Masters of Music: Bob Dylan's Top Songs

It's a misnomer to call ANY list of songs done by Bob Dylan a reflection of his "top ten" songs. It underestimates the lyricist, the songwriter, and more often the person writing the list.

It has often been said Dylan reflects a generation; it's a categorization he blew off in a famous interview with Ed Bradley years ago on 60 Minutes. He's a guy who writes words that reflect the times, but more importantly, the times as they relate to his life.

The beauty of Bob Dylan's writing is that the top list (save for a few songs) will change for you as your life changes. And I think that's the intent of any good poet...which Dylan is, even if the Nobel committee refuses to acknowledge it.

Let me explain it from a personal point of view, then let me know how you relate. Again, the beauty of Dylan's words, to me, is that he gets people talking, sharing ideas..sometimes righting wrongs and changing bits and pieces of the world to make it better.

---Positively Fourth Street. When I was teen just discovering Dylan, I had a lot of mistrust in human beings which luckily later turned into just being inquisitive and asking a lot of questions. Translation, I became a journalist. Positively Fourth Street Street, however, hit me at EXACTLY the right time. It stayed in the top ten well into my 30s by different situations I ran into.

"You've got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend. When I was down, you just stood there grinning. You got a lot of nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend. You just want to be on the side that's winning."

For anyone who has attended high school and had that first, eye-opening "real" job, these words resonate. The popular kids who pretend to be your friends until you do something that makes you stand out (whether good or bad). The co-workers who take credityou're your work or dump blame your way when things don't turn out right. Lots of fair weather friends.

---Forever Young. I'm 48 now, but this fell into my top list when I was in my 30s as well. My brother, 7 years younger, was graduating from high school. I spent a lot of time in his life, helping with homework, taking him to school, appointments, even driving he and a girlfriend to the movies for his first date.

When I tried to get a graduation card for my brother, all of them fell short. Dylan's words in Forever Young nailed it for me. Everything I wanted for one of the dearest people in my life was in that song.

"May God bless and keep you always. May your wishes all come true...May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung...and may you stay forever young."

That said what a Hallmark card couldn't touch. Now, for edification purposes, my brother says I killed him with Dylan music growing up, and that's the reason he's a Republican today. Still, I know he appreciated those words that day.

---Baby Let Me Follow You Down. I KNOW this one isn't on anyone else's top song list. Also in the teenage years, when I was a Dylan nut (I'm saying that like it has changed, and it hasn't.), I heard this one on his Biograph series. It's a blues song he performed that was written by someone else. But it's Bob's voice and soul I hear with it.

"Baby let me follow you down. Baby let me follow you down. I'd do anything in this God-almighty world if you just let me follow you down."

I sooooo wanted that. My closest friends knew my secret with this song. The first guy who would whisper that into my ear would own me, I swore. I'm still waiting, but I realize it's one of those "curing world peace" sort of dreams. Still, dreams are GREAT, right?

---Sara. My favorite Dylan song from the first time I heard it, Sara falls into the same category as Baby Let Me Follow You Down. I wondered, I dreamed if I'd

"Sara, oh Sara, wherever we travel, we're never apart. Sara, Sara, beautiful lady, so dear to my heart.

Sigh. Heavy, heavy sigh. And some heavy breathing for the guy who would sing that for me.

Oddly enough, this one carried me through a divorce. I see so many people despise exes. I met mine at 16, married at 18 and spent 21 years with him. So many good things came out of that, even if it ended. In Sara, Dylan speaks of watching his children playing on the beach and recalls things about Sara that would be forever etched in his heart.

"Sara, Sara. It's all so clear, I could never forget. Sara, Sara. Loving you is the one thing I'll never regret."

---Shelter from the Storm.Blood on the Tracks is one of my favorite albums. I relate to it more now than I did when it first came out. I have someone in my life who has been going through some tough stuff. Again, something everyone can relate to. I wanted to let him know that he didn't have to be happy all the time around me. He just had to be himself, and he could lean on me. I wanted him to know that when he stepped through my door, he was in a safe place. At work, I was going through the Dylan discography I have on my computer, and there was Shelter from the Storm. Everything I wanted to say, everything I wanted my friend to feel from me.

"Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm. Come in, she said I'll give ya' shelter from the storm."

Dylan's words came through for me again.

---Gotta Serve Somebody. I know this isn't a favorite of many people. I love it because it reflects exactly why I respect the man and his music. Dylan was going through what many referred to as "the born-again Bob stage). This was my least favorite of his concerts because he had sort of disco-ized so many of my old favorites.

But Gotta Serve Somebody makes Dylan human to me. While the original heavy-hitting folk songs Blowin in the Wind, Masters of War, etc., spoke to a generation, Gotta Serve Somebody confirmed to me that even if Dylan doesn't think he's the voice of a generation, he is. Each of us has had an experience in life that has made us sit back and take stock of what we'd done with our limited days. Dylan let it out in the open that he had been searching, thinking, re-thinking.

Just like me.

My list isn't all technical, but that's the purity of Dylan for me. Some of the flubs, voice cracks, etc. are what I love about his music. He's just out there doing his thing...and so am I.

Rock on, Bob.