience that but it’s happened to me with a few of his songs (and albums even), which might explain some of the glaring omissions from this list. However, it’s a perfect example of his byzantine, surreal worlds.
Favorite bit of lyrics: “We sit here stranded, though we’re all doin’ our best to deny it.” When I was younger and even more pretentious I used to put it on all sorts of things: notebooks, websites – and think myself deep.
9. “Dark Eyes”
Album:Empire Burlesque
This is such an atmospheric song, one of Dylan’s surreal, onirical landscapes but made gentler than many others through the melody. But I especially love it for this version (fair warning: it’s an old youtube video) that I found once and fell in love with, where Dylan sings with Patti Smith and you can see they are friends. In all honesty though, I have no idea what this song means and maybe I’m not supposed to.
Favorite bit of lyrics: “They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes / They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I’m sure it is / But I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized” – such a powerful fragment.
8. “Mama, You Been on My Mind”
Album:The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975
This is the album that accompanied my first part of my first college and this song especially livened up many a boring lecture as it played in my mind (and there were many lectures to enliven). The delivery is so lively, cheerful, with incredible energy even for this album and Baez complements Dylan so well, especially when they’re not quite in time.
Favorite bit of lyrics: “When you wake up in the mornin’, baby, look inside your mirror / You know I won’t be next to you, you know I won’t be near / I’d just be curious to know if you can see yourself as clear / As someone who has had you on his (her) mind.”
7. “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”
Album:The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Such a detached, humorous – but still not flat, especially for such a young artist – way of talking about a breakup. Dylan has many songs to listen to when you want to feel vindictive but this one feels especially powerful in its irony. It always makes me smile.
Favorite bit of lyrics: And the irony is nowhere more evident than in the ending, “I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind / You coulda done better but I don’t mind / You just kinda wasted my precious time / But don’t think twice, it’s all right.”
6. “Billy 4”
Album:Pat Garret & Billy the Kid
The whole album is wonderful but this version of “Billy,” the longest and the most coherent, lets you listen to the story the easiest and so I pick it. It’s a wonder Dylan didn’t write more film music because once he did, he created a masterpiece. Another one. Note: It’s interesting to compare this to “Billy 1,” how he can change the mood irregardless of the words.
Favorite bit of lyrics: I don’t think there’s a couple of lines that I’m particularly attached to, I just like my movies in a song form.
5. “Maybe Someday”
Album:Knocked Out Loaded
Talk about underrated. This is a song I never knew until I made it into a project to listen to all of Dylan available on Spotify and I fell in love with this one. It’s a pop version of Dylan but it still is so smart, and he does Springsteen better than Springsteen. His almost manic delivery makes it quite special. But the best part is that this is the one Dylan song my husband actually enjoys listening to.
Favorite bit of lyrics: Despite the misleading arrangement, the lyrics are actually very Dylanesque. But I especially enjoy this joke: “You said you were goin’ to Frisco, stay a couple of months / I always liked San Francisco, I was there for a party once.” Also: “Maybe someday, you will understand / That something for nothing is everybody’s plan.”
4. “Like a Rolling Stone”
Album:Highway 61 Revisited
This is another song that I almost have no reason to listen to anymore, having heard and enjoyed it so many times but at the same time it might be the best song ever written. By anyone. Thus, the compromise in the fourth place. Like any sane person, I enjoy when Dylan is righteously angry.
Favorite bit of lyrics: Maybe “Aw, you’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely / But ya know ya only used to get juiced in it.”
Also wrote about it, a while ago. Read it here, if you want to. Love forever.
1. “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts”
Album:Blood on the Tracks
I first heard this song in high school, still innocent enough to be embarrassed about liking something resembling country. But I don’t think a song has ever blown my mind as much as this one did and keeps doing. Dylan tells stories all the time in his songs but mostly in the vague, poetic way. Here, he writes a song which is a short story – that you can tap your foot to. It even has a twist at the end. If I ever planned on writing songs, that’s the kind of a song I would dream of writing.
Favorite bit of lyrics: “She slipped in through the side door lookin’ like a queen without a crown / She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear / ‘Sorry, darlin’, that I’m late,’ but he didn’t seem to hear”
Guys, I’ll be honest with you: I feel almost dirty for having to leave out some of the songs that’ve been with me for decades now and that used to be so important to me, like “Desolation Row,” “Absolutely Sweet Marie,” “Queen Jane Approximately,” all of Desire. And more, always more. But the point of this little exercise that no one save me cares about was to eliminate so there. Coming up next, the list of my favorite albums, which I expect to be easier and not really surprising.
Guys, I’m a Christmas maniac, in case I didn’t mention it before. This year I barely have time to do much Christmas-related stuff (I did start cleaning earlier than usual though; however, it’s still a mess) but I can at least post one recent addition to my Ultimate Christmas Playlist, which I refurbish every year.
“Peace on Earth” by Lissie
Album: Peace on Earth (single)
Year: 2018
Category: Christmas playlist
Why it rocks: I found Lissie last year when I fell in love with her cover of “To Ramona.” Her voice is lovely: if I could sing, I think that’s how I would like to sound. She does such a subtle job on this cover of a bit old-fashioned song: focusing on the universal, more modern spirituality, which includes some lyric changes (it’s “Earth as our mother” instead of “God as our father” and “sisters and brothers” instead of “brothers”). And the simplicity of the words makes it indeed universal and almost prayerful, much more so than your everyday Christmas song. I also like how in keeping with the theme the general sense of the song is, well, peaceful.
Favorite lyrics: Nothing shocking here but nothing to disagree with either. I like the simplicity of “Let there be peace on earth / And let it begin with me” because don’t we all just want that?
Favorite moment: When she returns after bridge with more energy just to end more casually and almost conversationally.
Best for: A quiet Christmas reflection and feeling at one with the world.
Yes, it’s a new song post. I just wanted to share with you my new favorite Warren Zevon song, from my favorite album of his, Preludes.
“Empty Hearted Town” by Warren Zevon
Album:Preludes
Year: 2007
Category: New acquisitions
Why it rocks: I love the sketchy, personal quality of the songs on Preludes. Here we only get the piano and Zevon’s voice, which is so warm and seems to embrace you with kindness – in direct contrast to the resigned bitterness of the lyrics. I love his voice here and how he plays with the rhythm and mood of the song.
Favorite bit of lyrics: Maybe the underwhelming and self-deprecatory ending of “I’m walking down the sidewalks of LA / Wishing I had a warmer jacket / And something more to say.”
Favorite moment: Definitely “And the lights of the city stretch as far as the eyes can see. / Look what wonders man has made,” both for the quiet irony and the intensity he adds with his delivery. This bit really gets stuck in my head a lot.
Best for: Zevon’s songs are best for either a kind of bitter laugh or getting your heart a little bit broken – this is definitely the latter kind.
Listen here. And try the whole album, it’s quite special.
I’ve been listening a lot to Bob Dylan lately because some seasons are just Dylan seasons. And it gave me a new appreciation for his lyrical genius (which is well-known), his talent for a melody (also rather well-recognized) but also for his (less obvious) skill at interpretation.
I’ve been going through this Spotify playlist (I already know most of these covers, of course) and while many of these are good songs, few can beat Dylan’s original interpretation. He’s just so good at infusing his songs with this mixture of irony, detachment, rawness and depth that few can imitate.
(And those who repeat that he can’t sing should give his 70s records a try. Not that this even matters that much.)
Eurydice Rambling 