I just drove through the country listening to “Mr. Tambourine Man” and a few other Dylan songs. No one, no one, has ever written songs like those. At the same time these songs were recorded Coltrane was opening the sky with new jazz. Is there anything that matches what these guys were doing out there today? I would truly like to know.

I like a good long Dylan thread, too.

Jim--I like Bruce, also, although the idea of preferring him to Dylan is ludicrous to me. I think the Boss would find it ludicrous himself. On Greetings from Asbury Park, in particular--a record I like a lot--he is quite clearly Dylan-besotted; he has admitted as much. I like the story that when they first met, a moment captured in a photograph, Dylan intimidated Springsteen by saying, "So. I hear you're the new me..."

I'd put Springsteen, maybe, in my personal second-tier of great song-poets. With those in my first tier--Richard Thompson, PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan, plenty of others--I sometimes get to thinking, Yeah, that's as good as a Dylan song. But then I put on a Dylan record and realize otherwise, thinking, Nobody's ever written a song that good... And THEN, sometimes, a better one comes on later on the record...

With regard to the perceived drop-off in Dylan's work after the golden 60s period (yeah, sure, but all of Blood on the Tracks, most of Desire, half of Infidels, a lot of the miraculous 90s-00s trilogy... Not to mention what the Basement Tapes and the Bootleg Series reveal about how much incredible stuff he wasn't even putting out)... That same Bruce Springsteen has talked often about how the difference is only significant because of the titanic strength of the earlier work. Any of Dylan's "lesser albums," he has opined, would have been hailed as the work of the "New Dylan" if it hadn't had the misfortune of being released by the old one...

Can we talk about Robbie's solo work, too? Maybe not a great album yet, but not a terrible one either--and the first two had some great stuff on...

Tambourine Man


His hair a thicket, voice a rasping saw
cutting through cant and conscience’s decay —
my scruffy hero channelled youth’s dismay
and changed the world in 1964.
His music called to me: I heard with awe
wild songs — they wheeled and soared above the day
then swooping drove indifference away.
Glad to be young I stood at heaven’s door.

He calls again, and how can I resist
a ragged clown behind a reverie
still chasing wraiths within the day’s fey mist?
It’s darker now: I cannot sense or see
a way ahead but I can dance. Hey! Mist-
-er Tambourine Man, play a song for me.

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Simon, I've regained my senses (they get swept away often) and believe, too, that Dylan is the inspiration for Springsteen and that Dylan's genius is unmatched. I think that James, too, is right to point out that Allen Ginsberg called him (Dylan) a vessel. A messenger. And because of that, I believe we are all going somewhere from here — Which brings me to one of my all-time favorite Dylan songs:

https://youtu.be/5TLDddUBrXc
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David, I like your poem very much...

Simon, you're right about half of Infidels - if only Bob had decided to substitute 'Blind Willie McTell' and 'Foot of Pride' for a couple of the weaker tracks, then we would have had a great album indeed. It's the same for Shot of Love - why Dylan left 'Caribbean Wind' and the breathtaking 'Angelina' off this album I will never understand. Thank god for the bootleg series.

Oh, Mercy ain't bad either, although it could have used something to clear out a little bit of the Daniel Lanois.

I hear ya. There’s a dark, brooding, atmospheric sound on that album that can wear you down after a while. New Orleans cemetery at night. But I must say, I love the chapter Dylan devotes to the making of this album in Chronicles. Whether it’s truth or fiction, who cares. It’s Dylan.

I always think New Morning is a very underrated album. I much prefer it to Nashville Skyline, in terms of Dylan's brief 'contented country boy' phase. It's chockful of charms and quirkiness. 'Winterlude' and 'Sign on the Window' never fail to raise both a smile and a lump in the throat.

Ha. I LOVE Nashville Skyline, although I know I probably shouldn't. It's just so FUNNY. And it suits my attention span.

Oh yeah, it is a lot of fun. Especially 'Country Pie'!