Artist	Song
All the Tired Horses	Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan's Dream	Bob Dylan
Under the Red Sky	Bob Dylan
Day of the Locusts	Bob Dylan
Country Pie	Bob Dylan
You Angel You	Bob Dylan
Disease of Conceit	Bob Dylan
I'll Remember You	Bob Dylan
Ballad in Plain D	Bob Dylan
Under Your Spell	Bob Dylan
Unbelievable	Bob Dylan
Ugliest Girl in the World	Bob Dylan
Wiggle Wiggle	Bob Dylan
Trust Yourself	Bob Dylan
Got My Mind Made Up	Bob Dylan
Neighborhood Bully	Bob Dylan
Joey	Bob Dylan
Union Sundown	Bob Dylan

Comment:

This was going to be called Bob Dylan's Greatest Shits, but then I opted for a slightly more subtle title.

Disclaimer: I consider myself as tolerant a Dylan Freak as any. Dylan first "hit" me when I was splitting wood for my Grandpa, listening to the oldies at age 13 and Like A Rolling Stone came on the transistor radio. Boom! But of course I came of age with the Dylan of Empire Burlesque, Knocked Out Loaded, Down in the Groove, (let's not mention Dylan and the Dead), such that Oh Mercy! felt like Hwy 61 Re-Revisited. Needless to say, Under the Red Sky felt like a cold shower after thinking that the Dylan Renaissance of 1989 was for real. Al Kooper, Kenny Aronoff and the Vaughn brothers are just wasted on that damn record.

Then I moved to Mexico, got married, entered the vacuum of life in Latin America and didn't pay much attention to Bob till all the hoopla about Time Out of Mind, which never completely convinced me. "Highlands" always felt like a song trying to get to a point but never quite getting there (unlike Brownsville Girl, the Diamond in the dreck of Knocked Out Loaded). Highlands would have been here as well, except for its 16 minute length. I must also say that I really do like most of these songs, though Disease of Conceit is the only 80s/90s song here that I consider listenable (Ugliest Girl in the World is fun, it was nice to see his sense of humor back, but.)

1. Not singing the first song on this weird album is characteristically cantankerous. My first reaction to listening to "Love and Theft" was that it made "Self-Portrait" make a little more sense, as representative of Dylan the great Syncretist (though the Genuine Basement Tapes is the best at showing this).

2. Inspired by Roy Blount Jr.'s article in the last music issue of the Oxford American. I always liked this song, but Blount has a point about the middle verses ("wooden stove" and "forever in fun" being the most offensive):

3. Not really that bad, except it represents this album which was such a disappointment after Oh Mercy (see above).

4. Generally recognized as Dylan trying to write a Dylan song ("his head was explodin'"), though of course it has taken on a certain kitsch quality now, like Self-Portrait.

5. A throwaway that probably should have been thrown away or given to Buck Owens.

6. Personally, "Planet Waves" is one of my favorite Dylan albums, but of course the inclusion of this song on Biograph earns its mention here.

7. I always loved Oh Mercy, but this is a fairly lame song, in the vein of Day of the Locusts.

8. I liked Empire Burlesque, but I never liked this song.

9. I think my subtitle says enough about this.

10. Yuck, perhaps only a Dylan version of Steel Bars could be worse (or a duet with Bolton).

11. Not "that" bad, but still such an example of a throwaway song on a throwaway album (God Knows is the only song worth saving, IMnotsoHO).

12. Fun, but stupid

13. Stupid and with Slash

14. More Dylan trying to write a Dylan song.

15. Not "that" horrible, but just an example of Dylan's drift through the mid to late 80s

16. Great analysis of the Middle East situation there, Bob. "Obsolete weapons" is just insulting.

17. I wasn't going to include live versions because even his best songs could be rendered horribly on his bad nights, but this is from Dylan and the Dead. The good news is that we are saved 2 minutes of torture from the Desire version. The tale is okay, but I just don't buy the premise. Joey Gallo was no Rubin Carter, much less Medgar Evers.

18. Kind of funny, mostly obvious and as un-subtle as Dylan got. I have to say it is included here as my own worthless protest against Bob's choice of songs for the album or lack thereof in the case of "Foot of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell" (even Lord Protect my Child). Where was Daniel Lanois when we needed someone to stand up

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