Thursday, 17 December 2009
You know how it is, you're at a party, the conversation turns to music, someone mentions Bob Dylan, they turn to you and say "What do you think about him going electric?".
Well, avoid the ensuing embarrassing silence with this compact guide to Dylan, featuring his career summed up in a dozen tracks.
Blowin' In The Wind A song out of nowhere, Dylan starting to rewrite the rulebook.
Subterranean Homesick Blues Dylan 'goes electric' moving from folk inspired acoustic songs to rock 'n' roll band grooves.
Like A Rolling Stone The song that changed rock music, from the very first crack of the snare drum.
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 From Dylan's seminal 'Blonde On Blonde' album. Impress you friends by saying, "Actually, it's not called 'Everybody Must Get Stoned'.."
Lay, Lady, Lay Dylan discovers Country music, hangs out with Johnny Cash and writes some classics.
Tangled Up In Blue The opening track from 'Blood On The Tracks', the album that basically invented the introspective singer-songwriter genre.
Hurricane From Dylan's 1970s era of big bands and never ending tours.
Gotta Serve Somebody Dylan becomes an evangelical Christian and produces several great albums of gospel music.
Jokerman A classic track from the otherwise somewhat fallow years in the 1980s.
Ring Them Bells A return to form with the 1989 album 'Oh Mercy'.
Love Sick Dylan is resurgent and creates some of his greatest work in the late 1990s.
Mississippi 2001, it's a new millennium and Dylan is still creating great recordings.
Use the player below to listen to samples from all of these songs:
This list of tracks is available on Amazon.co.uk. Find all these tracks and more at the Bob Dylan Store on Amazon.com.
